The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
The March/April Explorer contained an interesting article regarding the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Heritage Strain Brook Trout Program. Sadly, with only two fishery biologists currently working in Ray Brook, it appears this valuable program is as endangered as the remnant trout populations they seek to protect and restore. Brookies are truly the jewel of…
The article on heritage trout is, of course, sobering. I am a brook trout fisherman, and to learn more about the troubles the heritage strains are undergoing is sad. I have to admit, though, that I would think that an article conveying the woes of Adirondack brook trout would not feature a fisherman killing a…
Whenever I drove past Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain and saw rock climbers clinging to the cliffs, often hundreds of feet above the ground, I used to say to myself, “Look at those nuts.” By Phil Brown
The Northern Forest Canoe Trail is a paradox. It’s been around forever, but it was “completed” just four years ago. Whatever, we’re glad it exists. The NFCT is a 740-mile water trail that follows Native American paddling routes. It starts in Old Forge and ends in northern Maine, after passing through Vermont, Quebec, and New…
The January/February Adirondack Explorer carries a letter by Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward concerning Protect the Adirondacks’ opposition to a constitutional amendment that would permit NYCO to mine a deposit of wollastonite currently under Forest Preserve lands. She cites Protect’s position as evidence that the Adirondack experiment that tries to sustain communities while preserving wilderness has failed.…
Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward writes (January/February) that the Willsboro-based NYCO is in need of Forest Preserve land in order to continue future mining operations adjacent to their facility adjoining the Jay Mountain Wilderness. She fails to mention the lengthy adjudicatory hearing that was held in 1995 at great expense to the taxpayers of New York and…
In the mid-1980s on an Adirondack Park Agency field trip, the superintendent for Litchfield Park, John Stock, a pretty astute forester, stated that the beech die-back was as serious a problem as acid rain. I thought, you have got to be kidding: His concern was made clearer when he pointed out that beech is extremely…
I read with interest in your last two issues about the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. The first article detailed different possibilities for the corridor, including the plan to extend the ten-mile-long tourist line, now operating between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, another twenty-five miles to Tupper Lake. The January/February issue included a debate about removing the…
There’s a wonderful opportunity that has been staring us in the face—the opportunity to open up a whole new recreational dimension in the Adirondacks that will also provide important economic benefits. The map above suggests the possibilities. Right now, it’s a dangerous, even death-defying proposition to bicycle between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. The traffic…
There is a time for all things, and the creak of winter will soon give way to the creeks of spring. Whitewater paddlers, rejoice! By Mal Provost