Finally, snow in the Adirondacks

Fresh snow on Baker Mountain in Saranac Lake. Photo by Phil Brown.

We finally got a bit of snow in Saranac Lake. Not enough for backcountry skiing, but enough to get you thinking about it.

On my lunch hour yesterday, I hiked Baker Mountain and took the photo above. The few inches we got might be enough to ski on golf courses, the Whiteface highway, and a few of the easier trails in the region. I hope to check out the trail to Moose Pond later in the week.

This is a good time to remind people that the Adirondack Ski Touring Council regularly updates cross-country-ski conditions online. It reports that Nordic centers near Lake Placid have some trails open.

Here’s the report on backcountry conditions:

“Whiteface Highway skiable, although there will be short stretches that have been blown clear of snow. Marcy Dam Truck Trail possibly skiable with caution. Main Loop at Henry’s Woods on Bear Cub Lane just barely skiable. With 5 inches reported at Paul Smiths, the Hayes Brook and Fish Pond truck trails are finally skiable, although caution definitely advised on the first hill on the Fish Pond Truck Trail. Lake ice on Avalanche and Lake Colden crossable. No other ice should be assumed to be safe, although the cold Tuesday night has probably made many lake crossable. On the higher summits, finally enough for snowshoes above 3,000 feet; but with much ice under the snow, traction aids will be very useful, if not required, on steep trails getting to that elevation. Definitely be prepared for winter conditions on any of the higher summits. Meadow Lane, access to the Marcy Dam Truck Trail, closed to vehicles for the winter.”

One shortcoming of the council’s report is that it concentrates on the Tri-Lakes Region (Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake), so you rarely see accounts of conditions in other parts of the Park, such as Old Forge or Cranberry Lake.

 Here’s the link to the full report.

Let’s hope we get some real snow soon. It is January, after all.

Kathleen Moser named assistant DEC commissioner

A longtime conservationist has been named assistant commissioner for natural resources at the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Kathleen Moser was picked to replace Christopher Amato, who left the post earlier this month after four and a half years on the job.

Kathleen Moser

Moser’s new responsibilities include oversight of the Forest Preserve in the Adirondacks and Catskills.

Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan applauded the appointment.

“She’s a capable person and has a good knowledge of the Forest Preserve, especially in the Adirondacks,” he said.

Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, got to know Moser when she was head of the eastern New York chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

“She worked very hard with us to promote the Environmental Protection Fund and was an important ally as we tried to secure funds for land protection,” Woodworth said.

In recent years, Moser has worked for the World Wildlife Fund as well, according to her LinkedIn profile. Just before taking the DEC job, she had served on the boards of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy and the Capital District chapter of the New York League of Conservation Voters.

Moser has two degrees from Duke University, a bachelor’s in botany and a master’s in forest productivity.

Ex-IP official to head DEC Region 5

A former International Paper official has been named director of the Region 5 office of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

In his new post, Robert Stegemann will oversee an office that, among other things, manages the eastern two-thirds of the Adirondack Park. He begins on Monday, replacing Betsy Lowe, who  resigned last month.

“Bob’s impressive record in working to create a sustainable society and to preserve New York’s resources make him a natural fit for DEC,” said state Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens. “In both professional and volunteer capacities, Bob has proven to be an exceptional environmental steward. Bob will be a valuable asset to DEC and the eastern Adirondacks community.”

For the past two years Stegemann served as a natural-resources and public affairs adviser for nonprofit groups, according to a DEC news release. He had worked at International Paper for eighteen years, holding a variety of roles, including spokesman and manager of sustainability. He also served as spokesman for the Empire State Forest Products Association.

Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan applauded the appointment.

“He was the most outspoken of environmentalists among the timber-industry representatives in the Park,” Sheehan said. “And he has a good relationship with the commissioner.”

DEC says Stegemann also has been a senior policy analyst for the Tug Hill Commission and has held volunteer positions with the Rensselaer Plateau Alliance, the Adirondack Research Consortium, the Adirondack Nature Conservancy and Land Trust, and the Northern Forest Lands Council.

Stegemann earned a master’s degree from State College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a bachelor’s degree from Union College.

View exhibits work of seven photographers

View from Hurricane Mountain. Photo by Johnathan Esper.

Quick, think of an Adirondack photographer. What name jumps to mind? Is it Nancie Battaglia? Carl Heilman II? Mark Bowie? Nathan Farb? Perhaps the up-and-coming Johnathan Esper?

If you’re a fan of any or all of these pros, you should love the Adirondack View Finders exhibit at View, the new arts center in Old Forge.

View will be exhibiting the work of all five—and two other photographers, Clark Lubbs and Lesley Dixon—through March 3.

The Explorer frequently runs photographs by Nancie, Carl, and Mark, and we once ran a spread of Johnathan’s photos, including the one above. We could say a thousand words in praise of their work, but we’ll let their pictures do the talking.

Click their names to see the work of Carl Heilman, Mark Bowie, Johnathan Esper, Lesley Dixon and Nathan Farb. (Nancie and Clark do not have websites.)

View is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10 (no charge for children twelve).

Mark Bowie recently published a book of nighttime photography.

Christopher Amato to leave DEC

Christopher Amato is resigning as the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s assistant commissioner for natural resources. He said will return to practicing law in the private sector or go to work for the state attorney general.

Amato told the Explorer that he expects to remain in the Albany region, where he lives. He said he will stay at DEC for “at least a week” longer.

Christopher Amato

“It was time for me to move on,” he said. “I very much enjoyed my time here.”

Amato had been in private practice before joining DEC four and a half years ago. Earlier in his career, he worked as a lawyer for six years in the state attorney general’s office.

As assistant commissioner for natural resources, Amato oversaw many decisions involving the management of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Asked to list a few of his accomplishments at DEC, Amato mentioned the unit management plan (UMP) for the Moose River Plains Wild Forest, which he described as a model for balancing various uses of the Forest Preserve without harming the environment. Among other things, the UMP established an Intensive-Use corridor for car camping and a new Wilderness Area where all motorized access is forbidden.

“The Moose River Plains is like a microcosm of the entire Park,” he remarked.

DEC is notoriously decades behind in drafting UMPs for all the Forest Preserve tracts in the Adirondack Park. A few years ago, Amato wrote a Viewpoint for the Explorer in which he argued that DEC should streamline its UMP process by consolidating planning for neighboring tracts. Under such a scheme, for example, DEC would write a single plan for the High Peaks, Dix Mountain, Giant Mountain, Sentinel Range, and McKenzie Mountain Wilderness Areas.

Amato still believes the UMP process needs to be improved. He suggested today that DEC could draft one management plan for all Wilderness Areas and include appendices for dealing with specific problems in the individual Forest Preserve units. “So much of these UMPs are a lot of the same [information],” he said.

DEC was supposed to finish all the UMPs in the 1970s and update them every five years.

“How are we ever going to get the staff and the time to do the five-year reviews?” Amato said. “At this point, it’s an unrealistic expectation.”

One of the biggest controversies of Amato’s tenure erupted when DEC postponed enacting a ban on floatplanes landing on Lows Lake. The action upset environmentalists, but Amato stands by the decision.

“The Lows Lake floatplane decision was important,” he said, “because there is a real necessity to encourage the type of recreational activities that rely on the Forest Preserve. If the state is going to be the owner of huge tracts of land, it needs to support uses of the Forest Preserve that are consistent with people accessing it and enjoying it. For me, floatplanes are part of the picture.”

After a three-year delay, the Lows Lake ban will take effect next year. Amato said DEC is finishing a report that will explore other opportunities for floatplane operation in the Park.

Amato leaves as DEC continues to work on two major land acquisitions for the Forest Preserve: 65,000 acres of former Finch, Pruyn lands and the 14,600-acre Follensby Park. The Adirondack Nature Conservancy bought the lands in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and plans to sell them to the state.

Despite the state’s financial problems—and some opposition to the deals—Amato said DEC remains committed to the purchases. He said DEC has been meeting with hunters, fishermen, hikers, paddlers, and other user groups to discuss how the state will manage the Finch, Pruyn lands (which will be purchased first).

Amato also has been a champion of paddlers’ rights. After I paddled through private property on Shingle Shanty Brook and encountered no-trespassing signs and a chain, Amato tried to negotiate with the landowners to allow public access. After the negotiations failed and the landowners sued me, DEC and the attorney general’s office joined the suit on behalf of paddlers. The case is still pending.

Groups spar over Lake Placid train

The Adirondack Scenic Railroad train on its way to Saranac Lake. Photo by Susan Bibeau.

Two nonprofit groups are sparring over the future of a rail corridor near Lake Placid, each accusing the other of spreading misinformation.

The spat began this week when Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) issued a news release in support of keeping the railroad tracks in place. AARCH noted that the corridor is on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

In response, Adirondack Recreational Trail Advocates wrote a letter to AARCH, asserting that placement on the historic registers is no bar to tearing up the tracks.

“We are writing to suggest that whatever legal advice you are getting on this issue appears to be wrong, and as a result your position takes on a political nature which we believe is inconsistent with your mission,” ARTA’s steering committee said in the letter. (One of the signatories was Dick Beamish, founder of the Explorer.)

In reply to the letter, AARCH’s executive director, Steven Engelhart, accused ARTA of misconstruing AARCH’s position.

“The one thing that we agree with you on is that National Register status of the corridor will (in and of itself) not prevent the removal of the tracks,” Engelhart wrote in a letter released today. “Because we know this to be true, we have not made statements to the contrary. Why you’ve attributed such statements to AARCH is beyond me.”

You can click the links below to read the three documents in full.

AARCH press release

ARTA letter to AARCH

AARCH response to letter

The tracks are part of the defunct Adirondack Division of New York Central Railroad. From May to October, Adirondack Scenic Railroad runs a tourist train between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, and it hopes to extend the run to Tupper Lake.

Adirondack Recreational Trail Advocates formed this past summer to push for removing the tracks and establishing a recreational path between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake that could be used by cyclists, joggers, snowmobilers, and others. Eventually, they say, the trail could be extended to Tupper Lake and perhaps beyond.

Backers of the train say a recreational trail could be built alongside the tracks. This seems like a good compromise, but there are serious questions about the legality, environmental soundness, and financial cost of this solution.

Click here to read a story in the November/December issue of the Explorer about the formation of ARTA and the debate over the train.

The APA’s slippery criteria

Preserve Associates wants to build a 706-unit development near the Big Tupper Ski Area. Photo by Carl Heilman II.

Resource Management is the most restrictive zoning category for private land in the Adirondack Park. In the debate over the Adirondack Club and Resort, one of the big questions is whether the proposed resort is suitable for RM lands.

Essentially, RM lands are timberlands. The Adirondack Park Agency Act says the primary (or best) uses of such lands include forestry, agriculture, and recreation. Housing developments are considered “secondary uses.”

The law says that residential development on RM lands is permissible “on substantial acreages or in small clusters on carefully selected and well designed sites.”

The developers contend that their design meets the standard, whereas their opponents say it doesn’t.

The APA board, which began reviewing the project Thursday, will have to decide who is right. That won’t be a simple task: APA regulations fail to define either “substantial acreages” or “small clusters.”

The developers, Preserve Associates, want to build 706 housing units on 6,234 acres near the Big Tupper Ski Area in the town of Tupper Lake. The development would include 206 single-family homes, 453 townhouse units (in 125 buildings), thirty-nine Great Camps, and eight artist cabins.

Much of the debate revolves around the Great Camps. Critics argue that these rustic mansions would be scattered around in such a way as to fragment the forest and diminish wildlife habitat.

Most of the Great Camps would be built on lots ranging from twenty to thirty acres. Eight of them would be built on larger lots, ranging from 111 to 1,211 acres.

Since most of the Great Camps would be on RM lands, the APA board will be applying the “substantial acreage” and “small clusters” tests.

APA attorney Sarah Reynolds told the board Thursday that the agency’s staff does not regard the smaller lots as “substantial acreages.” The staff feels that the larger lots do meet the criterion. But Dan Plumley of Adirondack Wild contends that “substantial acreages” should be applied only to tracts of at least a few thousand acres.

If any of the Great Camps are not on substantial acreages, the board will need to decide whether they meet the “small clusters” criterion.

Preserve Associates argues that the resort does employ cluster development in that most of the land will remain in open space. Green groups disagree. The Adirondack Council has proposed three alternative designs that would preserve more open space. In the council’s preferred design, all of the development would take place on 750 acres west of Read Road, leaving 80 percent of the land untouched. Likewise, Protect the Adirondacks proposes that most of the Great Camps be built on lots ranging from two to five acres—again leaving most of the land undeveloped.

And what if the Great Camps meet neither criterion?

That, too, is up for debate. Protect the Adirondacks argues that the criteria are mandatory, but the developers say they’re not. The APA staff agrees with the developers, but the board is not bound by the staff’s interpretation.

In short, the board is tasked with making a decision on a huge (and controversial) development without knowing what the criteria mean or even if the criteria must be applied.

By the way, no one knows what “forest fragmentation” means either.

DEC won’t rebuild Duck Hole dam

Most of Duck Hole drained after Tropical Storm Irene. Photo by Carl Heilman II.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation does not plan to rebuild the dam at Duck Hole, an iconic pond deep in the High Peaks Wilderness.

The wooden dam was breached in the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene in late August, draining about two-thirds of the impoundment.

Even before Irene, fans of Duck Hole had been urging DEC to repair the old dam. In fact, the Explorer ran a debate on the question in its September/October issue, which was on the newsstand when the storm hit. Nestled among high mountains, Duck Hole is a favorite camping spot on the Northville-Placid Trail.

The Duck Hole dam after the breach. Photo by Phil Brown.

In the Explorer debate, Tom Wemett, chairman of the Northville-Placid chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club, extolled Duck Hole as one of the most scenic water bodies in the High Peaks Wilderness. “Whether hiking on the Northville-Placid Trail or paddling and portaging from Henderson Lake (via Preston Ponds), those who arrive at Duck Hole are in awe of the stunning vistas and quiet solitude,” he wrote.

After Irene, Wemett argued for the dam’s reconstruction. But DEC spokeswoman Lisa King said today that the department has no plans to repair the dam.

“At this time, DEC does not anticipate the repair or replacement of the Duck Hole dam in the High Peaks Wilderness Area,” she told the Explorer in an e-mail. “By leaving it as is, the affected backcountry in this area can return to a more natural state. This is in keeping with DEC’s responsibilities for care, custody and control of Forest Preserve lands under the state constitution.”

The department’s guidelines for dams in the Forest Preserve favor removing dams in Wilderness Areas “when they become unsafe or are otherwise in need of replacement, reconstruction and/or rehabilitation.” Nonetheless, such dams may be rehabilitated to preserve fish and wildlife habitat, protect scenic vistas, or maintain a waterway’s navigability, among other purposes.

Spokesmen for the environmental groups Adirondack Council and Adirondack Wild said they opposed rebuilding the dam.

“It’s deep in the wilderness,” remarked David Gibson of Adirondack Wild. “It’s just as much a wilderness experience after Irene as it was before Irene.”

I did the paddle/portage trip to Duck Hole this past spring and wrote about the adventure for the July/August issue of the Explorer. A few days after Irene, I returned to Duck Hole on foot and took the photos shown here of the broken dam and the mudflat.

Adirondack guide Joe Hackett did the paddle/portage trip a few weeks after Irene and found enough water remained to paddle to the lean-tos near the dam. “Duck Hole is down, but it’s not out,” he told the Explorer after his trip.

Duck Hole, the source of the Cold River, is fed by at least three streams, including the outlet of Lower Preston Pond. Over the next several years, the mudflats should be overtaken by vegetation and provide habitat for a variety of wildlife–not to mention improve the view.

Mudflat at Duck Hole after Irene. Photo by Phil Brown.

John Davis finishes TrekEast

John Davis bikes through Florida. Photo by Ron Sutherland.

After hiking, biking, canoeing, and sailing 7,600 miles over 280 days, John Davis says the hard work has just begun.

Davis resigned as the Adirondack Council’s conservation director last year to undertake TrekEast, a muscle-powered journey designed to draw attention to the need to protect wild lands in the eastern United States and Canada.

John Davis traveled from Florida to the Gaspe Peninsula.

He began his travels on February 3 in Key Largo, Florida, and finished this past Monday (November 14) on Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula. In between, he meandered through swamps, fields, and forests, along coastlines, and over mountains. He reached New York State in the summer and traveled through the Catskills, Shawangunks, and Adirondacks.

“While I’ve seen numerous threats to wild nature over the past ten months, I’ve also seen incredible efforts under way to counter those threats,” Davis said after reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Forillon National Park in Quebec.

In an interview with the Explorer, Davis said one lesson from his journey is that the East needs to bring back cougars to restore ecological balance. Without cougars to keep them in check, he said, deer are overbrowsing the woods, consuming wildflowers and saplings. “Our forests are likely to slowly degenerate,” he said.

Davis said conservationists need to focus on four other objectives in the East:

• Protect large tracts of wild land and the wild corridors connecting them.
• Create wildlife crossings over and under roads.
• Protect waterways with wild buffers.
• Encourage private landowners to protect wild lands.

Davis said TrekEast, though arduous, was the adventure of a lifetime. “Now comes the much more important and difficult leg of the trip—maintaining and growing the network of people needed to protect a continental-sized network of connected eastern wild lands,” he said in a news release.

He next plans to go to Washington, D.C., to discuss his journey with the directors of the Wildlands Network, which sponsored TrekEast. After that, he will return to his home near Westport in the Adirondacks.

“I’d be delighted to work at the Adirondack Council again someday, but there are no openings right now,” he said.

Meantime, he is planning his next big adventure: TrekWest in the Rocky Mountains.

The harbinger of winter

Ron Konowitz, left, and Mark Meschinelli at the Lake Placid Turn on the Whiteface Mountain toll road a year ago. Photo by Phil Brown.

We had a brief snow squall in Saranac Lake this afternoon. No accumulation, but the cedars outside the office window got a nice dusting.

So I wasn’t too surprised when Ron Konowitz called to say he had just skied the toll road on Whiteface Mountain.

As the robin is to spring, Ron Kon is to winter. He is usually the first, or among the first, to hit the toll road in the fall and the last to put his skis away in the spring. Last season, he went skiing more than 160 times, mostly in the backcountry.

This season, he got off to a late start, thanks to a dearth of snow. Usually, he manages to squeeze in five or six trips on the toll road in October. After a freak snowstorm many years ago, he went skiing on Labor Day weekend.

“This is the latest I haven’t been able to ski,” he remarked.

On Friday morning, Ron and a friend, Katie Tyler, hiked 3.5 miles up the toll road as far as the Lake Placid Turn, where they put on skis for the remaining 1.8 miles to the summit castle.

Ron said there was five or six inches of snow up high. He and Katie did four laps between the castle and the Wilmington Turn (about 0.8 miles) and then skied back down to the gatehouse.

Ron said the skiing was very good for a few miles, on Styrofoam snow, but the cover became thin at the lower elevations. They would ski on the sides of the road, sometimes gliding over frozen grass. In a few spots, they had to walk.

“It was worth it, for sure,” he said.

Like many backcountry skiers, Ron is looking forward to skiing some of the new slides created by Tropical Storm Irene.

“It’s going to be an amazing winter,” he said. “All we need is snow—the magic ingredient.”

Ron is the only person to have skied all forty-six of the High Peaks. Click here to read an interview with him about this feat.