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To reach a consensus, stakeholders will have to cover a lot of ground. Privately owned forestland comprises a large share of the Adirondack Park, alongside 2.6 million acres of state-owned forest preserve that won’t be logged.
Protect the Adirondacks and Adirondack Wild last week filed a state court challenge in Warren County arguing that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation violated state law in granting itself a variance to build a 9-foot-wide trail and a 12-foot-wide bridge on the Cedar River north of Indian Lake.
The clamor for a new way intensified over the last decade as critics watched the Adirondack Park Agency approve a massive second-home resort around the Big Tupper Ski Area without what they considered adequate regard for nature. The agency responded with a new process that asks developers of large subdivisions to help assess their land and their plan’s effects on it.
Environmental leaders, current and former staff officials, and legislative operatives will say they think the Adirondack Park Agency is under the thumb of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
By Phil Brown
Wilderness areas are meant to offer an escape from modernity and its hubbub. They are places to nourish your soul, venture deep into the natural world, or test your physical limits.
By Mike Lynch
As our writers considered and debated the appropriate extent of wilderness in the park for the January-February issue, the Explorer’s Mike Lynch asked a collection of people who love the outdoors what wilderness means to them. Their answers are below.
Winter is shortening and getting less predictable, with yearlong consequences that will intensify as the century moves along, according to the authors of the regional chapter of the National Climate Assessment.
Avalanches in the High Peaks are considered rare. Skiers and climbers have triggered them in places such as the Trap Dike, Angel Slides and other steep slopes over the years.
The Christmas count is one of the longest running and expansive “citizen science” programs, in which amateurs collect data to be used in legitimate scientific research. The accessibility of the program has allowed thousands of people to contribute to one of the largest databases about bird activity in North America for more than a century.
Increased numbers of hikers in the region have raised concerns about trail erosion and safety of hikers and drivers along busy Route 73. Cars park for miles along the side of the roadway.