History, Natural History & the Arts
The NFL training camps have begun for another season, with the preseason beginning in mid-August.
During the 1960s the New York Football Giants would play a series of preseason games during a five year period at Cornell’s Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, NY, which would come to be called the Finger Lakes Pro Bowl. [Read more…] about The Finger Lakes Pro Bowls & The NY Giants
In June, 1883, Jefferson and Helen Beardsley of Ithaca, New York, were indicted, tried, and sentenced for “selling and exhibiting obscene pictures.”
In Smut: An 1883 Obscenity Trial and Its Echoes Today (Paul Dry Books, 2026), historian Carol Kammen draws directly from the trial transcript and reveals the fascinating history surrounding the case and its surprising relevance today. [Read more…] about Smut: An 1883 Obscenity Trial and Its Echoes Today
Snapshot NY, a citizen science program created by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University in 2025, will begin Year Two in July.
The innovative program, which enables the public to participate in the state’s efforts to monitor wildlife by deploying privately-owned trail cameras, has already enlisted more than 800 volunteers. [Read more…] about Snapshot NY Citizen Science Wildlife Monitoring Project
New York State is home to several rare and fragile floating bogs and fens. These unique ecosystems feature mats of sphagnum moss and vegetation that actually float over water.
Bogs and fens are both peatlands (wetlands that build up deposits of dead plant matter called peat). The primary difference is their water source: bogs are largely by nutrient-poor rainwater, making them highly acidic. Fens are fed by mineral-rich groundwater, making them alkaline or neutral. [Read more…] about Rare and Fragile Floating Bogs and Fens
MyCoast NY is a public web tool which offers an opportunity to contribute and access photos of flooding, shoreline change, and storm damage from anywhere in the state.
When you submit a photo, it is automatically linked to real-time weather, river, and tidal gauge data to help provide context for the photo. [Read more…] about Help Document New York Weather Impacts
If you see a bald eagle soaring above Lake George, it is safe to assume that it is descended from one of the scores released in New York State in the 1970s and 80s.
There was nothing inevitable about the return of the bald eagle to the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Return of the Bald Eagle: A Conservation Success Story
In summer 2025, DEC and Cornell University’s New York State Hemlock Initiative (NYSHI) confirmed the first establishment of Leucotaraxis argenticollis, a type of silver fly, in New York State.
These silver flies were released to help control hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), an invasive insect that attacks and kills hemlock trees. The silver fly population was confirmed in the own of Bath, in Steuben County, NY. [Read more…] about Silver Fly Combating Invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
On August 6th, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) euthanized a bull moose on the Goodman Mountain Trail after confirming a significant decline in its health.
The moose was first sighted near the summit of Goodman Mountain in May when hikers reported the moose tolerating close human presence. [Read more…] about Moose That Closed Adirondack Hiking Trail Euthanized
Hemlocks are an important part of New York’s forests providing unique environmental conditions under cool, dense canopies that protect wildlife, fishery habitat, water quality, and prevent soil erosion. An HWA infestation can kill a healthy tree within 10 years. [Read more…] about Invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Found at Lake Champlain, Great Sacandaga Lake
Early in the twentieth century, two Cornell University alumni created a suburb adjacent to the campus of their alma mater in Ithaca, NY, “far above Cayuga’s waters” in the Finger Lakes. Named Cayuga Heights at the suggestion of one of their workmen, a handful of professors turned what would otherwise have been just another faculty enclave in an American college town into an incorporated municipality that has thrived ever since.
Local historian Beatrice Szekely tells this origin story in University Suburb, Founding the Village of Cayuga Heights in Ithaca, New York, which she published in 2024. [Read more…] about University Suburb, Founding the Village of Cayuga Heights in Ithaca
It was 46 years ago this week that one of the most notable Grateful Dead shows ever was performed at Barton Hall at Cornell University on May 8, 1977. One of the most revered and traded shows in the band’s history, the Barton Hall show is a thing of legend, a perfect way to introduce new fans to the band and a performance for the ages with stand out versions of numerous Dead songs.
The band played its first of three shows at Cornell (1977, 1980, and 1981) on May 8, 1977, and were booked by the Cornell Concert Commission after some troubles with booking live acts in the years prior. [Read more…] about Barton Hall, Cornell ’77: A Legendary Grateful Dead Show
Cornell University Press (CUP) was the first university press in the United States, founded in 1869 in the school’s College of the Mechanic Arts, as mechanical engineering was then called, because engineers knew the most about operating a steam-powered printing press.
(Cambridge University Press is both the oldest publishing house in the world and the oldest university press, having published its first book in 1584; Johns Hopkins University Press has been in continuous operation since 1878). [Read more…] about Cornell University Press: America’s First University Press
In February 2025, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wildlife staff received a report of a Bald Eagle banded in New York that was photographed alive and well in the state of Georgia. This bird was rescued as a hatch-year male from the nearshore waters of Lake Erie in Chautauqua County in May of 2021, likely having fledged from a nearby clifftop nest. [Read more…] about A Banded Bald Eagle Makes An Epic Journey
After several years of lighter winters, the Tug Hill Region is experiencing a heavier winter season with up to 26 feet of snow having fallen around Copenhagen and Barnes Corners, in Lewis County.
The timing of heavy snowfall events and the lack of a thaw have contributed to many structure failures, primarily where lake-effect bands hit in Oswego and Oneida counties. [Read more…] about 2024-25 Tug Hill Winter Snowfall Reaches 20+ Feet in Some Areas
The Finger Lakes region, renowned for its natural beauty and rich cultural heritage, serves as a unique gateway to the architectural genius of Frank Lloyd Wright.
While Wright’s influence can be seen in Rochester’s Edward E. Boynton House, it is his iconic Tree of Life stained-glass window that provides a deeper connection to his masterpiece, the Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, New York. [Read more…] about A Frank Lloyd Wright Masterpiece Connecting Buffalo & The Finger Lakes
Oneida Lake, located northeast of Syracuse, NY, in Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego counties, is the largest lake entirely within New York State and is believed to be third only to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie in the total number of anglers who fish its waters. [Read more…] about Oneida Lake: A Fisheries Profile
In late winter and early spring, amphibian species like wood frog (Lithobates sylvatica), spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), and Jefferson-blue spotted salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonianum x laterale) emerge from underground shelters in the forest and head to vernal pools for breeding. [Read more…] about Mild Weather Spurs Early Salamander and Frog Migration in Hudson Valley
New York State and The Nature Conservancy have reached an agreement to protect more than 14,600 acres of ecologically rare and culturally significant natural resources in the Adirondacks through two conservation easements and a research consortium. The collaboration is expected to provide new public recreational access in the Raquette River corridor and establish a first-of-its-kind freshwater research preserve. [Read more…] about State, Nature Conservancy Reach Agreement On Follensby Pond Plans
In 1904, the New York State legislature passed a bill to create the New York State College at Cornell. The bill created a land-grant college with an agriculture focus within Cornell and guaranteed fields of study related to agriculture would receive significant public funding. [Read more…] about Finger Lakes Technology: From Agriculture to Auto Racing
The photo here may look like a landscape art installation, but it’s actually an innovative new forestry practice called a slash wall.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Forester Dan Shaffer led the construction of the slash wall in Bush Hill State Forest, Cattaraugus County, in cooperation with Forest Director Peter Smallidge and Forest Manager Brett Chedzoy from Cornell University’s Arnot Teaching and Research Forest. [Read more…] about Slash Walls: Protecting Forests Seedlings
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