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Forest Preserve

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

Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations

January 23, 2023 by Noel Sherry 4 Comments

Northern section showing lumber company railroads branching off New York Central, from BillAfter Hudson River logging sharply declined by 1905, the Adirondack railroad line known as the Mohawk & Malone kept NYS lumber companies in business for at least another twelve years. A big part of this was due to logging north of Big Moose, shown on this New York Central & Hudson River railroad map, with eight station stops northward toward Tupper Lake (shown at left), three of them as junctions for logging railroads — Wood’s Lake, Brandreth, and Nehasane.

Beaver River Station was shifting from logging to tourism. Little Rapids was a flag stop, Keepawa unlisted in an 1895 train schedule. This article will describe the logging history of Wood’s Lake and Beaver River stations, beginning with a new lumbering operation just north of Big Moose. [Read more…] about Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, Beaver River, Big Moose, Burd Amendment, Forest Preserve, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, International Paper, Legal History, Lewis County, Logging, Logging the Adirondacks, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, New York Central RR, railroads, Silver Lake, Stillwater, Town of Webb, Transportation History, Twitchell Lake, William Seward Webb

DEC & APA Defy The Courts And Keep Unconstitutional Trails Open

January 23, 2023 by Peter Bauer 1 Comment

Seventh-Lake-Mountain-Trail-2022-4 It’s been nearly two years since the New York Court of Appeals, the State’s highest court, ruled that extra-wide Class II Community Connector Snowmobile Trails designed, approved, and constructed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) violate Article 14, Section 1, of the New York State Constitution, the famed the “Forever Wild” clause.

The high court’s decision followed a decision in 2019 by the Appellate Division, Third Department, that Class II trails violate Article 14. The Court of Appeals decision came out in May 2021 and we’re now into our second winter where the DEC and APA continue to operate unconstitutional Class II trails as if the courts have not ruled against them. Protect the Adirondacks is now back in court in an effort to get the state to comply with the appellate court decisions. [Read more…] about DEC & APA Defy The Courts And Keep Unconstitutional Trails Open

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: APA, DEC, Forest Preserve, Legal History, Protect the Adirondacks, snowmobiling, trails

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

10 Organizations Unite to Call for Adirondack Investments

December 23, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Entering Adirondack Park sign photo credit, Eric Meier;A coalition of 10 conservation and educational organizations has sent a letter to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul urging her upcoming State of the State message and Executive Budget proposal to advance investments and strengthened policies to improve the protection and management of the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about 10 Organizations Unite to Call for Adirondack Investments

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Council, Adirondack Experience, Adirondack Wild, Adirondack Wilderness Advocates, Adirondacks, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, conservation, Environmental Advocates of NY, Environmental Protection Fund, Forest Preserve, Invasive Species, Kathy Hochul, nature, New York League of Conservation Voters, NYS Budget, politics, Protect the Adirondacks, Sierra Club, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Wildlife

ATV Drivers Caught Riding on Forest Preserve Land

December 6, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

forest ranger logoAccording to a press release issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, on December 1, 2022 Forest Ranger Praczkajlo said he followed ATV (all terrain vehicle) tracks in the town of Franklin in Franklin County and determined the operators were riding their ATVs illegally on Forest Preserve land in the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about ATV Drivers Caught Riding on Forest Preserve Land

Filed Under: Nature, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: ATVs, Crime and Justice, DEC, Forest Preserve, Forest Ranger Reports, Forest Rangers, Franklin, Franklin County, Santa Clara

Peter Bauer: Lame, Tired, And Wrong Blame-The-Adirondack Park Editorializing Persists

November 29, 2022 by Peter Bauer 1 Comment

AA-2020-NYS-Census-Map In the Adirondacks, I thought we had moved beyond weak economic and social analysis that blames the Adirondack Park for all of the problems and challenges facing Adirondack communities.

I thought that many in the Adirondacks had looked at long-term national rural population and economic trends and learned that the issues facing Adirondack communities are the same issues facing Rural America – and that the first decades of the 21st Century in the U.S. have proved extremely difficult and challenging times for Rural America. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: Lame, Tired, And Wrong Blame-The-Adirondack Park Editorializing Persists

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Demographics, Economic History, Forest Preserve, Protect the Adirondacks

New York State Acquires Key Adirondack Park Land on Thirteenth Lake

November 29, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Thirteenth Lake by Nancie Battaglia On November 9th, New York State acquired from the Adirondack Land Trust 17 undeveloped acres with shoreline on Thirteenth Lake in the Adirondack town of Johnsburg, Warren County, NY.

Now public and protected by the Forever Wild clause of the state constitution, the tract helps protect some of the wild character of the lake’s 4.5-mile shoreline. The parcel is is bordered by the Garnet Hill Property Owners Association, a private home owners association which protects its lakeshore property with restrictive use covenants. [Read more…] about New York State Acquires Key Adirondack Park Land on Thirteenth Lake

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Land Trust, Adirondacks, DEC, Forest Preserve, Hudson River, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, Thirteenth Lake

Advocates: Adirondack Park Agency Withholding Documents

November 21, 2022 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

APA Building in Ray Brook NYThe nonprofit advocate Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve has been denied certain documents by the NYS Adirondack Park Agency (APA) which Adirondack Wild believes would shed light on the APA’s responsibilities to restrain public motorized uses within Wild Forest portions of the “forever wild” Adirondack Forest Preserve. [Read more…] about Advocates: Adirondack Park Agency Withholding Documents

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Council, Adirondack Wild, Adirondacks, APA, Forest Preserve, State Land Master Plan

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

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