• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Forest Preserve

Peter Bauer: It’s Time To Pass A Constitutional Amendment For Mount Van Hoevenberg

March 29, 2022 by Peter Bauer 1 Comment

Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports ComplexProtect the Adirondacks supports a proposed Article 14 Constitutional Amendment for the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex outside Lake Placid.

At the Mt. Van Hoevenberg complex, the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) currently manages around 1,220 acres of Forest Preserve classified as Intensive Use by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). Abutting these lands is 319 acres of land owned by the Town of North Elba. Together this complex houses the Olympic bobsled and luge track, cross-country skiing and biathlon trails, and associated facilities, with most of the intensive buildings and facilities located on the town lands. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: It’s Time To Pass A Constitutional Amendment For Mount Van Hoevenberg

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, APA, Article 14, Cross-Country Skiing, development, Essex County, Forest Preserve, Lake Placid, Mt Van Hoevenberg, nature, North Elba, NYS Constitution, ORDA, Protect the Adirondacks, skiing, winter sports

DEC Should Conduct A Nationwide Search For A New State Forester

March 24, 2022 by Peter Bauer 2 Comments

Algonquin TrailThe current New York State Forester at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced that he is retiring in April.

This position doubles as the Director of the Division of Lands and Forests, and as such is the top public lands manager in the state, supervising the management of the 3-million-acre Forest Preserve, more than 750,000 acres of conservation easements, over 700,000 acre of State Forests, and thousands of acres of Wildlife Refuges and various other properties. [Read more…] about DEC Should Conduct A Nationwide Search For A New State Forester

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, Basil Seggos, Catskills, DEC, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Forestry, George Pataki, High Peaks, hiking, Kathy Hochul, Legal History, nature, Political History, Urban Forestry

Public Comments Sought On Boat Decontamination Facilities

March 21, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

DEC LogoThe Adirondack Park Agency (APA) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have announced a joint public comment period to solicit comments for a proposed amendment to the Generic Unit Management Plan/Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Campgrounds and Day-Use Areas.

The Generic UMP provides information on the environmental setting, inventory of facilities, organizational structure, issues, constraints, management objectives, and effects for Campgrounds and Day-Use Areas in both the Adirondack and Catskill Parks. [Read more…] about Public Comments Sought On Boat Decontamination Facilities

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, APA, boating, Catskills, DEC, Fisheries, fishing, Forest Preserve, Invasive Species, water quality

Man Charged With Building Camp in Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area

February 23, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Illegal camp in Johnsburg portion of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area (DEC photo)According to a press release issued by the New York state Department of Conservation, Forest Ranger Perryman issued tickets to a Saratoga County man on charges of damaging trees, storing personal property, and erecting a structure on State land in the in Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area.

The 114,010-acre Wilderness is one of the larger wilderness areas in the Adirondack Park. It includes a mix of mountains and waters where hiking, camping, fishing and hunting are the most popular activities. [Read more…] about Man Charged With Building Camp in Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, Crime and Justice, Forest Preserve, Forest Ranger Reports, Johnsburg, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, Warren County

Ed Zahniser On Wilderness & New York State

January 9, 2022 by Edward Zahniser 3 Comments

Catskill Creek by Thomas ColeNew York State’s Forest Preserve lands of the Adirondacks and Catskills are living fossils of the broad 19th-century movement to protect wild forests of the federal public lands in the West as forest reserves and not as national forest sources of fiber, forage, and minerals.

New York State’s Forest Preserve lands therefore are living proof that the wilderness preservation movement is not an upstart 20th-century offshoot of the mainstream American conservation movement. [Read more…] about Ed Zahniser On Wilderness & New York State

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, Catskills, Forest Preserve, High Peaks, Howard Zahniser, https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/tags/high-peaks/, John Apperson, nature, Paul Schaefer, Robert Marshall, Theodore Roosevelt, TR, Verplanck Colvin, wilderness

Catskill Park Strategic Planning Group Issues Interim Report

January 7, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Adirondack Park and Catskills ParkThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the release of the Catskill Strategic Planning Advisory Group’s (CAG) Immediate Action Recommendations Report for public review and comment.

The report includes proposed actions that DEC and its State and local partners could undertake, pending available funding and continued partnership, to balance increasing and diverse recreational use of the Catskill Forest Preserve, protecting the park’s natural and historic resources, and ensuring the experience of using the Park is welcoming, accessible, and inclusive. [Read more…] about Catskill Park Strategic Planning Group Issues Interim Report

Filed Under: Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Catskills, DEC, fishing, Forest Preserve, hiking, nature, Overuse

David Gibson: In Adirondack Common Cause

December 27, 2021 by David Gibson 2 Comments

Coalition advocating at the State Capitol for full and fair Forest Preserve taxation, March 12 2018 photo courtesy Jim McKenna, Lake PlacidAdirondack Wild and I have been among those who have heralded the NYS Court of Appeals ruling in May that the only way for the Department of Environmental Conservation to construct snowmobile community connector trails in the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve was through a constitutional amendment.

Protect the Adirondacks lawsuit had taken seven years to reach that court. New York’s high court decision upheld the NYS Constitution’s clause that “the lands of the state…shall be forever kept as wild forest land.” New York State, said the court in so many words, lacked the authority to essentially amend the constitution by administrative fiat. Only the people can do that. We joined Protect in celebrating the most important high court decision affecting the Forest Preserve in 90 years. [Read more…] about David Gibson: In Adirondack Common Cause

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondack Wild, Catskills, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Political History, Protect the Adirondacks

Peter Bauer: DEC’s Revised Approach to Forest Preserve Long Overdue

December 23, 2021 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

Forest Preserve SignThe Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has organized a working group to assist the department in revising and amending a series of policies for New York State Forest Preserve trails stewardship. The DEC organized this working group through the membership of the longstanding Forest Preserve Advisory Committee (FPAC). The working group includes members from trails building organizations, local government, and the environmental community.

The Department stressed that this is a unified management effort for the entire Forest Preserve, and the working group includes members from the Adirondack and Catskill Parks. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: DEC’s Revised Approach to Forest Preserve Long Overdue

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, APA, Article 14, Catskills, DEC, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Forest Preserve Advisory Committee, High Peaks, hiking, Kathy Hochul, Legal History, nature, Overuse, Political History, Protect the Adirondacks, trails

DEC’s Management Fiasco in the High Peaks Wilderness

December 9, 2021 by Peter Bauer 4 Comments

AA-MacIntyre-East-HPWA-Heavy-Machinery A very strange thing happened this fall in the High Peaks Wilderness Area in the Adirondack Park.

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) worked for weeks in 2021 with heavy machinery to rebuild an old logging road in the Dudley Brook area of the MacIntyre East section of the High Peaks Wilderness. This is the same area where the DEC had worked for months in 2019 and 2020 to tear apart old logging roads.

DEC says they’re not rebuilding the road however, they’re correcting a massive mistake that somehow its leaders in Albany had failed to notice for the last two years.

It’s one of the strangest things I’ve seen in Forest Preserve management at the DEC in the last two decades. [Read more…] about DEC’s Management Fiasco in the High Peaks Wilderness

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, DEC, Forest Preserve, High Peaks, hiking, trails

DEC Announces First-Ever Adirondack, Catskill Parks ‘Coordinators’

November 30, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Adirondack Park and Catskills ParkNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the creation of new coordinator positions to help lead efforts to promote sustainable use of public lands in the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves.

Proposed by the High Peaks Strategic Advisory Group (HPAG) and aligned with Catskills Advisory Group (CAG) discussions to date, these new DEC staff positions are expected to help coordinate efforts proposed and undertaken with the multiple communities and regions that comprise the Adirondack and Catskill Parks to better guide efforts to address the unique problems caused by the uptick in visitors to the two Forest Preserves. [Read more…] about DEC Announces First-Ever Adirondack, Catskill Parks ‘Coordinators’

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Council, Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, camping, Catskills, DEC, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, High Peaks, hiking, nature, Overuse

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Our 2022 Fundraising

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Sue on Poetry: Cabin Pantry Discovery
  • Ronald Gary Grove on The Misnamed Columbia County ‘Battle of Egremont’
  • Bob Meyer on Poetry: Cabin Pantry Discovery
  • Raphael Riljk on The Sinking of the S.S. Normandie at NYC’s Pier 88
  • Christian on Orange County Man Ticketed After Killing Rattlesnake
  • ABSS314 on Orange County Man Ticketed After Killing Rattlesnake
  • Evan Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • Evan Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • Eva Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • ARNOLD on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End

Recent New York Books

The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton
vintage babes of broadway book
Mission Begin With Blood
Special Delivery book
killing time in the catskills
the soft city book
occupied america
stewards of the water
off the northway

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide