The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
What to do when as a nation we are preparing to inaugurate as president a divisive figure whose campaign behavior has invigorated the kind of bigotry and intolerance that we should have put to rest long ago? Whose policies are hard to discern amid a torrent of tweets, threats, and campaign-promise reversals?
Having just read Mike Lynch’s article “Summer bad news for bears” [November/December 2016] about all the black-bear incidents with “no reported injuries to people,” I am struck by the unhappy coincidence of an episode that happened here in Maryland. The headline in the November 17 issue of the Washington Post reads, “Bear mauls woman in…
The Adirondack Explorer has provided a comprehensive survey of the Adirondack Park Agency’s upcoming decision regarding the Boreas Ponds classification. The APA holds the greatest responsibility of protecting the Adirondack Forest Preserve, and classifying the 6.8-mile logging road as Wild Forest, thus allowing motorized-vehicle access, would be an ecological disaster. It is imperative that the…
With all the outpouring of ideas on what to do about classifying the Boreas Pond Tract, I thought you might be interested in a brief history of the roads into the Boreas Ponds clearing. The first road was a tote road built in the 1890s that went along the west side of the Boreas River…
As an environmentally informed resident of Saratoga Springs and an outdoor enthusiast, I feel it is my duty to weigh in on the contentious discussion of the classification of the Boreas Ponds Tract in the Adirondack Park. Concerned citizens of New York cannot allow the Adirondack Park Agency to move forward with any proposal that…
Thank you for publishing the article about the boating death of eight-year-old Charlotte McCue on Lake George in late July. This was a personal tragedy for our family as her parents and grandparents, the McCue and Knarr families, have been our family’s friends for many, many years. We are still heartsick over Charlotte’s senseless death.…
Taken together, there are three pieces in the September/October 2016 issue—“Beyond peak capacity,” “More money, more partners for DEC,” and “Balanced plan for Boreas”—that highlight, albeit indirectly, an emerging problem in the Adirondacks. The Boreas piece focused on the debate regarding the classification of the Boreas Ponds Tract. For the most part, it will be…
While the BeWildNY coalition has done some excellent work and while Adirondack Wild has been a member of it, we disagree with the authors of the Viewpoint “Balanced Plan for Boreas,” by Neil Woodworth and Willie Janeway [September/October 2016]. The authors argue that allowing the public to drive within one mile of the Boreas Ponds…
Concerning your editorial in the September/October issue, “More money, more partners for DEC”: You are absolutely right. The Department of Environmental Conservation needs the money. We hunters, fishermen, and trappers pay an average of $50 a year in fees so we can go to limited areas maybe half the year to practice our art. Hikers…
When Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the state’s purchase of Boreas Ponds and the surrounding land for the Forest Preserve it was an occasion for lofty rhetoric. “Once in a rare while,” he said, “. . . you get a chance to do something that makes a difference forever. Forever. That literally leaves our children a place that is a better place than we inherited.” As stirring as those words were, they will sound empty if the state doesn’t rise to the occasion and commit to using these lands in a way that truly preserves their natural wonder for the next generations.