New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Protect the Adirondacks

Peter Bauer: It’s Time To Pass A Constitutional Amendment For Mount Van Hoevenberg

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Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports ComplexProtect the Adirondacks supports a proposed Article 14 Constitutional Amendment for the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex 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. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: It’s Time To Pass A Constitutional Amendment For Mount Van Hoevenberg

David Gibson: In Adirondack Common Cause

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Coalition advocating at the State Capitol for full and fair Forest Preserve taxation, March 12 2018 photo courtesy Jim McKenna, Lake PlacidAdirondack Wild and I have been among those who have heralded the NYS Court of Appeals ruling in May that the only way for the Department of Environmental Conservation to construct snowmobile community connector trails in the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve was through a constitutional amendment.

Protect the Adirondacks lawsuit had taken seven years to reach that court. New York’s high court decision upheld the NYS Constitution’s clause that “the lands of the state…shall be forever kept as wild forest land.” New York State, said the court in so many words, lacked the authority to essentially amend the constitution by administrative fiat. Only the people can do that. We joined Protect in celebrating the most important high court decision affecting the Forest Preserve in 90 years. [Read more…] about David Gibson: In Adirondack Common Cause

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

Volunteers Sought for Adirondack Lake Monitoring Program

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volunteers with the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program collecting data as part of the regional water quality monitoring program courtesy AWIThe Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) has been awarded a grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program to expand the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program (ALAP).

ALAP is the largest community-science lake monitoring program in the Adirondack region, run in partnership between AWI and Protect the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Volunteers Sought for Adirondack Lake Monitoring Program

DEC Should Embrace Gov. Hochul’s Calls For Transparency

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Lieutenant Governor Hochul Signs Memorandum of Understanding with China’s Ministry of Commerce to Promote Trade and Economic DevelopmentLast week, we saw news that Governor Kathy Hochul instructed state agencies to develop and submit plans for greater transparency. This is good news and welcome news. I’ve watched over the decades as state agencies have restricted more and more of what was once basic and easily accessible public information. [Read more…] about DEC Should Embrace Gov. Hochul’s Calls For Transparency

Majority of NYS School Districts See Enrollment Declines 2010-2020

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School-Distric-pop-changes-2010-2020It’s back to school time in New York State. One of the things that always happens at this time is reports about school district enrollments year-over-year in a particular area. These stories are useful and interesting, but they usually lack context.

With the beginning of the release of 2020 US Census data in August, Protect the Adirondacks is starting an update of its study The Adirondack Park and Rural America: Economic and Population Trends 1970-2010. The 2020 US Census will enable us to look at a 50-year trend line. [Read more…] about Majority of NYS School Districts See Enrollment Declines 2010-2020

Suggestions In Wake of Historic Adirondack Legal Decision

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Class II Community Connector Snowmobile Trail courtesy ProtectThe May 4th, 2021, decision by the New York Court of Appeals ruled that Class II Community Connector Snowmobile Trails violated Article 14, Section 1, of the New York Constitution.

This ruling capped an eight-year legal challenge by Protect the Adirondacks against the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Adirondack Park Agency (APA). In the end, eight of the twelve judges who looked at the evidence found that Class II trails were unconstitutional. [Read more…] about Suggestions In Wake of Historic Adirondack Legal Decision

John Caffry, Claudia Braymer Being Honored With Adirondack Award

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John Caffry and Claudia BraymerProtect the Adirondacks has announced that the Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award for 2021 will be awarded to attorneys John Caffry and Claudia Braymer. The Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award is being presented in honor of John Caffry’s and Claudia Braymer’s efforts over eight years to lead the successful lawsuit Protect the Adirondacks v. Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Park Agency, decided by the New York Court of Appeals on May 4th, 2021. [Read more…] about John Caffry, Claudia Braymer Being Honored With Adirondack Award

Plans To Dam The Upper Hudson Would Have Been Catastrophic

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Gooley-Kettle19-511x800On almost every stream, pond or lake in the Adirondacks there is still evidence of lumberman’s dams and lumbering operations.  In the mid-to-late 1960s however, there was a controversial plan to dam the Upper Hudson River in order to supply water and hydro-electric power to the parched, urban, metropolitan area of New York City.

In the early 1960s there had been a severe drought along the entire northeastern seaboard. One of New York City’s answers to the drought problem was to tap the Upper Hudson to supply its seemingly unquenchable need for water. [Read more…] about Plans To Dam The Upper Hudson Would Have Been Catastrophic

36k Acres in the Adirondack Park Faces Development; Advocates Seek Legal Protection

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Salmon Lake stands in the foreground, part of the Whitney tract, with Rock Lake and Little Tupper Lake in the backgroundWhen John Hendrickson, the widow of recently deceased Saratoga civic and philanthropic leader Marylou Whitney, announced last July that the 36,000-acre Whitney Park lands were for sale an alarm was raised by advocates for wild lands concerned the sale would subdivide one of the largest privately held contiguous properties in the Adirondack Park.

Last week, Hendrickson said he will apply to the Adirondack Park Agency to do just that – fragment the tract into eleven estate lots for the uber-wealthy. [Read more…] about 36k Acres in the Adirondack Park Faces Development; Advocates Seek Legal Protection