The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
I read with interest John Thaxton’s column on red-bellied woodpeckers [Birdwatch, March/April 2015]. I live in the southern Adirondack Park in Hadley. Last year we spotted a pair of red-bellies in our yard. They often came to our feeder and ate only the cracked corn we had mixed in with the sunflower seeds. The male was very aggressive and…
Kudos to the Explorer for knowing what’s important. The March/April issue devoted three full pages to the impending regulatory tsunami that threatens to wipe out the protections we’ve assumed were in place for Resource Management lands in the Park. The first wave hit a few years ago with approval of the sprawling Adirondack Club and Resort on over six thousand acres…
I agree with Larry Master’s comments about how wolves enhance visits to Algonquin and Yellowstone parks and boost ecotourism [“The wolf at our door,” March/April 2015]. The wolf would do the same for the Adirondacks and the Northeast. I too, spent many summers camping in Algonquin Park in my late teens and early twenties. There’s nothing like hearing the howl of…
I stopped by your office in August to tell you how much I enjoy your publication, especially the paddling articles. After leaving your office I paddled on the Saranac River for five miles. I was saddened by all the trash (soda and beer cans and bottles, hubcaps, traffic cones, car and appliance parts) that was…
I’ve hunted in the Loon Lake/Debar/Baldface area for over fifty years, so I enjoyed your article “Return to Debar Pond” [July/August 2014]. We’ve fished Debar Pond, and there is a family of loons there every year. I’ve been on top of Baldface a number of times, but we hunt more toward Debar and the lower…
A key to successful protection of the Adirondack Park is wise oversight of privately owned lands within the Blue Line. Such properties make up roughly half the acreage in the Park and include wild lands that are important both for ecological integrity and the natural, park-like character of the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, the state agency responsible…
Railroad? Trail? Why are people fighting each other? Converting the rail line into a multi-use corridor (hike, bike, snowmobile, train) will create unlimited possibilities for backcountry recreation, camping, and even lodging. Dick Beamish, in his Viewpoint [“Confronting history on 2 wheels,” January/February 2015], argues correctly that the rail corridor has great historic value, conveniently forgetting,…
I am writing to the Explorer again, as I have done a few times already, in support of the rail-trail corridor, only this time with another viewpoint that I’m surprised has not been mentioned previously. In the heart of New York City the existing unused elevated train rails, instead of being demolished, have been converted…
I read the article “A Passion for Peaks” [November/December 2014] and have to take issue with what was portrayed while Bethany Garretson was hiking Owls Head Mountain. Granted that Owls Head is not a major peak and it’s a short hiking distance, but to romanticize and glorify someone who begins hiking at 8 p.m. with…
In managing public lands within the Adirondack Park, the state constitution controls: they must remain forever wild. But in applying this principle to decisions about how to classify and manage particular areas within the Park, the state relies on the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. This forty-two-year-old document divides the Forest Preserve into different…