The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
Iowa Pacific’s plan to store empty tanker cars on tracks near the High Peaks alarms environmentalists and sets state lawyers to scrambling. By Phil Brown The Iowa-Pacific rail company took state officials and environmental activists by surprise in July when it unveiled a plan to store hundreds of drained oil-tanker cars on its tracks near…
Developers say Tupper Lake project remains on course, but big things won’t happen overnight. By Brian Mann Last winter, the massive Adirondack Club and Resort proposed for Tupper Lake cleared its final major hurdle. After more than a decade of debate and controversy, environmental activists and a handful of local property owners who fought to block the project were dealt a sweeping defeat…
Publisher Tom Woodman interviews Rev. Philip Allen, pastor of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Indian Lake The Reverend Philip Allen is pastor of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Indian Lake as well as St. Paul’s in Blue Mountain Lake and St. Joseph’s in Olmstedville. He grew up on the family dairy farm in Peru, New…
Environmentalists lobby for stricter development controls in wake of subdivision of Woodworth Lake property. By Phil Brown Environmentalists say the approval of a housing development at a former Boy Scouts camp underscores the need for tighter regulation of privately owned backcountry lands in the Adirondacks. All four of the Adirondack Park’s major environmental groups opposed…
Public remains split over the best use of 80-mile corridor running through wild lands. By Phil Brown After four public meetings on the future of the eighty-mile rail corridor between Big Moose and Lake Placid, the public seems as divided as ever, and the state now must make a decision sure to leave many people…
Officials propose removing the tracks between Tupper Lake and Lake Placid to create a bike path. By Phil Brown For several years, people have been arguing over the future of a little-used rail corridor running through the heart of Adirondack wilderness. In June, the state offered a compromise, but partisans on both sides say they won’t give…
Shortly after moving to the Adirondacks in 1996, I climbed Giant Mountain. Not only was it my first High Peak, it was the first time I’d climbed anything higher than the hill in the back yard where I grew up.
By Phil Brown
In a 5-0 decision, a state appellate court today rejected environmentalists’ arguments that the Adirondack Park Agency erred in approving the Adirondack Club and Resort (ACR), a massive development proposed in the town of Tupper Lake. The decision by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court is a major victory for the developers, Preserve Associates,…
Adopted fifty years ago, the Wilderness Act reflects the nation’s growing appreciation of unspoiled lands. By Philip Terrie On a warm September day in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed what is now recognized as one of the most significant legislative acts in American environmental history. This was the national Wilderness Act. Before then, federal lands,…
While Lake George, Lake Placid, and Old Forge thrive on visitor spending, many Adirondack communities continue to struggle economically. By Brian Mann Drive through Lake George, and you can see evidence that tourism is booming. Traffic is heavy, especially in summer when Lake George runs full-throttle. There are plans for a major hotel and a reinvention of downtown that includes…