New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Grass River

Key Tract Connecting Adirondacks to Canada’s Algonquin Park Protected

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Grasse River by Brendan WiltseNortheast Wilderness Trust, a regional land trust based in Montpelier, Vermont, purchased 1,400 acres in Russell, St. Lawrence County, NY to establish the Grasse River Wilderness Preserve.

The purchase is the most recent conservation success within the Algonquin-to-Adirondack (A2A) wildlife corridor, and New York’s newest forever-wild Adirondack Forest Preserve. The land will be open to the public for on-foot, backcountry exploration. [Read more…] about Key Tract Connecting Adirondacks to Canada’s Algonquin Park Protected

Reading Bug Tracks on Tea Leaves

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tea plant courtesy Wikimedia user James SteakleyFrom palm-reading to watching Fox News, humans throughout the ages have sought knowledge through some decidedly irrational means. But every now and then, superstition pays off.

For example, studying the pattern of coffee grounds in the bottom of one’s cup, a practice known as tasseomancy, will nearly always reveal that someone forgot to put a filter in the coffeemaker basket. And haruspicy, the study of the fresh entrails of a gutted animal, is consistently right in concluding the animal is dead. [Read more…] about Reading Bug Tracks on Tea Leaves

Update On Grasse River Superfund Site Restoration

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freshwater mussels courtesy DECThe Alcoa Massena-West Plant is an aluminum production plant on the north shore of the lower Grasse River. In the 1950s, Alcoa began using and discharging polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Grasse River, contaminating water and sediment. [Read more…] about Update On Grasse River Superfund Site Restoration

Isaac Johnson: A Soldier, Quarryman, Master Mason

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Isaac Johnson as a Young ManThe Clinton County Historical Association will host the lecture “Isaac Johnson: Slave, Soldier, Quarryman, Master Mason, Contractor” by Cornel “Corky” Reinhart, on Tuesday, July 13th, in Plattsburgh. [Read more…] about Isaac Johnson: A Soldier, Quarryman, Master Mason