• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

wilderness

Advocates Divided Over Tree Cutting In Adirondack Park

February 2, 2021 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

Trails and Snowmobile Trails in the Adirondack ParkThe Open Space Institute (OSI) and the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) have moved to jointly file an amicus brief in support of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in a case now being heard at the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.

Protect the Adirondacks (Protect) was recently granted a 4-1 decision by the Appellate Division, Third Department, that Class II Community Community snowmobile trail construction resulted in an unconstitutional destruction of trees on the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Protect is now defending that decision against an appeal by the state. [Read more…] about Advocates Divided Over Tree Cutting In Adirondack Park

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Mountain Club, DEC, development, Forest Preserve, Open Space Institute, Protect the Adirondacks, snowmobiling, wilderness

Adirondack Advocate Paul Schaefer’s Influence On The Northway

January 4, 2021 by David Gibson 1 Comment

Northway I-87As the decade of the 1990s began, noted Adirondack conservationist and wilderness coalition leader Paul Schaefer’s eyesight was failing. He had macular degeneration. We had noticed that this skilled carpenter, home and cabin builder and historic restorationist was no longer hitting the nail squarely on its head. We worried about him continuing to drive. [Read more…] about Adirondack Advocate Paul Schaefer’s Influence On The Northway

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, development, Forest Preserve, I-87, Paul Schaefer, Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, Schroon River, Transportation History, wilderness

Early Adirondack Surveys: The Great Corner & An Ancient Boundary

December 14, 2020 by Noel Sherry 13 Comments

Frank Tweedys 3 T and C Line MapsIn 1876, Frank Tweedy was a tenderfoot surveyor right out of college. By 1878, he had two years’ experience under his belt, mentored by veteran surveyor Squire Snell heading the Southwestern Division of the Adirondack Survey.

Frank successfully led a dozen-man crew up the Beaver River from the hamlet of Number Four past Raquette Lake, producing three maps of that 29-mile trek for his boss, Verplanck Colvin. [Read more…] about Early Adirondack Surveys: The Great Corner & An Ancient Boundary

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Beaver River, surveying, wilderness

Frank Tweedy: A Tenderfoot Becomes An Experienced Surveyor

December 2, 2020 by Noel Sherry 8 Comments

Frank TweedyFrank Tweedy landed his dream job after graduating from Union College as Civil Engineer in 1875. Verplanck Colvin, Superintendent of the Adirondack Survey, needed a topographer to work under veteran forest surveyor Squire Snell in his Southwestern Division and so he hired Tweedy.

Colvin was taking a big chance on a tenderfoot surveyor, but for Tweedy this was the chance of a lifetime to learn from a renowned cartographer and his expert woodsmen. “Tenderfoot” became the subtitle of the autobiography Frank later penned. [Read more…] about Frank Tweedy: A Tenderfoot Becomes An Experienced Surveyor

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Beaver River, Hamilton County, surveying, Verplanck Colvin, wilderness

Adirondack Wild Presents 2020 Wilderness Award

November 19, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Kevin Chlad receives the 2020 Paul Schaefer Wilderness AwardAdirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve has presented its 2020 Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award, the organization’s highest honor, to Kevin Chlad, Director of Government Relations for the Adirondack Council with offices in Elizabethtown and in Albany. [Read more…] about Adirondack Wild Presents 2020 Wilderness Award

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Council, Adirondack Wild, Forest Preserve, High Peaks, Kelly Adirondack Center, wilderness

Dave Gibson: Establish A Wilderness Training Center in NYS

November 1, 2020 by David Gibson Leave a Comment

Alpine climber John Case speaks of the landscape below Whiteface Mountain to children from the area, c. 1978. The stress of our sheer numbers on wild lands, other hikers, summit stewards, forest and assistant rangers and local communities and volunteers bordering Routes 73 and 86 this hiking season – and many before this – easily disconnects and untethers us from the historical and philosophical roots of wilderness preservation and management. [Read more…] about Dave Gibson: Establish A Wilderness Training Center in NYS

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Environmental History, High Peaks, hiking, Overuse, Tourism, wilderness

Army Proposal For Air, Ground Training On Forest Preserve Problematic

October 28, 2020 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

Adirondack Atlas Map of the AdirondacksIn June, the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army, based at Fort Drum in Jefferson County, released a draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) that outlined ambitious “air and land-based training activities” to possibly take place across nine counties in Upstate New York, including four (St. Lawrence, Lewis, Oneida, Herkimer) that are partially within the Adirondack Park, and two (Hamilton, Essex) that are entirely within the Adirondack Park Blue Line. [Read more…] about Army Proposal For Air, Ground Training On Forest Preserve Problematic

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: development, Forest Preserve, Fort Drum, Protect the Adirondacks, wilderness

Siena Poll Shows Support For Limits on Hiking, Camping in High Peaks

October 6, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Crowds of hikers ascend a High Peaks Wilderness trail on Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day, 2016 courtesy Nancie BattagliaA Siena College Research Institute poll of New York voters in September showed that by 68% to 22% they want New York State officials to protect overused public lands in the Adirondack Forest Preserve from further abuse by enforcing resource capacity limits, rather than building bigger and bigger parking lots to accommodate the surging crowds. [Read more…] about Siena Poll Shows Support For Limits on Hiking, Camping in High Peaks

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Council, camping, High Peaks, hiking, Overuse, Siena College, Tourism, wilderness

DEC’s Efforts To Lobby For A Mine In Adirondack Wilderness

July 6, 2020 by Peter Bauer 1 Comment

NYCO MinesThis is the last article in a 5-part series on possible amendments in 2020 to Article 14, Section 1, of the NYS Constitution, the famed forever wild provision.

This article looks back at the amendment for NYCO Minerals, Inc., in 2013, that authorized exploratory drilling on 200 acres in Lewis Lot 8 in the Forest Preserve in the Jay Mountain Wilderness. This amendment was barely approved, passing by the narrowest margin of any successful Article 14 amendment. The NYCO Amendment was different from all other amendments to Article 14 because it marked the first time that a private corporation used the amendment process to seek and obtain Forest Preserve lands for no other purpose than benefiting its bottom line. Every other amendment had a public benefit and purpose. The NYCO Amendment did not. [Read more…] about DEC’s Efforts To Lobby For A Mine In Adirondack Wilderness

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Article 14, DEC, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Forever Wild, Political History, Protect the Adirondacks, wilderness

Hamilton County’s Tower Plans For Cathead Mountain

July 6, 2020 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

Cathead Mountain communications towerThis is the fourth article in a series that looks at three possible constitutional amendments to Article 14, Section 1 that are being debated in 2020.

This article looks at the issue of utilizing Forest Preserve lands around Cathead Mountain, in the south edge of the Silver Lake Wilderness area, in the Adirondack Park in Hamilton County, to locate a new emergency communications tower, similar to such towers on Blue Mountain and East Mountain. [Read more…] about Hamilton County’s Tower Plans For Cathead Mountain

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Article 14, DEC, development, Fire Towers, Forever Wild, Hamilton County, Protect the Adirondacks, Silver Lake Wilderness, State Land Master Plan, wilderness

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Help Us Reach Our Fundraising Goal

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Judy Gumaer Testa on Elnathan Sears: Thirteen Months in Hell
  • Big Burly on New York’s Pirate Utopia: From Pearl Street to Execution Dock
  • Jim Sefcik on Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason
  • Ed Zahniser on Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason
  • Amy eckman on Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason
  • Jennifer on Humans In Zoos: A Long History of ‘Exotic’ People Exhibitions
  • Henry Nass on Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason
  • Jim Britell on Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason
  • Mary Anne Goley on James Hazen Hyde: A Gilded Age Scandal
  • Bob Meyer on Poetry: Little Boy Lost

Recent New York Books

The Long Crisis
rebuilding the republic
The 20th Century Civil Rights Movement
first principles
An American Marriage
too long ago
the long year of the revolution
Notable New Yorkers of Manhattans Upper West Side
Woman Slaveholders in Jamaica
nobody hitchhikes anymore

Secondary Sidebar

New York State Historic Markers