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Article 14

State Rebuilding of High Peaks Wilderness Roads Challenged in Court

January 30, 2023 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

equipment in the MacIntyre East High Peaks Wilderness Area to rebuild roadsOn January 20, 2023, Protect the Adirondacks filed a lawsuit challenging the reconstruction by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) of a previously closed and reclaimed road in the High Peaks Wilderness Complex. Protect argues that DEC’s road construction activity in the High Peaks violates the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (Master Plan) which prohibits roads in Wilderness Areas. [Read more…] about State Rebuilding of High Peaks Wilderness Roads Challenged in Court

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, APA, Article 14, Boreas Ponds, DEC, development, Environmental History, Finch Pruyn Lands, Forest Preserve, High Peaks, Legal History, MacIntyre East Tract, State Land Master Plan, wilderness

Along The Mohawk & Malone: Forest Fires & Logging South of Big Moose (1900-1920)

December 27, 2022 by Noel Sherry 2 Comments

Picture of Rev. John Fitzgerald, Born in England, John Gerald Fitzgerald (1850-1925) attended seminary in Troy, NY, accepting his first assignment as a priest in the Diocese of Ogdensburg. Following pastorates in upstate New York, Father Fitz – as he was affectionately called – was given the daunting challenge of establishing a parish in Old Forge, in the Adirondacks.

In 1896, Northern Herkimer County was a heavily forested region dotted by tiny hamlets, scattered lumber camps, and remote railroad stations along the Mohawk & Malone Railroad. For the next twenty-nine years, he got off the Mohawk & Malone at stations like McKeever, Carter, Big Moose, Beaver River, Brandreth, Keepewa, Nehasane, and Horseshoe Lake, carrying his bible and sacraments from these stops to remote lumber camps on snowshoes, wearing his trademark coonskin cap and woolen mittens. His parish stretched over a 200 square-mile area. [Read more…] about Along The Mohawk & Malone: Forest Fires & Logging South of Big Moose (1900-1920)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, Beaver River, Big Moose, conservation, Fires, Forest Preserve, Forestry, Fulton Chain, Gifford Pinchot, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, Logging, Logging the Adirondacks, McKeever, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, Moose River, New York Central RR, railroads, Raquette Lake

Adirondack History: New York State to the Rescue

November 15, 2022 by Noel Sherry 2 Comments

Entering Adirondack Park sign photo credit, Eric Meier;In the late nineteenth century, Adirondack VIP tours were arranged to assess water damage from state-sponsored dams that kept lumber mills powered and barges floating up and down the Erie Canal. Judges like Truman Fuller exhorted the New York State Forest Commission to get an accurate upstate map completed, to head off all the lawsuits. [Read more…] about Adirondack History: New York State to the Rescue

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, Big Moose, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Forestry, Gifford Pinchot, Herkimer COunty, Legal History, Logging, Political History, Town of Webb, Twitchell Lake, William Seward Webb

Peter Bauer: Important NYS Forest Preserve Management Reforms

October 6, 2022 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

NYSDEC Trail Work2022 may end up as the year some of the most important reforms in New York State Forest Preserve management were started, both in practice and in theory.

Forest Preserve management reform has been a long time coming as the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which is responsible for the care and custody of the Forest Preserve, has struggled for years with how to improve its overall management program.

Small changes have been attempted at various points, but no major reforms have been successfully brought to the DEC’s Forest Preserve management. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: Important NYS Forest Preserve Management Reforms

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, APA, Article 14, Catskills, DEC, development, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Legal History, nature, Protect the Adirondacks, snowmobiling, wilderness

Forest Preserve Decision Has Far-Reaching Implications Beyond Tree Cutting

June 19, 2022 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

Canopy by Peter BauerRecent pieces in the Adirondack Explorer (see here and here) have attempted to assess the implications of the decision by New York State’s highest court in Protect the Adirondacks v Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Park Agency.

The Court of Appeals found that these state agencies violated the state constitution in their efforts to build a network of new extra-wide snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Forest Preserve. These commenters have derided the decision because they say it’s focused on tree cutting, which they argue is a poor standard to evaluate the constitutionality of management actions by state agencies under Article 14, Section 1, the Forever Wild Clause. [Read more…] about Forest Preserve Decision Has Far-Reaching Implications Beyond Tree Cutting

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Legal History, Logging, nature, Protect the Adirondacks, trees

A Constitutional Amendment Proposed for Mt. Van Hoevenberg

May 26, 2022 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports ComplexAn Article 14 Constitutional Amendment is being proposed for the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex in the Adirondack Park outside Lake Placid.

At the Mt. Van Hoevenberg complex, the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) currently manages around 1,220 acres of Forest Preserve classified as Intensive Use by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). Abutting these lands is 319 acres of land owned by the Town of North Elba.

Together this complex houses the Olympic bobsled and luge track, cross-country skiing and biathlon trails, and associated facilities, with most of the intensive buildings and facilities located on the town lands. These facilities have seen massive upgrades and state spending in preparation for hosting the World University Games in 2023. [Read more…] about A Constitutional Amendment Proposed for Mt. Van Hoevenberg

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, development, Environmental History, Essex County, Forest Preserve, High Peaks, Mt Van Hoevenberg, North Elba, NYS Constitution, Olympic History, ORDA, Political History, Protect the Adirondacks, Sports History, wilderness

Peter Bauer: It’s Time To Pass A Constitutional Amendment For Mount Van Hoevenberg

March 29, 2022 by Peter Bauer 1 Comment

Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports ComplexProtect the Adirondacks supports a proposed Article 14 Constitutional Amendment for the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex outside Lake Placid.

At the Mt. Van Hoevenberg complex, the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) currently manages around 1,220 acres of Forest Preserve classified as Intensive Use by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). Abutting these lands is 319 acres of land owned by the Town of North Elba. Together this complex houses the Olympic bobsled and luge track, cross-country skiing and biathlon trails, and associated facilities, with most of the intensive buildings and facilities located on the town lands. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: It’s Time To Pass A Constitutional Amendment For Mount Van Hoevenberg

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, APA, Article 14, Cross-Country Skiing, development, Essex County, Forest Preserve, Lake Placid, Mt Van Hoevenberg, nature, North Elba, NYS Constitution, ORDA, Protect the Adirondacks, skiing, winter sports

DEC Should Conduct A Nationwide Search For A New State Forester

March 24, 2022 by Peter Bauer 2 Comments

Algonquin TrailThe current New York State Forester at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced that he is retiring in April.

This position doubles as the Director of the Division of Lands and Forests, and as such is the top public lands manager in the state, supervising the management of the 3-million-acre Forest Preserve, more than 750,000 acres of conservation easements, over 700,000 acre of State Forests, and thousands of acres of Wildlife Refuges and various other properties. [Read more…] about DEC Should Conduct A Nationwide Search For A New State Forester

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, Basil Seggos, Catskills, DEC, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Forestry, George Pataki, High Peaks, hiking, Kathy Hochul, Legal History, nature, Political History, Urban Forestry

Ed Zahniser On Wilderness & New York State

January 9, 2022 by Edward Zahniser 4 Comments

Catskill Creek by Thomas ColeNew York State’s Forest Preserve lands of the Adirondacks and Catskills are living fossils of the broad 19th-century movement to protect wild forests of the federal public lands in the West as forest reserves and not as national forest sources of fiber, forage, and minerals.

New York State’s Forest Preserve lands therefore are living proof that the wilderness preservation movement is not an upstart 20th-century offshoot of the mainstream American conservation movement. [Read more…] about Ed Zahniser On Wilderness & New York State

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, Catskills, Forest Preserve, High Peaks, Howard Zahniser, https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/tags/high-peaks/, John Apperson, nature, Paul Schaefer, Robert Marshall, Theodore Roosevelt, TR, Verplanck Colvin, wilderness

Peter Bauer: DEC’s Revised Approach to Forest Preserve Long Overdue

December 23, 2021 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

Forest Preserve SignThe Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has organized a working group to assist the department in revising and amending a series of policies for New York State Forest Preserve trails stewardship. The DEC organized this working group through the membership of the longstanding Forest Preserve Advisory Committee (FPAC). The working group includes members from trails building organizations, local government, and the environmental community.

The Department stressed that this is a unified management effort for the entire Forest Preserve, and the working group includes members from the Adirondack and Catskill Parks. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: DEC’s Revised Approach to Forest Preserve Long Overdue

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, APA, Article 14, Catskills, DEC, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Forest Preserve Advisory Committee, High Peaks, hiking, Kathy Hochul, Legal History, nature, Overuse, Political History, Protect the Adirondacks, trails

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