The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
We received the e-mail below this afternoon. Since I have never camped at Slant Rock, I cannot help the writer. Does anyone know the answer? “I was hiking in the Adirondacks with several friends two weeks ago. We stayed two nights at Slant Rock lean to on the trail from the garden trailhead in Keene…
By Phil Brown
This afternoon I went up Baker Mountain, a small peak outside Saranac Lake, to test a pair of crampons (Black Diamond’s Sabretooths, pictured here). I thought the crampons would be overkill on the trail, but it turned out I needed them. Thanks to all the rain on Monday, followed by subfreezing temperatures, parts of the…
When the state decided in 1885 to set aside land for protection in the Adirondacks, it was to be an experiment to show it is possible to have sustainable communities while still preserving a great wilderness area. It becomes more and more evident that the experiment has failed. I have been working for several years…
In the November/December Adirondack Explorer you have a beautiful picture by Mark Bowie captioned “Tiger Lilies on Hackensack Mountain.” Those are actually wood lilies, not tiger lilies. Dr. Stuart Delman, Chestertown
In his article in the November/December issue of the Explorer about the prospect of a trail being constructed on the mining company NLI’s thirty-mile D&H rail spur to Tahawus, Alan Wechsler noted that if the rails are removed, the seventeen miles of so-called permanent easements and the thirteen miles of temporary easements on the Forest…
Working homeowners in the Adirondacks are losing ground, and community life suffers as we go elsewhere. The recent APA farm-housing suit got me thinking: what if everyone whose principal residence is in the Adirondack Park was allowed to develop an extra residential unit on their property regardless of APA classification? A unit that couldn’t be…
I’d like to express our appreciation to the Smith and Kingsley families for their generous thoughtfulness in setting aside their parcel of land on Lake Placid (Land Savers, November/December 2009). Most people don’t have the ability to make significant donations to conservation in the Park. But we enjoy being in the woods thanks to contributions…
In your article headlined “Alien bugs at our door” (November/December), the first paragraph says: “Since the 1960s, the beech-scale insect has devastated the region’s beech trees—so much so that scientists believe the species may not survive here.” I don’t know any scientist working on beech-bark disease who thinks the species won’t persist here. After all…
The question of how much environmental protection is enough has always been a contentious one in the Adirondacks. So has the related question: Do strong environmental protections damage our economy? Most elected officials who represent us locally and in the state legislature think the Adirondacks already has too much protection, and they claim that our…
As we head to Indian Lake for our exploration of the Jessup River, weather is on our minds. By Tom Woodman