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Forestry

The Time to Prune Trees is Now

January 23, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Group of white pine trees courtesy US Fish and Wildlife ServiceCare and maintenance of trees ensures their health life and minimizes liability. Trees can be damaged by high winds, snow, ice, and other severe weather events. Some damage requires immediate attention, while other damage may be dealt with later. [Read more…] about The Time to Prune Trees is Now

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Forestry, gardening, Landscape Architecture, nature, trees

Super Wood: Coming To Space Near You

January 17, 2021 by Paul Hetzler Leave a Comment

University of Maryland super woodAs a card-carrying, registered tree hugger, I have long touted the benefits of trees such as carbon storage, energy savings and improved mental health. And beyond the familiar tree-related blessings such as maple syrup, lumber and firewood, I’ve written about some obscure things like birch-based candy that fights tooth decay, and health-promoting chaga tea derived from a birch fungus. Then there’s basswood bark for fiber, elm bark for baskets, and pine bark for lunch.

That stuff is all pretty straightforward. More highly processed wood products, though, are a mystery to me. [Read more…] about Super Wood: Coming To Space Near You

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: astronomy, Forestry, nature, trees, Wildlife, wood products

Elliot Roosevelt’s Christmas Tree Sales At Val-Kill

December 24, 2020 by A. J. Schenkman Leave a Comment

Elliott Roosevelt and 3 Year Old in NYC 12-11-1948“Last week I acquired from my husband’s estate about two-thirds of the land which he owned here in Hyde Park. My son Elliott and I have gone into partnership and we are going to farm the land on a commercial basis,” Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her “My Day” column on August 19, 1947.

This would be the beginning of a joint venture with her third child Elliott to turn a profit from the estate lands of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. [Read more…] about Elliot Roosevelt’s Christmas Tree Sales At Val-Kill

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Agricultural History, Christmas, Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt NHS, FDR, Forestry, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Holidays, Val-Kill, winter

$1.4 Million in Urban Forestry Grants Awarded Statewide

December 23, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

DEC LogoNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced grant awards totaling $1.4 million for urban forestry projects across the state to help communities inventory, plant, and maintain public trees.

The grants are part of DEC’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, which works to increase public awareness of the importance of trees and helps communities develop and implement tree management plans. [Read more…] about $1.4 Million in Urban Forestry Grants Awarded Statewide

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: DEC, Forestry, Grants, nature, Wildlife

John Davenport Clarke: Farmer, Forester, and Congressman

December 11, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

KaatscastIn the latest episode of Kaatscast, a podcast delivering interviews, arts, culture, and history from the Catskills , Delaware County Historian Bill Birns talks about the legacy of “Hobart’s greatest” (albeit largely forgotten) son, John Davenport Clarke.

Clarke was born in Hobart. He graduated Lafayette College in 1898 and Brooklyn Law School in 1911. He was assistant to the secretary of mines of the U. S. Steel from 1901 until 1907. In 1920, he was elected to Congress as a Republican. He was again elected to Congress in 1926 and served until his death in a car crash near Delhi, NY inn 1933. [Read more…] about John Davenport Clarke: Farmer, Forester, and Congressman

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Recreation Tagged With: Agricultural History, Delaware County, Forestry, Podcasts, Political History

Our Native Tamarack in November

November 4, 2020 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

tamarackTamarack is a tree with a number of aliases – hackmatack, eastern larch, or if you’re from Northern Maine and feeling contrary, juniper. Whatever you call it, this scraggly tree, easy to overlook for most of the year, lights up the November forest. Weeks after leaf season has passed us by, the tamarack turns brilliant yellow and then orange, blazing like a torch amid the evergreens and fading, broad-leaf browns. [Read more…] about Our Native Tamarack in November

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Forestry, nature, trees, Wildlife

An Unnatural History of the Raquette River

August 27, 2020 by Mike Prescott 2 Comments

Seneca-Ray-Stoddard-photo-“the-Cut”-with-Simond-Pond-and-Mt.-Morris-1888-540x409 The Raquette River flows from its source at Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks, to the St. Lawrence River at Akewesasne.

East of Tupper Lake and just north of Simon Pond is a place called “The Cut.”

“The Cut” was channel dug to “straighten the river” so that logs could be floated (driven) straight into Simon Pond, thus avoiding a shallow and meandering section of the Raquette River known as Moody’s Flow. [Read more…] about An Unnatural History of the Raquette River

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Environmental History, Forestry, Logging, paddling, Political History, Raquette River, Tupper Lake

Invasive Emerald Ash Borer Found in Adirondack Park

August 9, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced that emerald ash borer (EAB) has been confirmed in Warren County.

While not unexpected given the EAB’s spread, this marks the first confirmed case of EAB within the Adirondack Park. The affected trees were identified by Department of Transportation personnel at the Warren County Canoe Launch on the Schroon River in the town of Chester. A sample has been sent to Cornell University Insect Diagnostic Lab for further review. [Read more…] about Invasive Emerald Ash Borer Found in Adirondack Park

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Nature Tagged With: emerald ash borer, Forestry, Invasive Species, nature, Schroon River, trees, Warren County, Wildlife

Northern Tree Migrations: Nature on the Move

August 6, 2020 by Paul Hetzler Leave a Comment

Sugar Maple courtesy Wikimedia user Bruce MarlinTo a highly mobile species like humans, the fact that other animals relocate their families – or entire populations – isn’t a big surprise. We know historical migrations have been the norm, though the fossil record shows that generally these changes happened at a snail’s pace.

The “Great American Interchange” in which northern animals spread southward and South American critters expanded north during the Pliocene Epoch, took a million years. Give or take a few, I assume. [Read more…] about Northern Tree Migrations: Nature on the Move

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Climate Change, Environmental History, Forestry, Maple Sugaring, Maple Trees, nature, trees, Wildlife

The Northeastern Pine Sawyer Beetle

July 11, 2020 by Tom Kalinowski Leave a Comment

Northeastern Pine Sawyer Beetle courtesy University of Wisconsin-La CrosseFrom the afternoon into the early evening in mid to late summer, a silence often develops as the heat of the day peaks and then starts to cool; as birds cease to sing and amphibians lose their urge to call.

In the stillness between periods when leaves rustle from light summer breezes, the sound of a grinding or twisting-scraping can be heard coming from a fallen softwood log or a dead standing evergreen. [Read more…] about The Northeastern Pine Sawyer Beetle

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Forestry, insects, nature, Wildlife

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