The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
Winter hasn’t ended yet. It has been snowing off and on since early Tuesday. Driving from Plattsburgh to Saranac Lake last night, I found myself in a blinding snowstorm. The new accumulation has amounted to only a few inches, but it was enough to inspire me go for a short ski through a pine forest…
By Phil Brown
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a report today on 341 energy projects around the nation that the chamber says have been delayed by red tape (and are often opposed by environmental activists). The chamber’s website lists sixteen projects in New York State. It’s interesting that six of the sixteen are wind projects, including the…
By Phil Brown
The Mountaineer in Keene Valley will host the ninth-annual Adirondack Backcountry Ski Festival this weekend. As in the past, skiers can sign up for a variety of intermediate and expert tours. The most difficult outings entail skiing slides in the High Peaks. As of today, there were still three openings for the High Peaks Traverse…
By Phil Brown
It’s official: the eastern cougar is extinct. And what about all those sightings of cougars in the Adirondacks and elsewhere over the years? If they were cougars, they were probably released or escaped pets. That’s the word from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which issued a report today calling for the removal of the…
By Phil Brown
The March/April issue of the Explorer contains an article about skiing the Kilburn Slide outside Lake Placid. I went with Josh Wilson, a backcountry snowboarder, shortly after a big snowfall that prompted an avalanche warning for the region. One purpose of the trip was to test the avalanche conditions on the slide. The greater purpose,…
By Phil Brown
NOTE: THIS IS ANOTHER POST FROM OUR PUBLISHER, TOM WOODMAN. The attorney general issued a news release pertaining to the motion to intervene in the Shingle Shanty case. See our earlier post to download the legal documents. ATTORNEY GENERAL SCHNEIDERMAN SUES TO PROTECT PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO TRAVEL ON ADIRONDACK WATERWAY State Seeks to Stop Property…
By Phil Brown
We just received the Forest Ranger report for January and February from DEC’s Region 5, which includes the eastern two-thirds of the Adirondack Park. Below is the report verbatim. Essex County Town of Keene, Private Land (Adirondack Mountain Reserve Easement) On Sunday January 2, 2011, at approximately 4:28 pm, DEC Dispatch in Ray Brook received…
By Phil Brown
The Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages has drafted a resolution opposing the state’s purchase of Follensby Pond and some 65,000 acres formerly owned by Finch, Pruyn & Co. Wells Supervisor Brian Towers, the president of AATV, said the draft resolution has the “same general thrust” of a resolution passed a few weeks ago by…
By Phil Brown
On Sunday, I skied the Marcy trail from Adirondak Loj with Mike Lynch and Chris Knight, two reporters from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. We followed snowshoe tracks nearly to Indian Falls and then broke trail as far as the junction with the Hopkins Trail, 1.2 miles from the summit. We turned around there. The 6.2-mile…
By Phil Brown
Last week the Adirondack Council criticized the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board for urging the state to abandon plans to buy Follesnby Pond and some 65,000 acres of former Finch, Pruyn lands. The council argued that the board had overstepped its legislative mandate in commenting on state-land purchases. It also suggested that Fred Monroe,…