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Two recent letters to the editor, one from a writer in Rosendale and the second from a writer in California, urge the reintroduction of cougars into the Adirondacks, one claiming that it would “help forests” and the second apparently positing that it’s a good idea simply because “cougars and people can coexist” and that “conflicts…
By Tom Woodman The big moment came at 3:35 in the afternoon when, after a long early-morning drive, setting up tents in the rain, and some dry-land training at a grassy airfield, Drew Moses pulled in a small trout on the West Branch of the Ausable River. For the group of six boys…
Until this past winter, I’d never heard of the Independence River Wild Forest. By Stephen Williams
One need look no further than the Department of Environmental Conservation’s 2010 Strategic Plan for Forest Management to find the rationale to restore cougars to the Adirondacks. The plan details the destructive impacts and biodiversity loss of New York’s forests from superabundant white-tailed deer, a herd now estimated at more than one million. Throughout much…
Mountain lions have permanent populations in a majority of the land area of California—pretty much anywhere there are scrub or trees and deer. The Santa Monica Mountains, which are in large part in Los Angeles, have a population of twenty-plus lions and growing. Conflicts with humans are very rare. These lions are not transients. They live…
At first glance the proposal might seem irresistible: a development that would bring affluent residents and visitors, resurrect a cherished ski resort, create jobs, and revive an Adirondack region that desperately needs new vitality. But we long ago moved beyond the first glance at the Adirondack Club and Resort proposal in Tupper Lake. And, sadly,…
In your photo essay “Paddles and Petals” [May/June 2011] you pictured a sundew and identified it as Drosera rotundifolia, the round-leaved sundew. I would suggest the plant is Drosera rotundifolia, spatulate-leaved sundew. Jim Spencer, Camillus Ecologist Raymond Curran says Jim Spencer is correct. The sundew appears to be Drosera intermedia as the leaf is…
Having been a trauma surgeon in Vietnam, I was dismayed to read the Explorer story describing entering the woods during hunting season without wearing hunter orange [“Falling for the Jessup,” Annual Outings Guide]. All I saw in the photos were green and light-blue shirts. Yes, a red shirt, but it’s similar to the changing maple…
Nicholas Karas makes excellent points in opposition to stocking brook trout [It’s Debatable, May/June 2011]: the wild ones will come back if left alone for a while. The Department of Environmental Conservation should establish at least some waters where no stocking occurs and the stream is closed for five or so years. I understand this has worked…
Your article “Few Options for Elders” [March/April 2011] describes life at the Clifton-Fine Boarding Home, owned and operated by Cathi Ford. Unfortunately there was a fire at the home in early May. All of the seniors who lived there and the staff got out safely. It happened during daylight hours, and it probably started with…