The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
A coalition of environmental groups has issued a list of policy recommendations to Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature. Among them is beefing up the Environmental Protection Fund, the primary mechanism for funding land preservation, water-quality protection, and other green objectives. The coalition—which includes the Adirondack Council, the Adirondack Mountain Club, and the Nature…
Contrary to hunters’ complaints, the whitetail population is on the rise, state biologist says. By George Earl Dan Ladd wrote the book on Adirondack deer hunting (or one of them, anyway), and he runs a website called ADKHunter that receives comments from hundreds of hunters. The consensus among Ladd, his hunting pals, and his correspondents…
Environmentalists say APA needs more authority to protect ridges and mountains from unsightly development. By Stephen Williams Conservation advocates are vowing to push state and local government leaders in the coming year to regulate development on ridges, slopes, and hilltops in the Adirondacks. The Adirondack Council and other environmental groups complain that communities such as…
By Phil Brown
Joe Martens, president of the Open Space Institute, may be the state’s next environmental conservation commissioner, according to the Albany Times Union. The newspaper reported on its Capitol Confidential blog that Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo is looking at Martens, who in the early 1990s served as an environmental adviser to then-Governor Mario Cuomo, the incoming governor’s…
By Phil Brown
The Adirondack Explorer has hired Glens Falls attorney John Caffry to defend me against alawsuit filed by landowners who claim I trespassed when I paddled through their property near Lake Lila last year. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has said the waterways in dispute—Mud Pond, Mud Pond Outlet, and Shingle Shanty Brook—are open to…
By Phil Brown
The Adirondack Mountain Club is objecting to the state’s recommendation to allow mountain biking on an old road in a portion of the Moose River Plains that has been proposed to be designated Wilderness. ADK Executive Director Neil Woodworth said the mountain-bike corridor would set a bad precedent and could open the door for other…
By Phil Brown
White-nose syndrome, the disease decimating bat populations in the Northeast and beyond, is believed to have spread to all known bat caves in New York, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The fungal disease has reduced the populations of some bat species in the state by 90 percent since it was first documented…
Upland development mars the mountain scenery in the town of Keene. By GEORGE EARL The hike up the Brothers, three adjoining peaks near Keene Valley, affords striking vistas of the Great Range to the southwest—an uninterrupted expanse of forested slopes and rocky summits. But the view north, toward Little Porter Mountain, is broken by a…
By Phil Brown
The November/December issue of the Explorer will contain an article and a debate on a lawsuit filed against the state by five military veterans who contend that the state’s ban on floatplanes in Wilderness Areas violates the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Today, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed an answer to the suit. Most of…
By Phil Brown
The ouster of Pete Grannis as the state’s environmental conservation commissioner has shocked and outraged green groups. A former Manhattan assemblyman, Grannis was seen as a friend of the environment long before he was appointed by Governor Eliot Spitzer to head the Department of Environmental Conservation. Grannis’s biography and photo were removed from DEC’s website…