The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
Environmental groups claim DEC’s management plan for new state lands violates State Land Master Plan and other regulations. By Phil Brown Two of the Adirondack Park’s major environmental groups are suing the state over the management plan for the Essex Chain Lakes region—a large tract of forest, ponds, and streams that the state acquired from the…
By Mike Lynch
Climate change is expected to bring heavy rains, more floods, and more damage to communities. By Mike Lynch A few years ago, Paul Smith’s College scientist Curt Stager came across a rare find that he says helps tell the story of climate change in the Adirondacks: the journal of Bob Simon, a retired engineer and…
Despite agency’s vote, train supporters say the long battle over the state-owned rail corridor is not over. By Phil Brown The Adirondack Park Agency voted 9-1 in February to approve a controversial proposal to split a state-owned rail corridor into a rail segment and a trail segment, but the debate over the best use of the corridor is…
How to climb an 85-foot wall of ice and keep your cool By Phil Brown More than thirty years ago, Don Mellor was in a plane flying over the High Peaks region, taking photos for his rock-climbing guidebook, when he spotted a large streambed in Chapel Pond Canyon. He returned the next winter with Steve Wisenand, one of…
With snow scarce in much of the Adirondacks, two skiers head to the Cranberry Lake region for a day of backcountry adventure. By Phil Brown As usual, we were chasing snow. In the High Peaks, we didn’t have enough base to ski the backcountry, but we were hoping that a recent lake-effect storm had dumped…
As navigation-rights case heads to the state’s Court of Appeals, both sides get help from interested parties. By Kenneth Aaron For five years, a group of Adirondack landowners has engaged in a legal battle with the editor of the Adirondack Explorer and the state Department of Environmental Conservation over navigational rights on a remote waterway…
By Mike Lynch
Warmer climate bodes ill for Adirondack businesses that rely on winter tourism. By Mike Lynch The most profitable months for the tourism-based businesses in the Adirondacks are without question July and August. This is when families take their summer vacations, the weather is warm, and the bugs are tolerable. But while summer is crucial for small businesses,…
Eight environmental groups want most of the Boreas Ponds Tract added to High Peaks Wilderness, but local officials have other ideas. By Phil Brown In 1936, the conservationist Bob Marshall made a list of forty-eight forested areas in the United States that exceeded three hundred thousand acres and that remained roadless—that is, relatively pristine. Evidently,…
By Tom Woodman In some circles the label peak bagger has a negative, almost sneering, connotation. The criticism is that these hikers are so intent on checking names off lists of mountain ascents that they overlook a deeper experience of being in nature. Spencer Morrissey concedes that at first he might have been a stereotypical…
Coney, Adams, and Treadway reward snowshoers with spectacular views for only moderate effort. By Spencer Morrissey Snowshoeing in the Adirondacks has a long history. Originally a means of travel, it is now a popular recreational pastime. The French called snowshoes raquettes because the paddle-shaped contraptions of earlier times resembled rackets. They were used by hunters and…