New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

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 End of Arbitrary Powers to Dam Adirondack Rivers

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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

Seven Years Later Arbor Day Efforts Yield Results

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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

The First Adirondack Conservation Easement

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Elk Lake by Ken Rimany DEC and APA websites reveal that 777,206 acres of private land in the Adirondack Park are protected in some fashion by a state-owned conservation easement.

During the Adirondack Park Centennial year of 1992 there were 93,000 acres of private lands under state-owned easement in the Park. [Read more…] about The First Adirondack Conservation Easement

Adirondack Advocate Paul Schaefer’s Influence On The Northway

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Northway I-87As the decade of the 1990s began, noted Adirondack conservationist and wilderness coalition leader Paul Schaefer’s eyesight was failing. He had macular degeneration. We had noticed that this skilled carpenter, home and cabin builder and historic restorationist was no longer hitting the nail squarely on its head. We worried about him continuing to drive. [Read more…] about Adirondack Advocate Paul Schaefer’s Influence On The Northway

Al Smith, John Apperson, FDR & The Fight That Expanded NYS Forests

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Paul Schaefer with John AppersonA young wildlands advocate Paul Schaefer was enamored of activist John Apperson from the day he first met him.

It was about 1931. Apperson was an General Electric engineer fighting to protect Lake George and other wild places. As Schaefer said, it was the pure sense of joy that Apperson exuded about conservation in the Adirondacks which galvanized young people looking for a cause.

These were very important years for the Adirondacks, as for the nation. The 1932 national election loomed, as the Great Depression sucked hope and savings from so many. One can imagine the anxiety that gripped the country and the opportunity for hucksters, demagogues, as well as statesmen. [Read more…] about Al Smith, John Apperson, FDR & The Fight That Expanded NYS Forests

Dave Gibson: Establish A Wilderness Training Center in NYS

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Alpine climber John Case speaks of the landscape below Whiteface Mountain to children from the area, c. 1978. The stress of our sheer numbers on wild lands, other hikers, summit stewards, forest and assistant rangers and local communities and volunteers bordering Routes 73 and 86 this hiking season – and many before this – easily disconnects and untethers us from the historical and philosophical roots of wilderness preservation and management. [Read more…] about Dave Gibson: Establish A Wilderness Training Center in NYS

Calls For Adirondack Park Permits In Historical Perspective

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Crowding on Cascade Mountain, eastern High Peaks Wilderness by Dan PlumleyI appreciate the Adirondack Council’s recent press release TAC Press Release, Aug. 26 which highlights the many benefits of permit reservation or limited entry systems and how such a system is needed and necessary now in parts of the High Peaks Wilderness Area. Support from the Adirondack Council for such a system comes at an important moment, as overuse of the peaks continues to spike during this pandemic summer. [Read more…] about Calls For Adirondack Park Permits In Historical Perspective

Adirondack Park Developer Rejects Conservation Design

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marsh at north end of Woodward Lake taken from the roadEven during the summer’s pandemic, development submittals to the Adirondack Park Agency (APA), which oversees land use in the Adirondack Park, have not slowed very much.

Case in point: the proposed developer of Woodward Lake in Fulton County has submitted additional information to the APA this month of July. The Agency has issued multiple requests for additional information since the applicant, New York Land and Lakes LLC of Oneonta, first submitted an application in 2018. Their plan is to subdivide an undeveloped 1,100-acre lake and forest near Northville in the Adirondack Park into 37 second home lots, driveways and onsite septic. There is no public water or sewer here and the applicant proposes none. [Read more…] about Adirondack Park Developer Rejects Conservation Design

Newly Appointed Adirondack Park Leadership Remains Lopsided

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APA Building in Ray Brook NYThe protection and planning for the Adirondack Park’s six million acres, one-fifth of the state, rests in large measure on the motivation and independence of the Adirondack Park Agency’s staff and board members in Ray Brook (APA).

Seven members were just nominated by Governor Andrew Cuomo and subsequently confirmed to sit at the APA’s table by the NY State Senate.

How should we think about them? How should we think about them in light of Governor Cuomo’s challenge to re-imagine and improve public policies and practices – to “build back better?” [Read more…] about Newly Appointed Adirondack Park Leadership Remains Lopsided

Cutting The Scotia Runway: An Adirondack Conservationist During The War

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Paul Schaefer shouldering an axeIn the 1990s I would visit Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks (AfPA) vice president and archivist Paul Schaefer (1908-1996) at his home in Niskayuna to learn as much as I could from him about wilderness preservation.

After he died, Paul was named one of the 100 top conservationists in the United States by Audubon magazine. I was the executive director of the AfPA and learned a great deal from Paul during the last decade of his life. [Read more…] about Cutting The Scotia Runway: An Adirondack Conservationist During The War