The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
Nearly two decades ago my wife and I biked the thirty-two-mile Elroy-Sparta State Trail in Wisconsin, the country’s first rail trail. Our experience suggests what we can achieve here by converting the ninety-mileAdirondack rail corridor into a year-round recreation trail. The tourism benefits of the Adirondack Rail Trail connecting the Tri-Lakes, and extending south to…
I was more than a little surprised to read in the Explorer that, despite the vast majority of comments (80 percent) opposing the Department of Environmental Conservation’s expansion of hunting and trapping in its Bobcat “Management” Plan (because, God forbid, they simply couldn’t manage without us) the agency went ahead and did what it wanted…
I would like to respond to your recent article [“DEC adopts bobcat plan,” January/February 2013] concerning the hunting and trapping of bobcats. In my seventy years of traveling many back roads in the state I’ve only seen six of the animals in the wild. The most recent was on the Taconic State Parkway in the…
Champ surfaces again Zeuglodon, sauropod, coelacanth, or plesiosaur? Sturgeon or gar pike? Fortuitously sculpted chunk of driftwood, or flock of birds? Hallucination, perhaps induced by a binge at a lakeside tavern? Or flat-out hoax? The story of Champ, the “Lake Champlain Monster,” has been one of near-religious zeal, unwavering certainty, firm doubts, controversy, bitter rivalries,…
Few institutions are as important to the quality of small-town life as the local school. The public school does far more than prepare the next generation for success—as essential as that mission is. It can be the social center of a community, a major employer, and an economic driver—a key factor in whether families choose…
By Tom Woodman Part way through a presentation on a North Country Sustainability Study in January, an audience member commented: “The days of environmentalism and economic development being strange bedfellows are long gone. Now they work together.” Sadly this was an overstatement—in many cases development efforts are not compatible with sound environmental policy. But this…
In his review of John Laundre’s book Phantoms of the Prairie [November/December 2012] Philip Terrie writes that, “In the grand scheme of things there’s nothing that makes a polar bear more significant than a garter snake, a Bengal tiger more worthy of our attention than a chickadee.” But over the last few decades a large body of…
The nuisance-bear article “A joy or a danger?” by Shaun Kittle [November/December 2012] does a good job of highlighting both the problem and the sadness of nuisance-bear situations. This is one issue where everyone agrees the problem with nuisance bears is when people feed bears. With this in mind I was unhappy to not have…
I have some thoughts on “Highlands at Risk” [November/December 2012]. Yes, hillside sites have become desirable alternatives to shoreline parcels due to price increases for lakefront properties. Hillside areas tend to have a lower density of development so these larger sites may offer more privacy, too. We became aware of the heightened interest in ridgeline…
In the article “Back to Old School” [November/December 2012], a correction is in order. The original Wee Lassie canoe was constructed in 1882 by J. Henry Rushton, not for Nessmuk (George Washington Sears), but for the William West Durant family. This is according to Dan Brennan, editor of Canoeing the Adirondacks with Nessmuk (The Adirondack…