• 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
  • RSS
  • 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

pollution

Lichens & Air Quality

September 19, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

lichen on a rock (DEC photo)While hiking in the woods, you may have noticed lichen on trees and rocks. Often mistaken as a plant or moss, lichen is a complex symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae.

Lichen receives its nutrients from photosynthesis, relying on the atmosphere to survive. They cannot filter what they absorb because they lack roots and protective surfaces. [Read more…] about Lichens & Air Quality

Filed Under: Nature Tagged With: algae, clean air, Clean Air Act of 1970, lichen, New York City, pollution, trees, Wildlife

Adirondack Road Salt Report Issued: Some Data & Recommendations

September 6, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Snowplows apply road salt on the 1-87 Northway in the Adirondack Park (Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force Final Report)New York State’s Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force, established by the Randy Preston Road Salt Reduction Act in 2020, has been released. The Task Force was charged with conducting a comprehensive review of road salt contamination and roadway, parking lot, driveway, and sidewalk management best practices within the Adirondack Park, and making recommendations for enhancements. [Read more…] about Adirondack Road Salt Report Issued: Some Data & Recommendations

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, clean water, cyanobacteria, DEC, DOH, DOT, fish, Fisheries, fishing, ice, Invasive Species, pollution, Public Health, road salt, snow, Transportation, water quality, winter, zooplankton

Cats & Dogs: The Pawful Effects of Poor Air Quality

August 20, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Cat CarrierAir quality affects our health in a number of ways. From eye irritation to lung disease, it’s important to take precautions to avoid unhealthy air. Air quality affects animals, including our pets, as well. When considering how to protect yourself from poor air quality, it’s important to plan for your pets too. [Read more…] about Cats & Dogs: The Pawful Effects of Poor Air Quality

Filed Under: Nature Tagged With: Air Quality Index, cats, clean air, dogs, pets, pollution

Beach Closures: Cyanobacteria and Phosphorus in New York’s Lakes

August 15, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Cyanobacteria bloom (HABs or toxic algae) in New York StateCyanobacteria blooms have closed beaches regularly this summer across New York State. While it may feel like a nuisance to not be able to cool off at your local beach, these blooms force swimming areas to close because they can be dangerous. To protect yourself, your loved ones, and pets, it is important that you understand how to recognize them and what you should do if a bloom is present at a beach you visit. [Read more…] about Beach Closures: Cyanobacteria and Phosphorus in New York’s Lakes

Filed Under: Nature, Recreation Tagged With: algae, cyanobacteria, dogs, fishing, floods, gardening, HABs, Lake Champlain, paddling, pets, pollution, Public Health, swimming, water quality, Wildlife

AdkAction Receives $123k for Regional Road Salt Reduction Program

August 7, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Washington County Brine Workshop, 2023 (courtesy AdkAction) Road saltAdkAction’s Clean Water, Safe Roads Network for road salt reduction is expanding, and a related public outreach campaign will be launched this fall, thanks to $123,000 in recently awarded funding. [Read more…] about AdkAction Receives $123k for Regional Road Salt Reduction Program

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, AdkAction, Grants, pollution, road salt, Transportation, water quality

Lead Research Hopes to Improve Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle Conservation Efforts

July 29, 2023 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

Golden Eagle (photo by Wikimedia user Rizkuwait)New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is seeking hunters to participate in a multi-year study of non-lead ammunition impacts on the State’s eagle conservation efforts. DEC is partnering with the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University, U.S. Geological Survey, and Conservation Science Global on the study to determine the reduction in bald eagle and golden eagle deaths that can be achieved from increased use of non-lead ammunition for deer hunting. [Read more…] about Lead Research Hopes to Improve Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle Conservation Efforts

Filed Under: Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Bald Eagles, birding, birds, DEC, Golden Eagles, hunting, pollution, raptors, Science, Wildlife

Wake of the Flood: A Lake Champlain Report

July 28, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Flooding on Montpelier, VT’s State Street on July 12, 2023 (courtesy Lake Champlain Committee)It has been two weeks since flooding devastated many communities in the Lake Champlain watershed and throughout the states of New York and Vermont. The heavy rains lasted for days and sent rivers and streams over their banks, pouring into homes and businesses and carrying a swill of debris, nutrients, sediment, untreated wastewater, chemicals, and more into Lake Champlain.

If you live in an area not directly affected it may be hard to understand the monumental impact. [Read more…] about Wake of the Flood: A Lake Champlain Report

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: boating, Climate Change, Clinton County, Essex County, fishing, floods, Invasive Species, Lake Champlain, Lake Champlain Committee, paddling, pollution, swimming, Vermont, water quality

NYS Road Salt Plan Still Stalled While DOT Plans Another Season of Polluting Adirondack Waters

July 17, 2023 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

Salt Plow Truck courtesy Adirondack CouncilRoad salt pollution in Adirondacks lakes has been well documented over the last three decades and spotlighted for political action over the last decade. Contamination of residential and small business drinking water wells in lands downslope of heavily salted roads have also been documented, and in some communities is on the rise. [Read more…] about NYS Road Salt Plan Still Stalled While DOT Plans Another Season of Polluting Adirondack Waters

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Blue Mountain Lake, DEC, DOT, Essex County, Franklin County, Hague, Hamilton County, Herkimer COunty, Kathy Hochul, Lake George, Lake Placid, Mirror Lake, North Elba, pollution, road salt, Route 28, Route 30, Transportation, Warren County, water quality, winter

Smokey Skies and High AQIs

July 9, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Hazy skies reduced visibility in Albany, NY. This photo was taken on June 7, 2023, in downtown Albany.Earlier this month, plumes of smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires blew into the Northeast and along the eastern seaboard. The result was hazy, orange skies, the smell of smoke, and poor Air Quality Index levels. NYS issued several Air Quality Health Advisories in June 2023 due to the smoke. [Read more…] about Smokey Skies and High AQIs

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Air Quality Index, Climate Change, pollution, Public Health, wildfires

A Short History of Spitting: TB, Influenza, Covid and Public Policy in New York City

June 5, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

British poster campaign against spitting in publicOn his tour of America Charles Dickens was disgusted by the “odious practices of chewing and expectorating” tobacco, a “filthy custom” that he had observed in both streets and public buildings. From courts of law to hospitals, spittoons could be seen where men were permitted to “spit incessantly” (American Notes, chapter VIII). [Read more…] about A Short History of Spitting: TB, Influenza, Covid and Public Policy in New York City

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: covid, Environmental History, Influenza, Manhattan, Medical History, New York City, Political History, pollution, Public Health, Science History, Tompkins County, Trumansburg, Urban History, Vice

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

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

Subscribe to New York Almanack

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

Recent Comments

  • Edna Teperman Rosen on The 1962 Catskills High View House Fire
  • Lorraine Duvall on Avoiding A Repeat of 2020 Election Attacks
  • Robert C Conner on Anna Elizabeth Dickinson: ‘America’s Civil War Joan of Arc’
  • Olivia Twine on New Backstretch Housing Planned For Saratoga, Belmont
  • Charles Yaple on Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West at the New York Historical Society
  • Edythe Ann Quinn on Avoiding A Repeat of 2020 Election Attacks
  • Miroslav Kačmarský on The Burden Iron Works of Troy: A Short History
  • Bob Meyer on Avoiding A Repeat of 2020 Election Attacks
  • Pat Boomhower on Avoiding A Repeat of 2020 Election Attacks
  • Editorial Staff on Indigenous Peoples of the Adirondacks

Recent New York Books

James Wilson: The Anxious Founder
Flatiron Legacy National Football League History NFL
Henry David Thoreau Thinking Disobediently
Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States, 1789–1828
The Confidante - The Untold Story of the Anna Rosenberg Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America
Expelling the Poor by Hidetaka Hirota
African Americans of St Lawrence County by Bryan S Thompson
America's First Plague - 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic Robert P Watson
Witness to the Revolution
My View of the Mountains

Secondary Sidebar