The National Wildlife Refuge System began on March 14, 1904, when President Theodore Roosevelt established the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Since then the system has expanded to include more than 570 different refuges. There are 13 National Wildlife Refuges in New York State: two in Western New York, two in the Lower Hudson Valley/Catskills region, and nine on Long Island. [Read more…] about National Wildlife Refuges in New York State: A Guide
Shawangunk Grasslands
Wintergreen Oil: Local Employer to Bootlegger’s Subterfuge
On a wintry walk in the woods, the glossy evergreen leaves and bright red berries of American Wintergreen make a pretty sight against fallen snow. Plentiful in the northern U.S. and Canada, the low-growing Gaultheria procumbens is known for the pungent aroma and mint-like taste of leaf and berry — pleasing but hard to define.
Native Americans used the leaves to treat pain and fever, and introduced colonists to the custom of drinking wintergreen tea. This “teaberry” carried them through the Revolutionary War, when British tea was scarce. [Read more…] about Wintergreen Oil: Local Employer to Bootlegger’s Subterfuge
ADK Conservation News: 5 Things You Need to Know
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
Prescribed Burn At Shawangunk Grasslands
On March 15th, NYS State Department of Conservation Forest Rangers in Region 3 assisted the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) with a prescribed burn at the Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge.
The Refuge is located in Ulster County, NY, at the site of the former Galeville Military Airport. The airport was decommissioned in 1994 and turned over to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1999.