As 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
A 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
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
I 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
Even 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
The 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
In 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