The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
A New York appellate court on Wednesday ruled that the state’s tree-cutting for “community connector” snowmobile trails is excessive and violates the state constitution’s protections for the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Protect the Adirondacks sued the Department of Environmental Conservation in 2013 over 27 miles of snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Park, claiming the trails required…
A new group--Adirondack Wilderness Advocates--is seeking nonprofit status, raising the question of what niche it and several other Adirondack groups fill.
Protect the Adirondacks reviewed 40 years of U.S. Census Bureau and other data that show park towns and their 130,000 inhabitants mirror national trends in some economic categories while outperforming most small communities in others.
By Phil Brown
The APA proposes to adopt guidelines for three types of trails: ski touring trails, for rolling terrain; backcountry ski trails, for steeper terrain; and skin tracks, for accessing slides and other skiable terrain (often using climbing skins). Currently, few trails in the Adirondacks are designed for backcountry skiing.
Protect the Adirondacks and Adirondack Wild last week filed a state court challenge in Warren County arguing that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation violated state law in granting itself a variance to build a 9-foot-wide trail and a 12-foot-wide bridge on the Cedar River north of Indian Lake.
By Phil Brown
DEC is proposing to build a “community connector” that will enable snowmobilers to travel between the hamlets of Raquette Lake and Long Lake without crossing frozen lakes. About four miles of the trail would pass through the Blue Ridge Wilderness.
Protect the Adirondacks notes the removal of hopper rail cars from tracks along the Hudson River near North Creek, where they had sat for years. This is the second removal of stored freight cars from the Adirondack Park this year, after Iowa Pacific Holdings moved a string of oil tankers. Protect’s news release follows:…
By Phil Brown
Protect the Adirondacks wants motorboats banned from Weller Pond and Little Weller Pond near Middle Saranac Lake. If you agree, you have until Friday to submit comments to the Adirondack Park Agency. In a draft unit management plan (UMP) for the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest, the state Department of Environmental Conservation did not ban motorboats from the two ponds, but it is proposing to impose a 5-mph speed limit.
Molpus Woodlands, which started buying lands in New York State in 2007, says it owns 240,000 acres, primarily in the northwest sector of the Park. Lyme Timber, based in New Hampshire, owns 239,000 acres in the Adirondacks.
By Phil Brown
A state judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Department of Environmental Conservation’s construction of “community connector” snowmobile trails in the Forest Preserve. Protect the Adirondacks argued that the trails—up to twelve feet wide on curves and graded smooth—violated Article 14 of the state constitution, which declares that the Preserve “shall be forever kept as…