New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

High Peaks

A Constitutional Amendment Proposed for Mt. Van Hoevenberg

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Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports ComplexAn Article 14 Constitutional Amendment is being proposed for the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex in the Adirondack Park 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. These facilities have seen massive upgrades and state spending in preparation for hosting the World University Games in 2023. [Read more…] about A Constitutional Amendment Proposed for Mt. Van Hoevenberg

DOT Replacing Route 73 Barriers In Adirondack High Peaks

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nysdot logoNew York State Department of Transportation has announced that work is underway on a $8.3 million project to replace concrete barriers and portions of guide-rail along three segments of State Route 73 in the towns of Keene and North Elba, Essex County.

The project includes a stretch of Route 73 along Upper and Lower Cascade Lakes through the Adirondack High Peaks that is part of the annual Lake Placid Ironman course. Work will be completed by late fall, ahead of the Lake Placid 2023 International University Sports Federation World University Games coming this January. [Read more…] about DOT Replacing Route 73 Barriers In Adirondack High Peaks

Muddy Trail Advisory Issued for Adirondacks

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mud season trail work courtesy DECThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has urged hikers to postpone hikes on Adirondack trails above 2,500 feet until high elevation trails have dried and hardened.

DEC advises hikers on how to reduce negative impacts on all trails and help protect the natural resources throughout the Adirondacks during this time. [Read more…] about Muddy Trail Advisory Issued for Adirondacks

ADK Conservation News: 5 Things You Need to Know

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Adirondack Lean-toOpening Up the Adirondacks

The Adirondack Council’s Aaron Mair and Assemblywoman Michaelle Solage were recently on the Capitol Pressroom radio show out of Albany. Mair and Solage made the case for the state budget to include funding to create the Timbuctoo Summer Climate and Jobs Institute, which would provide job and environmental training to high school students who may not otherwise get much exposure to the Adirondacks. The effort would involve Medgar Evers College in New York City and the SUNY School of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. [Read more…] about ADK Conservation News: 5 Things You Need to Know

DEC Should Conduct A Nationwide Search For A New State Forester

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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

Avalanche Risk Increased in the Adirondacks

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Avalanche anatomy illustration courtesy T3 AdventuresBackcountry downhill skiers, snowboarders, and all outdoor adventurers who may traverse slides or steep, open terrain in the Adirondacks should be aware of and prepared for avalanche conditions, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has advised today. [Read more…] about Avalanche Risk Increased in the Adirondacks

Ed Zahniser On Wilderness & New York State

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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

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

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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

Unprepared Hiker Rescued In Adirondack High Peaks

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forest ranger logoNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people.

What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about Unprepared Hiker Rescued In Adirondack High Peaks

DEC’s Management Fiasco in the High Peaks Wilderness

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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