History, Natural History & the Arts
Celestial events are among the oldest and most profound human experiences of the cosmos, inspiring stories as grand as the sky is wide to explain the marvelous spectacles that arch overhead. Few natural wonders are more awesome than the blazing fireballs that streak across our night skies.
And the Perseid meteor shower, which appears during some of the warmest nights of the year, features up to 100 meteors per hour. [Read more…] about The Perseids: Summer’s Big Celestial Show
The Adirondack Rail Trail Association (ARTA) is asking trail users to participate in a visitor survey designed to measure the trail’s economic impact and identify how community members are using the trail.
Starting July 30 and continuing throughout the coming year, ARTA staff and volunteers will conduct surveys at trailheads and other locations along the 34-mile Adirondack Rail Trail. [Read more…] about First Adirondack Rail Trail User Survey Getting Underway
The Open Space Institute (OSI) has acquired the 1,525-acre former Sabattis Scout Reservation in St. Lawrence County, NY. Located within the Adirondack Park, the property includes historic campgrounds, ponds, hiking trails, and several miles of shoreline along Lows Lake.
The lake is a popular paddling destination in the Five Ponds Wilderness Area, about 10 miles from Tupper Lake. [Read more…] about OSI Purchases Sabattis Scout Camp on Lows Lake
Henry Davis Minot was born near Forest Hills (part of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston) in 1859, the sixth of seven children of William and Katharine Maria Sedgwick Minot.
He took an early interest in ornithology (the study of birds), recording careful observations, including, at the age of 11, what he believed to be a new species of bird in 1871 (it turned out not to be the case). [Read more…] about Henry Davis Minot’s Adirondack Warbler & ‘Diary of a Bird’
A new Adirondack Rail Trail App has been launched, a free mobile resource designed to enhance the visitor experience and encourage exploration of the region’s communities, businesses, and attractions.
Developed by the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST) in partnership with local technology company UpNCoding, the app features interactive maps, trip-planning tools, and important trail information. [Read more…] about New Adirondack Rail Trail App Launched
New York State is home to several rare and fragile floating bogs and fens. These unique ecosystems feature mats of sphagnum moss and vegetation that actually float over water.
Bogs and fens are both peatlands (wetlands that build up deposits of dead plant matter called peat). The primary difference is their water source: bogs are largely by nutrient-poor rainwater, making them highly acidic. Fens are fed by mineral-rich groundwater, making them alkaline or neutral. [Read more…] about Rare and Fragile Floating Bogs and Fens
Wildfires remain a concern across New York State. Checking the weather before hiking. The temperature and conditions at the top of a mountain are often very different from those at the trailhead.
It’s Mud Season, wildland stewards advise that recreationists should stick to drier lower elevation areas to avoid damaging trails and fragile higher elevation ecosystems.
The following are recent missions carried out by New York State Forest Rangers: [Read more…] about Rangers Battle Wildfires; Rescue Numerous Hikers; High Tor Fall Victim; Recover Teen at Kaaterskill Creek
The New York State Board of Regents has approved a new statewide requirement to integrate climate education across K–12 classrooms.
With the decision, New York becomes only the second state in the nation, following New Jersey, to require comprehensive climate education across all grade levels. [Read more…] about New York State Approves K–12 Climate Education Requirement
Winter is the perfect time of year for stargazing due to longer hours of darkness and typically crisper, clearer air — what astronomer’s call “good seeing.”
From sighting twinkling stars and constellations to roving planets, distant galaxies, and countless astronomical wonders, stargazing not only allows us to embrace the night sky but also unlock our perspectives on the universe. Ideal stargazing locations exist far from light pollution, with unobstructed views of the skyline. [Read more…] about Beginner Stargazing at New York’s ‘Dark Sky Destinations’
The Adirondack Forest Preserve is the largest publicly protected wilderness in the Eastern United States, with a state constitutional provision guaranteeing that it be “forever kept as wild forest lands.”
But just what does “wilderness” mean today? How has our understanding of that concept shifted, from the colonial implications of the term as first applied to the Adirondacks to a more inclusive usage, still contested, today? [Read more…] about Philip Terrie’s ‘Wild Forest Lands’ Revisits Adirondack History & Culture
On August 6th, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) euthanized a bull moose on the Goodman Mountain Trail after confirming a significant decline in its health.
The moose was first sighted near the summit of Goodman Mountain in May when hikers reported the moose tolerating close human presence. [Read more…] about Moose That Closed Adirondack Hiking Trail Euthanized
The Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) Annual Awards Program recognizes exemplary historic preservation work throughout the Adirondack Region, including examples of sensitive restoration, rehabilitation, and demonstrated long-term stewardship. [Read more…] about Adirondack Architectural Heritage Announces 30th Annual Preservation Awards
The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced the most recent recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 20 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include John Steinbeck’s writing cottage in Sag Harbor; Cluett, Peabody buildings in Troy; Lake George’s Mohican Point; a small surviving commercial historic district on Seneca Street in Buffalo; the architecturally significant post Vatican II St. Peter’s Church in Manhattan; the home of prominent Black community leaders George and Theodora Bragg in Elmira; as well as additional documentation of LGBT history for the Louis N. Jaffe Art Theater Building in New York City. [Read more…] about State Parks Announces 20 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has temporarily closed the Goodman Mountain Trail in the Horseshoe Lake Wild Forest in the town of Tupper Lake, due to the presence of a bull moose observed over an extended period of time. [Read more…] about Bull Moose Closes Popular Adirondack Goodman Mountain Trail
The Adirondack Railway Preservation Society (ARPS), the esteemed operator of the Adirondack Railroad and Adirondack Railbike Adventures, has announced the appointment of Amanda Hill as its new General Manager, effective January 1, 2025. Hill was chosen from rose among more than 60 applicants, a press release from ARPS said. [Read more…] about Adirondack Railway Preservation Society Names New Leader
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 and engage in policing on New York State Lands.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about Rangers Fight Wildfires, Make Several Rescues in Adirondacks, Catskills
It was high-speed rail – a little too high speed for some passengers’ comfort level. “The fastest time on the new railroad was made yesterday by the accommodation freight train, which ran from this place [Glens Falls] to Lake George in eleven minutes,” the Glen’s Falls Messenger reported on June 23, 1882. [Read more…] about 19th Century Railroad News from Northern New York
“Great are the uses of radio — at least in Tupper Lake,” The Lake Placid News mused on February 14, 1930, reporting about the wedding in Tupper Lake a few days previous of Myrtle E. Ives and B. Harrison Budlong. For wedding music, the mother of the bride had simply tuned in to Tupper Lake radio station WHDL. [Read more…] about ‘A Lively Radio War in Upstate New York’: Radio Pioneer George Bissell (1904-1976)
New York State and The Nature Conservancy have reached an agreement to protect more than 14,600 acres of ecologically rare and culturally significant natural resources in the Adirondacks through two conservation easements and a research consortium. The collaboration is expected to provide new public recreational access in the Raquette River corridor and establish a first-of-its-kind freshwater research preserve. [Read more…] about State, Nature Conservancy Reach Agreement On Follensby Pond Plans
In January, Governor Kathy Hochul announced $1.8 million in grants to support 27 not-for-profit organizations involved with the stewardship of state parks, trails, historic sites, and other public lands.
The grants support public-private partnerships leveraging private funds for new state park amenities, to engage in state park and historic site maintenance and beautification projects, and to provide educational programming and special events. [Read more…] about $1.8M For Sate Parks, Trails, Historic Sites and Other Public Lands
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