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David Gibson

Dave Gibson, who writes about issues of wilderness, wild lands, public policy, and more, has been involved in Adirondack conservation for over 30 years as executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks and currently as managing partner with Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve.

The Sagacious Whitetail

November 26, 2022 by David Gibson 1 Comment

Paul Schaefer in Siamese Ponds Wilderness, c. 1968I think of Adirondack conservationist and forever wild advocate Paul Schaefer (1908-1996) during whitetail deer hunting season, actually in any season, but particularly in deer season at his Adirondack cabin. From 1921 on, over a century now, Paul Schaefer and his family, friends and hunting club comrades in the Cataract Club ventured into the wilderness from cabins in the Adirondack mountains. [Read more…] about The Sagacious Whitetail

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, Bakers Mills, hunting, Johnsburg, nature, Paul Schaefer, Poetry, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, Warren County, whitetail deer

Gibson: DEC & APA Should Reform Managing Adirondack Lakes and Ponds

November 5, 2022 by David Gibson 1 Comment

Chad Dawson speaking at Paul Smith's VIC Oct. 2022At Adirondack Wild’s October meeting at the Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center, lakes and ponds came under the spotlight in a panel discussion about Cooperative Stewardship of Adirondack Lakes. Of particular interest was a given lake’s classification and subsequent comprehensive study, planning and management.

If Adirondack waterbodies are considered part of the Forest Preserve, and for the last fifty years the State Land Master Plan talks about land and water, then the law requires that lakes and ponds be classified, just as forests are. That raises important questions. [Read more…] about Gibson: DEC & APA Should Reform Managing Adirondack Lakes and Ponds

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Wild, Adirondacks, Big Moose Lake, boating, development, Essex County, Franklin County, Hamilton County, Lake Placid, Little Tupper Lake, Lower Saranac Lake, Lows Lake, nature, paddling, Raquette Lake, Saranac Lakes Wild Forest, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, State Land Master Plan, Thirteenth Lake, Warren County, water quality, wilderness, Wildlife, William C. Whitney Wilderness

Another Adirondack Resort Subdivision Proposed Without Conservation Design

October 2, 2022 by David Gibson 2 Comments

Large Subdivision and Resort Development proposed, Oct 2021I just skimmed through Eric Stackman’s recent replies to the Adirondack Park Agency (available on the APA website). Stackman, a Miami, Florida developer, wants to construct a 120-lot resort subdivision in Jay, Essex County, above the East Branch of the Ausable River, apparently within sightlines near Whiteface Mountain, Askaard Farm and many other viewing locations. [Read more…] about Another Adirondack Resort Subdivision Proposed Without Conservation Design

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Wild, Adirondacks, APA, Ausable River, Conservation Development, development, Environmental History, Essex County, Jay, nature, Whiteface, Wildlife

Adirondack Park Agency Has Not Held An Adjudicatory Hearing In More Than A Decade

April 21, 2022 by David Gibson Leave a Comment

Lake George from Prospect Mtn, by Dave GibsonThe Adirondack Park Agency (APA) last held an adjudicatory public hearing in 2011 – the kind of hearing that involves sworn testimony and cross-examination of evidence before a law judge, followed by a full hearing record on which to base a judicious, carefully examined, evidence-based decision.

That 2011 hearing was for the proposed Adirondack Club and Resort subdivision and development near Tupper Lake. In the eleven years since, and despite the many hundreds of permits issued by the APA over that time, including many large, regional projects, not a single adjudicatory public hearing has been convened by the APA. [Read more…] about Adirondack Park Agency Has Not Held An Adjudicatory Hearing In More Than A Decade

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, APA, development, Environmental History, Lake George, Legal History, nature, water quality

The Adirondack Raised Relief Map: Some History

March 21, 2022 by David Gibson 4 Comments

Paul Schaefer, back to camera, hosts an Adirondack discussion with, left to right, Joe Martens, Governor Mario Cuomo’s environmental secretary, standing in background with film camera Carl Schaefer, Paul’s brother, seated Dave Gibson with the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Dan Luciano, deputy environmental secretary for the governor, and on the stool Tom Cobb, Trustee and later President of the Board of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. Photo by Ken Rimany.The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks had hired me the previous winter. It was now the spring of 1987. Windows and doors were again opening to the hope and then the reality of spring’s warmth. The director of the Schenectady Museum William (Bill) Verner had given me, practically rent free, a desk and telephone from which to begin work as the Association’s first Executive Director in over 60 years.

It helped that Bill was a member of my board of trustees, and that his knowledge and love for the Adirondacks and Adirondack history from a home base in Long Lake was long and deep. [Read more…] about The Adirondack Raised Relief Map: Some History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondack Research Library, Adirondacks, Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Geography, Maps, Mount Marcy, Paul Schaefer, Schenectady Museum, Union College

The Volunteers Behind the Adirondack Research Library

February 22, 2022 by David Gibson Leave a Comment

Interior of the Adirondack Research Library in the Kelly Adirondack Center of Union College Photo by David GibsonMany organizations introduce their work with the words “were it not for the volunteers, we could not…” That can be justifiably said of the Adirondack Research Library (ARL), formerly part of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks (AfPA). [Read more…] about The Volunteers Behind the Adirondack Research Library

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Research Library, Adirondacks, Archives, Kelly Adirondack Center, Libraries, Niskayuna, Paul Schaefer, Schenectady, Schenectady County, Union College

David Gibson: In Adirondack Common Cause

December 27, 2021 by David Gibson 2 Comments

Coalition advocating at the State Capitol for full and fair Forest Preserve taxation, March 12 2018 photo courtesy Jim McKenna, Lake PlacidAdirondack Wild and I have been among those who have heralded the NYS Court of Appeals ruling in May that the only way for the Department of Environmental Conservation to construct snowmobile community connector trails in the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve was through a constitutional amendment.

Protect the Adirondacks lawsuit had taken seven years to reach that court. New York’s high court decision upheld the NYS Constitution’s clause that “the lands of the state…shall be forever kept as wild forest land.” New York State, said the court in so many words, lacked the authority to essentially amend the constitution by administrative fiat. Only the people can do that. We joined Protect in celebrating the most important high court decision affecting the Forest Preserve in 90 years. [Read more…] about David Gibson: In Adirondack Common Cause

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondack Wild, Catskills, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Political History, Protect the Adirondacks

Adirondack Mountains National Park? In 1967 There Was A Plan

November 18, 2021 by David Gibson Leave a Comment

NYS Ranger Bill Petty, left, guides Laurance Rockefeller, center, and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller on horseback in the High Peaks in 1965 (courtesy Rockefeller Archives)On a fall Saturday afternoon in the early 1990s some friends and I met up with wilderness coalition leader Paul Schaefer (1908-1996) at his cabin in Bakers Mills, northern Warren County, NY. Deciding to spend the night, we drove Paul into nearby North Creek for something to eat.

We tried the area’s hotel. One of the hotel staff took a look at Paul’s red plaid hunting jacket and asked him if could change into something more formal. At that, we turned heel and, walking across the street, entered Smith’s Restaurant.

Paul was immediately comfortable, having eaten here many times. Someone greeted him, a fellow deer hunter who remembered him. We took a booth and Paul ordered a steak. [Read more…] about Adirondack Mountains National Park? In 1967 There Was A Plan

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, Environmental History, Hudson River, nature, Nelson Rockefeller, North Creek, Paul Schaefer, State Parks, Warren County, wilderness

The End of Arbitrary Powers to Dam Adirondack Rivers

June 15, 2021 by David Gibson 4 Comments

Assemblyman John Ostrander, chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on River Regulation, left, with Paul Schaefer, center, representing Friends of the Forest Preserve and the Adirondack Moose River CommitteeThe State Legislature has just adjourned, but on a good many nights this past month I grew sleepy watching legislative TV or legislative proceedings on the internet. For the non-debate pieces of legislation, meaning when the legislative majority is not allowing minority debate on bills, the viewer is treated to the following exchanges in a monotone, one after the other:

The speaker or his representative, or the Senate president or her representative: “The clerk will read the bill.”  The clerk: “a bill to” …whatever it does.  The speaker or his representative: “The clerk will read the final section.” The clerk: “this act shall take effect immediately.” The speaker, president or their representative: “The vote: 63 in favor. The bill is passed.” All of that has taken less than ten seconds. Next. [Read more…] about The End of Arbitrary Powers to Dam Adirondack Rivers

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondack Park, Article 14, Environmental History, Forever Wild, nature, Political History, wilderness

Seven Years Later Arbor Day Efforts Yield Results

April 29, 2021 by David Gibson Leave a Comment

Brother Yusuf BurgessApril 30th, 2021 is Arbor Day. On Arbor Day 2012, NYS DEC Forest Rangers and Foresters had recruited us to help plant young potted and bare root trees on an eroding section of Adirondack Forest Preserve south of Warrensburg in what was then known as the Hudson River Recreation Area. The saplings had come from the DEC Saratoga Tree Nursery. [Read more…] about Seven Years Later Arbor Day Efforts Yield Results

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Wild, Albany, DEC, Environmental History, Forest Rangers, Hudson River, Hudson River Recreation Area, nature, Saratoga Tree Nursery, Tivoli Lake Preserve, Warrensburg

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