History, Natural History & the Arts
The Appellate Division, Third Department has issued a unanimous ruling annulling a permit issued by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) for a large-scale expansion of a commercial marina on Lower Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Park.
The decision in Thomas Jorling vs Adirondack Park Agency, et. al. reverses a lower court decision issued by State Supreme Court. [Read more…] about Court Strikes Down Lower Saranac Lake Marina Permit Issued by APA
The answer appears to be not so much. School district enrollment trends in New York State have been consistent for the last few decades, and an assessment of enrollment numbers over the last five years doesn’t show a big or lasting change to these trends.
Here’s an analysis: [Read more…] about Did Covid Reshape Adirondack and NYS School Enrollments?
Protect the Adirondacks has announced that Claudia Braymer, an environmental attorney and local government official from Glens Falls, New York, has joined the organization as its new Deputy Director. Braymer is an attorney who has worked on environmental cases across New York State and was co-counsel on Protect the Adirondacks’ successful lawsuit that upheld and defended the Forever Wild clause in the State Constitution in 2021. She also serves as a Supervisor, elected from the City of Glens Falls, on the Warren County Board of Supervisors. [Read more…] about Protect the Adirondacks Names Claudia Braymer Deputy Director
It’s been nearly two years since the New York Court of Appeals, the State’s highest court, ruled that extra-wide Class II Community Connector Snowmobile Trails designed, approved, and constructed by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) violate Article 14, Section 1, of the New York State Constitution, the famed the “Forever Wild” clause.
The high court’s decision followed a decision in 2019 by the Appellate Division, Third Department, that Class II trails violate Article 14. The Court of Appeals decision came out in May 2021 and we’re now into our second winter where the DEC and APA continue to operate unconstitutional Class II trails as if the courts have not ruled against them. Protect the Adirondacks is now back in court in an effort to get the state to comply with the appellate court decisions. [Read more…] about DEC & APA Defy The Courts And Keep Unconstitutional Trails Open
A coalition of 10 conservation and educational organizations has sent a letter to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul urging her upcoming State of the State message and Executive Budget proposal to advance investments and strengthened policies to improve the protection and management of the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about 10 Organizations Unite to Call for Adirondack Investments
In the Adirondacks, I thought we had moved beyond weak economic and social analysis that blames the Adirondack Park for all of the problems and challenges facing Adirondack communities.
I thought that many in the Adirondacks had looked at long-term national rural population and economic trends and learned that the issues facing Adirondack communities are the same issues facing Rural America – and that the first decades of the 21st Century in the U.S. have proved extremely difficult and challenging times for Rural America. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: Lame, Tired, And Wrong Blame-The-Adirondack Park Editorializing Persists
Protect the Adirondacks (PROTECT) has called upon the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) to include, as part of its permit application review, an evaluation of the direct and upstream greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the large-scale subdivision and resort complex proposed by Eric Stackman in the Town of Jay, Essex County.
This project is currently under review and does not have a complete application. The APA has issued two Notices of Incomplete Application to the developer. [Read more…] about Advocates: Adirondack Park Agency Should Comply With State Climate Goals
2022 may end up as the year some of the most important reforms in New York State Forest Preserve management were started, both in practice and in theory.
Forest Preserve management reform has been a long time coming as the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which is responsible for the care and custody of the Forest Preserve, has struggled for years with how to improve its overall management program.
Small changes have been attempted at various points, but no major reforms have been successfully brought to the DEC’s Forest Preserve management. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: Important NYS Forest Preserve Management Reforms
The plot continues to thicken around the killing of an 85-pound wolf near Cooperstown in December of 2021 and the response by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Under state and federal law, a wolf that wanders into New York State is protected under the Endangered Species Act. The wolf shot near Cooperstown by a coyote hunter clearly enjoyed no such protections. [Read more…] about 38 Groups Call On DEC To Protect Wolves in New York State
Recent pieces in the Adirondack Explorer (see here and here) have attempted to assess the implications of the decision by New York State’s highest court in Protect the Adirondacks v Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Park Agency.
The Court of Appeals found that these state agencies violated the state constitution in their efforts to build a network of new extra-wide snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Forest Preserve. These commenters have derided the decision because they say it’s focused on tree cutting, which they argue is a poor standard to evaluate the constitutionality of management actions by state agencies under Article 14, Section 1, the Forever Wild Clause. [Read more…] about Forest Preserve Decision Has Far-Reaching Implications Beyond Tree Cutting