The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) are holding joint public comment periods to solicit comments for the Rollins Pond and Golden Beach Campground and Day Use Area Unit Management Plans (UMPs). The public is invited to submit input on the draft plans, which will guide future management of the facilities over the next five years and their conformance to the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. Comments will be accepted until September 18, 2023. [Read more…] about Rollins Pond, Golden Beach Campground Comments Sought
Raquette Lake
Rangers Make Rescues in Indian Lake, Long Lake, Newcomb, Cortland County, Kaaterskill Creek
New 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 Rangers Make Rescues in Indian Lake, Long Lake, Newcomb, Cortland County, Kaaterskill Creek
Child Hit by Boat Propeller on Adirondack Lake
On Thursday, July 6 at about 3 pm, New York State Police and Forest Rangers responded to a report of a child with a significant leg injury after being hit by a boat propeller on Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Child Hit by Boat Propeller on Adirondack Lake
New Partnership Aims to Protect Raquette Headwaters
The Headwaters Campaign is an effort to address the unique challenges faced by lake associations in the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River, which includes the Raquette River watershed, as they strive to stop the spread of invasive species and meet other critical stewardship needs. [Read more…] about New Partnership Aims to Protect Raquette Headwaters
A Nordic Ski Adventure in Raquette Lake
With the return of winter and a decent snowpack in the Adirondack backcountry, this is the perfect time to explore a new trail or area that you have never experienced before.
For this outing I chose the Powerhouse and Cascades Trails in the Historic Great Camps Special Management Area, which is part of the Blue Ridge Wilderness located in Raquette Lake, in Hamilton County, NY. [Read more…] about A Nordic Ski Adventure in Raquette Lake
Bodies Recovered After Fall Into Niagara Falls Gorge, Snowmobile Accident
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers recovered two bodies in separate incidents in Upstate New York on Monday, February 13th. In the first, a woman’s body was recovered from Niagara Falls Gorge.
Several hours later Rangers recovered the body of a snowmobilier killed when his sled hit a tree in the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Bodies Recovered After Fall Into Niagara Falls Gorge, Snowmobile Accident
Recreation Highlight: Camp Sagamore Trail System
Within the 47,000-acre Blue Ridge Wilderness lies the Camp Sagamore Trail System. Located near and around the grounds of Great Camp Sagamore, a registered National Historic Landmark and one of few Adirondack Great Camps still in existence today, this trail system provides an immersive nature experience. [Read more…] about Recreation Highlight: Camp Sagamore Trail System
Along The Mohawk & Malone: Forest Fires & Logging South of Big Moose (1900-1920)
Born in England, John Gerald Fitzgerald (1850-1925) attended seminary in Troy, NY, accepting his first assignment as a priest in the Diocese of Ogdensburg. Following pastorates in upstate New York, Father Fitz – as he was affectionately called – was given the daunting challenge of establishing a parish in Old Forge, in the Adirondacks.
In 1896, Northern Herkimer County was a heavily forested region dotted by tiny hamlets, scattered lumber camps, and remote railroad stations along the Mohawk & Malone Railroad. For the next twenty-nine years, he got off the Mohawk & Malone at stations like McKeever, Carter, Big Moose, Beaver River, Brandreth, Keepewa, Nehasane, and Horseshoe Lake, carrying his bible and sacraments from these stops to remote lumber camps on snowshoes, wearing his trademark coonskin cap and woolen mittens. His parish stretched over a 200 square-mile area. [Read more…] about Along The Mohawk & Malone: Forest Fires & Logging South of Big Moose (1900-1920)
Gibson: DEC & APA Should Reform Managing Adirondack Lakes and Ponds
At Adirondack Wild’s October meeting at the Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center, lakes and ponds came under the spotlight in a panel discussion about Cooperative Stewardship of Adirondack Lakes. Of particular interest was a given lake’s classification and subsequent comprehensive study, planning and management.
If Adirondack waterbodies are considered part of the Forest Preserve, and for the last fifty years the State Land Master Plan talks about land and water, then the law requires that lakes and ponds be classified, just as forests are. That raises important questions. [Read more…] about Gibson: DEC & APA Should Reform Managing Adirondack Lakes and Ponds
Through The Fulton Chain of Lakes in 1877
The adventure began with an exchange of letters in the spring of 1877 between a sportsman in Syracuse, NY, and Byron P. Graves of Boonville, a town on the western border of the Adirondacks. The purpose of this correspondence was to hire a guide and transportation for a two-week hunting and fishing trip into the Fulton Chain of Lakes for the man and his 11-year-old son Ned.
The sportsman was Ansel Judd Northrup, a 43-year-old attorney who would later write the book, Camps and Tramps in the Adirondacks (1882), where this story was first told. The final communication from Northrup, in the form of a telegraph, simply read, “Engage Brinckerhoff, will reach Boonville, morning train, July 5th.” [Read more…] about Through The Fulton Chain of Lakes in 1877