History, Natural History & the Arts
Return with me to the thrilling days of yesteryear when the automobile was viewed as the solution to transportation noise, fumes and congestion.
The problem: Horses.
A lot of horses. [Read more…] about The Unpleasant Side of Life With Horses in Cities
In 1844 New York State published a volume on birds in Natural History of New York. Written by James E. DeKay with hand-colored lithographs by John William Hill, it was the State’s first attempt at a comprehensive scientific cataloging of New York’s birds. At the time about 301 species of birds were known to be present in the state.
Sixty years later another effort was made to bring together the State’s bird knowledge. The first of the two-volume of Birds of New York – Water Birds and Game Birds – was published to much acclaim. The book was a collaboration between wildlife artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes and author Elon Howard Eaton. Birds of New York listed an additional 100 species – several of which were then “well known,” but unknown in the 1840s. The book would serve as a model for those that followed.
[Read more…] about Birds of New York: Scientific Cataloging In Historical Context
More than 175 groups have launched a new coalition in an effort to protect funding for environmental programs. The programs support hundreds of thousands of jobs, protect clean drinking water, create new parks, help advance environmental justice, and work to mitigate the impacts of climate change. [Read more…] about 175 Organizations Launch Coalition for Environmental Funding
One day as my wife and I and our dogs walked along River Road at Riparius on the Hudson River, my wife said to me in a folksy manner “just think all this water here, is on its way to New York City.”
It’s true the Hudson River has flowed out of the Adirondack Mountains for millennia, southward towards the Atlantic Ocean. And over the last two centuries or so there have been plans to dam the Upper Hudson for one reason or another. Most of those plans have dealt with using the water resources for some down state endeavor. [Read more…] about Hudson River Dam History: The Big Hadley And Glen Dams
New York State’s recent acquisition of the 86-acres Parker tract in the Finger Lakes area, recalls the role of New York State Governor and later U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the creation of New York States Forests and Wildlife Management Areas.
The State purchased the parcel from the Parker Trust for $171,300 utilizing federal Pittman-Robertson Act (1937) funds. To ensure that use is in compliance with the Act, the state is planning to include the land in the High Tor Wildlife Management Area in Yates County.
[Read more…] about 80-Acre Addition To High Tor Area Part of FDR’s Preservation Legacy
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
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
2020 commemorates the 300th anniversary of French presence on Prince Edward Island, just north of Nova Scotia. Like much of North America, the Canadian Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, and Prince Edward Island were highly contested regions.
In fact, the way France and Great Britain fought for presence and control of this region places the Canadian Maritimes among the most contested regions in eighteenth-century North America.
[Read more…] about 300 Years of French Settlement on Prince Edward Island
Historic Plum Island, a small 840-acre spit of land off the North Fork of Long Island, is slated to be sold to the highest bidder by 2023. This is a result of the planned removal of the Animal Disease Center on the western side of the Island, a lab that has lodged Plum Island in the public mind as a place of mysteries and conspiracies.
In this episode of The Long Island History Project‘s podcast John Turner helps paint the full picture of Plum Island as a jewel of a natural habitat worthy of conservation, not commercialization. A spokesman for the Preserve Plum Island Coalition, Turner puts forth the case for making the area a publicly accessible hub for research, exploration, and contemplation. [Read more…] about The Preserve Plum Island Coalition On The Long Island History Podcast
On many hikes, I never truly feel like I have reached the summit of a peak until I’ve found a tiny metal disc set into the rock.
These small plates of metal are called survey markers, or benchmarks, and they are put in place by surveyors to mark important points on the Earth’s surface. [Read more…] about Adirondack Survey Markers: A Conservation Minute