This week on The Historians Podcast, how the Adirondack forest preserve was motorized, snowmobiling, and more. The guest is John Warren, founder and editor of New York Almanack. [Read more…] about John Warren Talks Adirondacks On The Historians Podcast
Forest Preserve
Adirondack Park Inholding Protected, Closing Forest Preserve Gap
The Adirondack Land Trust has purchased 60 acres surrounded by the Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest, closing a gap in the New York State Forest Preserve. [Read more…] about Adirondack Park Inholding Protected, Closing Forest Preserve Gap
Tent Platforms: A History of Personal Forest Preserve Leases
Many years ago I paddled past what appeared to be many rather unnatural clearings on Long Pond in the St. Regis Canoe Area. Here and there, partially underwater, I saw a piece of water pipe or an old rusty dock support. They are the remains of tent platform sites.
These camps on “forever wild” New York State Adirondack Forest Preserve lands were built with leases to private individuals. [Read more…] about Tent Platforms: A History of Personal Forest Preserve Leases
How The Adirondack Forest Preserve Was Motorized
The establishment of the Adirondack Forest Preserve in 1885 was part of growing American appreciation of a back to nature ethic. By the time of the First World War, according to historian Paul Sutter: “Americans produced and consumed voluminous literature on natural and wild themes; they built vacation homes and camps; they initiated a wide variety of programs in scouting and woodcraft; they developed a distinctive hunting culture and ethos; they adopted nature study as a prominent hobby; and the embraced the ‘strenuous life’ that could be found only in the ‘great outdoors.’” [Read more…] about How The Adirondack Forest Preserve Was Motorized
Advocates Divided Over Tree Cutting In Adirondack Park
The Open Space Institute (OSI) and the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) have moved to jointly file an amicus brief in support of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in a case now being heard at the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
Protect the Adirondacks (Protect) was recently granted a 4-1 decision by the Appellate Division, Third Department, that Class II Community Community snowmobile trail construction resulted in an unconstitutional destruction of trees on the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Protect is now defending that decision against an appeal by the state. [Read more…] about Advocates Divided Over Tree Cutting In Adirondack Park
Adirondack Advocate Paul Schaefer’s Influence On The Northway
As the decade of the 1990s began, noted Adirondack conservationist and wilderness coalition leader Paul Schaefer’s eyesight was failing. He had macular degeneration. We had noticed that this skilled carpenter, home and cabin builder and historic restorationist was no longer hitting the nail squarely on its head. We worried about him continuing to drive. [Read more…] about Adirondack Advocate Paul Schaefer’s Influence On The Northway
Charles Evans Hughes Documentary Premiering Online
The new feature documentary, My Native Air: Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, co-produced by MDT Publishing and Snarky Aardvark Films, is premiering on-demand in a limited run from January 15th to February 15th, 2021. [Read more…] about Charles Evans Hughes Documentary Premiering Online
Remembering The Big Blowdown of 1950
The Adirondacks are prone to powerful windstorms, isolated tornadoes, and occasional hurricanes, derechos, and microbursts. Perhaps the second most destructive of these in modern Adirondack history (next to the 1998 Ice Storm) occurred in November, 1950. [Read more…] about Remembering The Big Blowdown of 1950
Adirondack Wild Presents 2020 Wilderness Award
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve has presented its 2020 Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award, the organization’s highest honor, to Kevin Chlad, Director of Government Relations for the Adirondack Council with offices in Elizabethtown and in Albany. [Read more…] about Adirondack Wild Presents 2020 Wilderness Award
Al Smith, John Apperson, FDR & The Fight That Expanded NYS Forests
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