About Brandon Loomis

Brandon Loomis is editor of the Adirondack Explorer.

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  1. Josh Wilson says

    Here’s a question for 2021 – what will happen with the DEC’s appeal of the court decision related to tree cutting on the Forest Preserve? Protect the Adirondacks fought hard to convince the court that every vertical stem in the forest is “timber” and succeeded, and the result has been a complete moratorium on all tree cutting for the purpose of building trails or other facilities on state land. Even routine maintenance (brushing) of existing trails has been curtailed in response to the latest court decision. We heard that the appeal would happen in summer 2020 but that obviously was delayed, as with everything during the pandemic. There has been very little reporting on the subject over the past year. Will this be the 3rd year in a row where trail building and maintenance is not allowed?

  2. Steve Mackey says

    The ADK pro crew use to accept money from DEC, and every year there were either more crews or bigger crews. Two summers ago, the NYS legislature passed a law that all state funded projects needed to pay their employees prevailing wages. Someone decided that since they work with wood and rocks that they were masons and carpenters. The prevailing wages for those professions are in the $60 – $70 per hour range. ADK had to quit taking money from the state, and consequently the pro crew has been much smaller. The money issue, still hasn’t been addressed. At a time when we trail maintenance more than ever, we have less.

  3. Steve Mackey says

    One other thought. There are trails, that are poorly designed, or were never designed at all. It seems like DEC throws time and money at them, trying to mitigate erosion. They never appear to abandon them, and build intelligently designed trails. Some of the “trail less” high peaks should also have intelligently designed trails built on them. If you think those peaks are really trail less, try stepping 10 feet off to one side or the other. A couple of years ago DEC flew some lumber into the herd path on Gray, to try and make a tricky spot safer, does that make any sense? Since, we are seeing unprecedented use, with no end in sight, have somebody that knows what they are doing come up with some trails that can actually withstand the weather and millions of footsteps.

  4. Ben Hoskins (Higgins Bay) says

    Question: At one time T-Lake Mountain lake(above Lake Piseco) was denuded of life due to acid rain from the West. Does T-Lake. Does T-Lake have fish in it now? And how healthy is it?

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