DEC staff, in partnership with researchers from SUNY ESF, are conducting a study to better understand fisher population dynamics and survival across the agency’s Northern Zone in Northern New York. [Read more…] about Update on Northern New York Fisher Population Study
SUNY ESF
ESF’s ADK Hiking Trails Offer Uncrowded Outings
The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) manages more than six miles of public hiking trails in the town of Newcomb, where it operates the 15,000-acre Newcomb Campus field station. [Read more…] about ESF’s ADK Hiking Trails Offer Uncrowded Outings
How Beavers Modify Forests: New Understandings
Aside from humans, perhaps no other species can modify its surroundings for its own purposes as much as beaver.
Throughout much of North America, these busy critters take down trees and dam streams to create waterways safe from predators and to lay up enough woody food stores to last the winter.
This exuberant activity is why beavers are known as “ecosystem engineers,” or species that profoundly change their environment in out-sized proportion to their numbers. [Read more…] about How Beavers Modify Forests: New Understandings
Volunteers Sought Central NY Water Quality Research
DEC’s Division of Water has asked people who recreate on or near waterways in Central New York to participate in the Citizen Recreational Evaluation of Environmental Quality (CREEQ) citizen-science initiative.
The CREEQ initiative is a research project by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry sponsored by DEC. [Read more…] about Volunteers Sought Central NY Water Quality Research
Study: Climate Change A Threat Adk Boreal Peatlands
A study published this week in the journal Wetlands documents an invasion happening in the Adirondacks: the black spruce, tamarack, and other boreal species are being overcome by trees normally found in warmer, more temperate forests.
Ultimately, researchers from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) predict that these invaders could overtake a variety of northern species, eliminating trees that have long been characteristic of boreal wetlands in the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Study: Climate Change A Threat Adk Boreal Peatlands
First Woman Named To Lead Ranger School
The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) has named Dr. Mariann Garrison-Johnston director of its Ranger School.
She is the first woman to lead the Ranger School, which is located in the Adirondack Park at Wanakena, on the shore of Cranberry Lake in the town of Fine, St. Lawrence County. [Read more…] about First Woman Named To Lead Ranger School
Philosophers’ Camp Planned at Huntington Lodge, Adirondacks
In 1858, 10 scholars left New England society for a sojourn in the Adirondacks. Seeking to immerse themselves in the natural environment, they hunted, rowed, fished and camped. [Read more…] about Philosophers’ Camp Planned at Huntington Lodge, Adirondacks
Adirondack Philosophers’ Camp Features Beowulf, Grendel By Canoe
The Philosophers’ Camp, an annual collaboration between SUNY-ESF’s Northern Forest Institute and St. John’s College Santa Fe, reimagines the original Adirondack excursion as a weekend retreat in elegant Great Camp style at the historic Masten House, will be held September 29 to October 1, 2017.
The 1858 expedition immortalized in William James Stillman’s painting provides historical grounding for this contemporary revision and an opportunity this year for conversations related to the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, John Gardner’s 1971 novel Grendel and The Old Testament book of Ruth. [Read more…] about Adirondack Philosophers’ Camp Features Beowulf, Grendel By Canoe
Campuses Celebrate NYS Wilderness Act Connection
Through the efforts of a statewide grassroots committee, public and private colleges and universities throughout upstate New York have been spending this fall commemorating the Empire State’s role in inspiring federal wilderness preservation.
These activities are occurring in celebration of the anniversary of the signing by President Lyndon Johnson of the National Wilderness Preservation System Act of 1964, legislation that created the legal definition of “wilderness” in the United States and now makes provisions for wilderness management on more than 109 million acres of federal land. [Read more…] about Campuses Celebrate NYS Wilderness Act Connection
Call For Papers: Adirondack Land Use Symposium
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Northern Forest Institute is inviting submissions for its third annual symposium of interdisciplinary scholarship in land use and ethics to be held in Newcomb June 6 – 8, 2014.
Submissions from a range of disciplines and professional fields are encouraged. Topics include a variety of approaches to land use, the moral implications of these approaches, and their impacts on social and environmental justice. See the 2013 program on their website. Submission deadline is December 16, 2013. More information can be found on their website.