The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
Iowa Pacific’s plan to store empty tanker cars on tracks near the High Peaks alarms environmentalists and sets state lawyers to scrambling. By Phil Brown The Iowa-Pacific rail company took state officials and environmental activists by surprise in July when it unveiled a plan to store hundreds of drained oil-tanker cars on its tracks near…
By Mike Lynch
Wildlife advocates believe wolves could come back to the Adirondacks someday and want the state to facilitate their return. By Mike Lynch Standing in a snowy meadow in Wilmington, a wolf lifts its head and howls, breaking the near silence on a cold winter day. Just a few feet away Steve Hall watches the scene,…
Public remains split over the best use of 80-mile corridor running through wild lands. By Phil Brown After four public meetings on the future of the eighty-mile rail corridor between Big Moose and Lake Placid, the public seems as divided as ever, and the state now must make a decision sure to leave many people…
By Mike Lynch
Wildlife advocates say the state should prepare the public now for the possibility that mountain lions will be back in the future. By Mike Lynch Darcy Wiltse, a veterinarian, was driving on Route 458 near Meacham Lake one night early last winter when she saw a large animal crossing the road. She’s convinced it was…
By Mike Lynch
DEC bolsters the Adirondacks’ shrinking population of spruce grouse by bringing in specimens from Maine and Canada. By Mike Lynch Once abundant in the Adirondacks, the spruce grouse has struggled for much of the past century, but now scientists are trying to bolster the dwindling population by importing birds from out of state. The state Department of Environmental Conservation released three spruce grouse…
DEC is criticized for avoiding snowmobile-trail issues in draft document. By Phil Brown The state Department of Environmental Conservation has withdrawn a draft management plan for new state lands known as the Essex Chain Lakes Complex in the face of criticism that it failed to discuss the route of a controversial snowmobile trail. The decision to address the snowmobile issue in a…
In classifying former Finch, Pruyn lands, the APA creates two large motor-less tracts but allows a snowmobile corridor to divide them. By Phil Brown AFTER MONTHS of public debate and behind-the-scenes negotiations, the Adirondack Park Agency voted in December to prohibit motorized recreation on most of the former Finch, Pruyn timberlands the state purchased from…
Environmentalists disagree on whether proposed swap is good for the Forest Preserve. By Phil Brown THE VIEW from Hardwood Hill is a bit disappointing. We were hoping for open ledges with a vista of the Jay Range, but when we got to the summit we found ourselves wading through ferns and zigzagging among trees.…
DEC’s proposals for managing the former Finch, Pruyn lands kindle a debate over motorized use. By Phil Brown More than five years after the Nature Conservancy bought all 161,000 acres of Finch, Pruyn & Company’s timberlands, the state has acquired eighteen thousand acres for the Forest Preserve and intends to open up some of the…
Lawyers deliver arguments in trespassing lawsuit filed against Adirondack Explorer editor. By Kenneth Aaron Was Adirondack Explorer Editor Phil Brown trespassing in 2009 when he paddled through private land abutting state-owned wilderness? Or did he have a right to be there because the waters he canoed are navigable and provide a useful link between parcels…