The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
Contrary to hunters’ complaints, the whitetail population is on the rise, state biologist says. By George Earl Dan Ladd wrote the book on Adirondack deer hunting (or one of them, anyway), and he runs a website called ADKHunter that receives comments from hundreds of hunters. The consensus among Ladd, his hunting pals, and his correspondents…
By Phil Brown
White-nose syndrome, the disease decimating bat populations in the Northeast and beyond, is believed to have spread to all known bat caves in New York, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The fungal disease has reduced the populations of some bat species in the state by 90 percent since it was first documented…
By Phil Brown
The number of moose in New York State has risen to about eight hundred, an increase of three hundred from just three years ago, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. About a decade ago, there were just fifty to a hundred moose in the state. “The return of the moose has been one…
By Phil Brown
John Davis is stepping down as conservation director of the Adirondack Council to work for the Wildlands Network, a nonprofit organization working to preserve natural corridors for wildlife migration. “It has been a great five years working on conservation strategies inside the Park,” Davis said in a news release today. “Now, I get to think about…
By Phil Brown
Mike Lynch, an outdoors writer for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, took this photo of a garter snake eating a toad near Raquette Falls last week. On his blog True North,Mike says it took the snake about a half-hour to swallow the amphibian. He posted a later photo on his blog that shows only the toad’s…
By Phil Brown
A state forest ranger last week killed a black bear that had been harassing people at the Eighth Lake State Campground. This was the first nuisance bear shot by the state this year. In 2009, state officials killed seven bears (a camper killed an eighth). Clickhere to read the full story in the Adirondack Daily…
By Phil Brown
Earlier this week, I posted on Adirondack Almanack an article about mountain lions. It includes a photo of a plaster cast of a paw print sent me by Don Leadley, a veteran outdoorsman. Leadley says he tracked the beast for about a mile near his home in Lake Pleasant. Do mountain lions exist in the…
By Phil Brown
The common loon is an icon of the North Woods, a symbol of wilderness, and sometimes the object of harassment. On June 12, two teenage boys frightened a loon off its nest on Sixth Lake, in Inlet, and struck the nest with a canoe paddle, breaking an egg, according to the state Department of Environmental…
By Phil Brown
Crown Point photographer Seth Lang was driving on Lake Shore Road between Wesport and Essex yesterday when he spotted a large timber rattlesnake in the road. Timber rattlers are a threatened species in New York State. This specimen was all black. “It was stretched across the lane as I swerved around it,” Seth e-mailed me.…
By Phil Brown
Over the past four years, the number of endangered Indiana bats in New York State has plummeted about 50 percent. And that’s the good news. The populations of other bat species in the state have fallen as much as 90 percent. State biologist Al Hicks told the Adirondack Park Agency on Thursday that three species—the…