The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
Restoring cougars would help forests 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…
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,…
By Tom Woodman Some cultures have rituals in which individuals venture out into the wilderness to test their character and attain higher levels of being. In the Adirondacks we have a version of this rite, but it’s not reserved for a special few. Anyone who ventures outdoors between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day takes part,…
We at Protect the Adirondacks! believe Fred LeBrun’s commentary, “Park loses green voices” (March/April 2011) contains misleading statements that misrepresent the status of Protect. Despite LeBrun’s pessimism, Protect remains very active in protecting the Adirondack Park. First, Protect is a major player in the Adirondack Park Agency hearings on whether to approve the proposed Adirondack…
With the growing popularity of bicycling, and the lure of being the only long-distance, multi-use trail within the Adirondack Park, the proposed thirty-four-mile Lake Placid-to-Tupper Lake trail along the Adirondack rail line would be a major draw. Bicycling is now the second-most common form of outdoor recreation in the United States, with sixty million Americans…
Would it not be wise to poll bikers and skiers to see if they would use the proposed rail-trail from Lake Placid to Tupper Lake? I for one would not. I have ridden on a rail-trail and, being a mountain biker, found it terribly boring. These trails work in places where they run from town…
Seven hundred out of 2,800-plus lakes closed to floatplanes does not seem unreasonable, nor does adding Lows Lake to that list [“Floatplane ban challenged,” November/December 2010]. New York needs to resist the argument that motorized access to these precious wild places is necessary to serve those with handicaps. My own Parkinson’s disease advances; my loss…
Spot zoning is generally a pernicious practice used in cities that impacts an individual or a small group. Picture a proposal for a variance to allow a gas station next to a residence. The homeowner would object, but many people two or three blocks away wouldn’t care and might even welcome a convenient gas station.…
If you talk with a leader of the Adirondack preservationist movement you get a deep appreciation of how far we have come in the last forty years. But you also get a vivid sense of how much more should be accomplished. Both judgments—the work well done and the work left to do—reflect on one idea:…
Treadway Mountain is only 2,240 feet tall, but its rocky summit offers magnificent views of the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, the Green Mountains of Vermont, the High Peaks, and other mountains too numerous to mention.