The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
Michael Virtanen is a former Explorer staff reporter who also previously worked as a correspondent for the Associated Press and for daily newspapers in Albany, Utica and Amsterdam, N.Y.
By Michael Virtanen
Would-be swimmers at Lake George’s Million Dollar Beach, which closed for 10 days last summer and one day this year due to high coliform bacteria counts, can call to check whether it’s open for swimming.
By Michael Virtanen
NL Industries stopped digging for titanium ore at Tahawus in the 1980s, but the mine remains a visible presence on the edge of the High Peaks Wilderness. Hikers driving to the Upper Works trailhead pass a stretch of the Hudson River lined with rock tailings from the mine. Those who venture up nearby Mount Adams or one of several other peaks look down on a pile of loose stone that rises three hundred feet.
By Michael Virtanen
New York environmental authorities and stakeholders have issued detailed plans for preventing harmful algae blooms on Lake Champlain and Lake George, which are among a dozen priority waterways statewide. The Cuomo administration has promised $65 million for the effort to rid New York lakes of the blooms, also called blue-green algae, that consist generally of…
By Michael Virtanen
By Michael Virtanen Federal authorities have granted the utility operating a power dam on the Ausable River near Lake Champlain another year’s postponement on its requirement to install a fish passage system. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision on June 7 gives New York State Electric and Gas its sixth one-year extension. According to FERC,…
By Michael Virtanen
The former project manager of the Lake George Watershed Coalition has been indicted on 22 charges, accused of bilking more than $400,000 over several years from the consortium established to protect the lake’s health and beauty.
By Michael Virtanen
By Michael Virtanen It took Bob Keller a few tries to start the single engine of his Cessna that was still warm from his flight to the Lake Placid Airport from his home in Boonville. It has fuel injection, the pilot explained, making it tricky to start warm. A flier for decades, Keller did his…
By Michael Virtanen
A small-plane flight Tuesday over the 30-mile rail line from the old titanium mine in Newcomb down to North Creek confirmed that all the tank cars that had been stored along the tracks over the winter were gone.
By Michael Virtanen
A new study shows runoff from decades of road salting in the Adirondacks polluted more of half of the wells tested downslope from state roads and highways.
By Michael Virtanen
A state judge has ruled that a village near the Adirondack Park improperly allowed all-terrain vehicles to operate on two of its streets without first justifying that a new ATV trail couldn’t othewise be connected to the Lewis County trail system. Acting State Supreme Court Justice Peter Schwerzmann, in a decision handed down Monday, concluded…
By Michael Virtanen
The North Creek railway has been removing the equipment for its tourist trains and the remaining tankers stored on the tracks farther north