The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
The Adirondack Council and Ausable River Association contend that highway crews intent on rechanneling streams after Tropical Storm Irene are destroying trout habitat and creating conditions that could worsen flooding in the future. Several mountain streams jumped their banks during Irene, flooding and damaging buildings and roadways. Since then, bulldozers have been used to divert…
By Phil Brown
By coincidence, the current issue of the Adirondack Explorer contains a debate on whether the Duck Hole dam should be repaired. Some might argue that since the dam has been breached by the floods of Hurricane Irene, the question has been settled, but that’s not the case. Tom Wemett, who wrote in favor of fixing…
By Phil Brown
Hurricane Irene destroyed thirty-one homes in Essex and Clinton counties and damaged 197 others, according to the North Country chapter of American Red Cross. “We’ve never seen this many homes damaged by the rain, the flooding, and the wind,” Jeanie Roberts, the chapter’s executive director, told the Explorer today. Indeed, Roberts said Irene was more…
By Phil Brown
Governor Cuomo came to the Adirondacks on Labor Day and delivered good news for the beleaguered community of Keene Valley: Route 73 will be reopened by September 15. Since Route 73 is the only way in and out of Keene Valley, its closure after Hurricane Irene meant that local stores saw little traffic in what…
By Phil Brown
No community identifies with the High Peaks as much as Keene Valley. State Route 73, the only way in or out, snakes through the same mountains that attract tens of thousands of hikers to the hamlet every year. Now the High Peaks are closed and Route 73 is barricaded to the north and south—a double-whammy…
By Phil Brown
By now, many of you have seen the pictures of the Keene fire station: it lost two bays when Gulf Brook overflowed and undercut the structure. Half of its roof fell off and lies partly in the water. Yesterday while driving through the hamlet I noticed the firefighters’ uniforms drying on the railings outside…
By Phil Brown
In the current issue of the Adirondack Explorer, we ran a debate on whether the state should fix the dam at Duck Hole in the High Peaks Wilderness. Now that the dam has been breached, the debate is whether the state should rebuild it. This afternoon, we obtained several aerial photos taken after the rains…
By Phil Brown
Sightseers gathered in Crown Point today to watch the installation of the arch for the new bridge connecting New York State and Vermont. The arch was still being slowly hoisted this afternoon. Crown Point photographer Seth Lang took these photos of the massive structure–which is about eight stories high–being moved into place by barges. The…
By Kenneth Aaron The State of New York can intervene in a trespassing lawsuit filed by a group of landowners against Adirondack Explorer editor Phil Brown, a State Supreme Court justice has ruled. The state attorney general’s office and the Depart- ment of Environmental Conservation (DEC) asked to join Brown in the dispute, and Justice Richard…
Despite ban, riders continue to abuse trails in the Forest Preserve, though the extent of the problem is debated. By Stephen Williams It’s a warm and sunny morning on the old dirt road between Harrisburg Lake and Wilcox Lake in Warren County, the sky above brilliant blue, the woods full of birdsong. A beautiful day…