History, Natural History & the Arts
Protect the Adirondacks (PROTECT) has been urging the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for years to conduct a carrying capacity study of the heavily used Saranac Lakes Complex.
After DEC failed to act in response to their formal demand letter, PROTECT filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to compel DEC to complete the required study. [Read more…] about Appeal Filed After Court Dismisses Adirondack Carrying Capacity Case
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State locating and extracting lost, injured or distressed people and policing state lands.
This report of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers was prepared by DEC: [Read more…] about Rangers Fight Fire at Follensby Clear Pond, Make Several Wilderness Rescues
Five organizations concerned about the size, scope, and regional impacts of the proposed USL Marina on a small pond near Fish Creek Pond Campground in the Adirondacks are calling on the New York State Adirondack Park Agency (APA) to hold an adjudicatory public hearing on the application. The marina’s application is set to come before the APA Board at its May 16th monthly meeting in Ray Brook. The decision of whether to hold a public hearing is up to the Agency’s eleven voting decision-makers, or Board members. [Read more…] about Adirondack Advocates Call For Public Hearing on Marina Application
A grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will support the Upper Saranac Foundation’s (USF) efforts to remove aquatic invasive species (AIS) from Follensby Clear Pond in the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about State Grant Supports Follensby Clear Pond Invasive Species Management
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
I was first introduced to Joe Bolio in Camps & Tramps in the Adirondacks when author Ansel Judd Northrup encountered Bolio during the summer of 1878, while he and some friends were on a fishing trip into the Cranberry Lake region of St. Lawrence County.
Joe Bolio was said to have been a caretaker at a dam on the Grasse River, possibly in the area that is now the Grasse River Flow. [Read more…] about Joe Bolio: Adirondack Guide, Hunter, and Hermit
On Friday, August 4th at about 1 pm, while patrolling the Follensby Clear Pond boat launch in the Village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, New York State Forest Ranger Adams heard sirens approaching and saw a Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department Truck pull into the boat launch. [Read more…] about Campers Struck by Lightning in the Adirondacks
The Raquette River, from Raquette Falls to the State Boat Launch on Tupper Lake, is one of the nicest stretches of flat-water anywhere in the Adirondacks. Paddling this river corridor under a clear cerulean blue sky, on a sunny autumn day with the riverbanks ablaze in orange and red, is exquisite. For me, though, the river’s history is as captivating as its natural beauty. [Read more…] about Dam History: The Proposed Oxbow Reservoir Project
In 1858 some of the leading lights of American art, literature, and science camped together on Follensby Pond near Tupper Lake at what is now known as the Philosophers’ Camp.
The gathering was organized by Willam James Stillman, artist and editor of acclaimed art magazine of the time, The Crayon. It included transcendental philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet James Russel Lowell, Harvard scientist Jean Louis Agassiz, and others.
The meeting at Follensby was widely covered in the popular press of the time and fueled an interest in the Adirondacks and retreating into the wilderness to write, make art and discuss the issues of the day. [Read more…] about Adirondack Philosophers’ Camp Talk In Saratoga Springs
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