New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

trails

New Accessible Trail Open at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center

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The Fisher Trail at DEC’s Five Rivers Environmental Education Center in Bethlehem, Albany CountyNew York State Department of Conservation (DEC) has announced the completion of the Fisher Trail at DEC’s Five Rivers Environmental Education Center in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County.

Most of the trail’s 0.66-mile length is constructed in compliance with DEC accessibility guidelines for people with mobility disabilities and expands access to outdoor recreation opportunities on DEC lands. The trail was officially opened to the public during a ribbon cutting at Five Rivers with the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, Friends of Five Rivers, members of the DEC Accessibility Advisory Committee, and other partners. [Read more…] about New Accessible Trail Open at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center

Comments Sought on Herkimer County’s Three Lakes Easement

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Map of Three Lakes Tract Conservation Easement courtesy DECThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is seeking public comment on a draft recreation management plan (RMP) for the Three Lakes Tract Conservation Easement in the town of Webb, Herkimer County.

The 3,350-acre Three Lakes Tract (TLT) is comprised of commercially managed forestland and is named for three waterbodies located on the property-Hitchcock, Grass, and Moose ponds. The RMP will address public recreational access and facilities consistent with the conservation easement. The public comment period is open until July 1st, 2022. [Read more…] about Comments Sought on Herkimer County’s Three Lakes Easement

Warren County Creates Website to Report Trail Problems

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Warren County TrailA new website developed by Warren County Planning & Community Development allows trail users to report issues they find on Warren County trails and notify the trail owner or maintenance organization.

The Warren County Trail Reporter has been developed in conjunction with organizations that oversee dozens of trails around Warren County. [Read more…] about Warren County Creates Website to Report Trail Problems

New Equestrian Trails Supporter Patch

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The DEC Trail Supporter PatchNYS Depart of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is releasing five recreation themed trail support patch designs throughout 2022, each available for a limited time only, or you can purchase the full set of all five designs at any time, while supplies last.

Just released, the third design features a rider on horseback with a green background. [Read more…] about New Equestrian Trails Supporter Patch

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

DEC’s Management Fiasco in the High Peaks Wilderness

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AA-MacIntyre-East-HPWA-Heavy-Machinery A very strange thing happened this fall in the High Peaks Wilderness Area in the Adirondack Park.

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) worked for weeks in 2021 with heavy machinery to rebuild an old logging road in the Dudley Brook area of the MacIntyre East section of the High Peaks Wilderness. This is the same area where the DEC had worked for months in 2019 and 2020 to tear apart old logging roads.

DEC says they’re not rebuilding the road however, they’re correcting a massive mistake that somehow its leaders in Albany had failed to notice for the last two years.

It’s one of the strangest things I’ve seen in Forest Preserve management at the DEC in the last two decades. [Read more…] about DEC’s Management Fiasco in the High Peaks Wilderness

Volunteers Improve Trails at Morgan Hill State Forest

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Morgan Hill State ForestRecently, volunteers from the bike group CNY D.I.R.T. worked together at Morgan Hill State Forest in southern Onondaga and northern Cortland counties to build an additional 1.3 miles of single-track multiple-use trail. The forest now hosts 10.8 miles of designated multiple-use trail, with another 4+ miles planned in the next few years. [Read more…] about Volunteers Improve Trails at Morgan Hill State Forest

Buffalo Riverline: A Unique Urban Nature Trail Design Unveiled

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Riverline Double BridgeThe Western New York Land Conservancy and its design partners W Architecture, Hood Design Studio, and Green Shield Ecology presented their final concept designs for The Riverline at a press conference at the Tewksbury Lodge Pavilion in Buffalo last week.

The Riverline is the Conservancy’s proposed urban nature trail and greenway that stretches along an unused railroad corridor from Canalside at the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Terminal Terminal in downtown Buffalo to the Buffalo River across from Riverbend and Tesla. [Read more…] about Buffalo Riverline: A Unique Urban Nature Trail Design Unveiled

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