History, Natural History & the Arts
Last April, Adirondack organizations wrote to the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) asking to rediscover their discretionary power to hold adjudicatory public hearings on particularly complex, controversial Adirondack land use projects.
There was no response to our joint letter, but a rather resounding response has just come from a member of our state’s judicial branch. [Read more…] about Incompetence? Adk Park Agency Loses 2nd Lawsuit Within A Week
Nearly 100 people from 20 different Adirondack organizations met with 50 state legislators and their staff during Adirondack Park Lobby Day to advocate for funding and policy advancements for the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about Adirondack Park Lobby Day
A coalition of 10 conservation and educational organizations has sent a letter to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul urging her upcoming State of the State message and Executive Budget proposal to advance investments and strengthened policies to improve the protection and management of the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about 10 Organizations Unite to Call for Adirondack Investments
The nonprofit advocate Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve has been denied certain documents by the NYS Adirondack Park Agency (APA) which Adirondack Wild believes would shed light on the APA’s responsibilities to restrain public motorized uses within Wild Forest portions of the “forever wild” Adirondack Forest Preserve. [Read more…] about Advocates: Adirondack Park Agency Withholding Documents
At 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
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve has announced its Annual Meeting of Members and Friends has been set for Friday, October 14th, at the Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC), located at 8023 State Rt. 30 just north of Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Adirondack Wild Annual Meeting at Paul Smith’s
I 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
The nonprofit advocate Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve hailed this week’s vote on a bill in the NYS Assembly in favor of an act requiring conservation subdivision design. Advocates say the bill will “preserve ecological integrity, wildlife and open space in the Adirondack Park.”
The bill was sponsored by Assembly Member and Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Steve Englebright. It has an identical or companion bill pending before the State Senate. [Read more…] about Adirondack Wild Hails Vote for Conservation Development Bill
Adirondack 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
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve will hold its 11th Annual Membership Meeting on Friday, September 24th at Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek, focusing on the current state of the Adirondack Park Agency at 50 Years (1971-2021) and reimagining the APA in the next 50 years. [Read more…] about Adirondack Wild Announces 2021 Award Recipients, Annual Meeting