The Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation has invited Adirondack anglers to participate in its “Lead Tackle Buy Back Program” to protect Common Loons from lead poisoning. Anglers can trade in their lead sinkers and jigs this summer by bringing them to any of the eight participating retailers around the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about Adk Loon Center Offers Lead Tackle Buy-Back Program
Nature
Suggestions In Wake of Historic Adirondack Legal Decision
The May 4th, 2021, decision by the New York Court of Appeals ruled that Class II Community Connector Snowmobile Trails violated Article 14, Section 1, of the New York Constitution.
This ruling capped an eight-year legal challenge by Protect the Adirondacks against the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Adirondack Park Agency (APA). In the end, eight of the twelve judges who looked at the evidence found that Class II trails were unconstitutional. [Read more…] about Suggestions In Wake of Historic Adirondack Legal Decision
We’re Less Than $50 From Our July Goal: Can You Help?
It costs time and money to produce the New York Almanack – we need your support to keep our stories coming each day. We’re currently less than $50 from reaching our July fundraising goal – can you help us get over the top?
Make a contribution online at our new Rally.org page: https://rally.org/f/4LBVKo9zYjO Or, send a check to: [Read more…] about We’re Less Than $50 From Our July Goal: Can You Help?
Western Fires Spark Air Quality Health Advisory for All New York State
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and State Department of Health (DOH) have issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for the entire state of New York for Tuesday, July 20th. [Read more…] about Western Fires Spark Air Quality Health Advisory for All New York State
Report Cladophora Along Great Lakes Shorelines
Cladophora is a type of stringy (filamentous) algae that grows on rocks, wood, logs, and other hard underwater surfaces in freshwater ecosystems, including the Great Lakes basin.
If you spot this type of stringy algae along New York’s Great Lakes beaches and shorelines, including Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the Niagara River or the St. Lawrence River, DEC wants to know. [Read more…] about Report Cladophora Along Great Lakes Shorelines
Study Shows Songbirds Share Our Taste for Sweets
Contrary to conventional thought, songbirds can taste sugar — even though songbirds are the descendants of meat-eating dinosaurs and are missing a key protein that allows humans and many other animals to taste sweetness.
An international team investigated how many bird species can taste sweet and how far back that ability evolved. Their work was published in the journal Science. [Read more…] about Study Shows Songbirds Share Our Taste for Sweets
After 50 Years Lake Sturgeon Found Spawning in Genesee River
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has reported a milestone in the restoration of the Genesee River following the collection of a spawning female lake sturgeon in the lower Genesee for the first time in more than 50 years. [Read more…] about After 50 Years Lake Sturgeon Found Spawning in Genesee River
Flower Color: A Science Primer
To quote the French dramatist Jean Giradoux, “The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.” Flowering plants fill our summer fields and gardens, bring bright spots of color to our woods, and – since their arrival on the scene some 130 million years ago – have evolved along with animal life to become an essential part of the food web. [Read more…] about Flower Color: A Science Primer
19th Century Tales Of Cabbage Worms
In Ray Bradbury’s 1952 science fiction story A Sound of Thunder, Eckels, a time-traveling safari hunter accidentally steps on a butterfly during prehistoric times, which triggers a massive change to the eco-system when Eckels returns to 2055 society.
If it’s so that a single action can have consequences centuries later, I wonder about ramifications from the mass extermination of butterflies by a witty, well-meaning, 19th century Hague (on Lake George in Warren County) cabbage farmer. [Read more…] about 19th Century Tales Of Cabbage Worms
Rensselaer County Floods: A Short History
Floods have been a fairly frequent occurrence in Rensselaer County, especially along the Poesten Kill and Wynants Kill and at their mouths which are impacted by the flooding of the Hudson River.
Two whales that ascended the river and were stranded during exceptionally high water in the Hudson in 1647 died there. In 1654 flooding all but destroyed the West India Company’s garden below Fort Orange and in 1666 Jeremias van Rensselaer reported that “fully forty houses and barns have been carried away, among which our house in which we lived, the barn and the brewery, the new as well as the old are lost also, so that hardly any traces can be found of where they have stood.” [Read more…] about Rensselaer County Floods: A Short History