Park concerns the struggle for power over the construction of highways, and a really fascinating example of one of these battles, which transpired between activists and powerful, well-moneyed interests, took place at Lake George in 1923.
Making the Call for Wilderness
It’s a simple thing to do, taking no more than a minute of one’s time. We must let our new governor know that making Follensby Pond “forever wild” is our preferred outcome – that the tract has been locked up long enough.
Have a Little Faith in the Forest Preserve
The Forest Preserve has been and will continue to be the best tool we have in the Adirondacks to keep land – and the community of life it supports – in a “forever wild” state. Now is not the time to lose faith, nor to indulge in the conceit that nature is static and can be kept unchanged under a glass bubble. The Follensby Pond Tract needs to be added to the cultural and natural heritage we call the Forest Preserve, and the public needs to be invested in its future.
This Land Is Your Land
What made these new lands different from most others, though, was undoubtedly the fact they were already occupied by hundreds of hunting camps. This was not simply opening up vast acreages of forest that had been previously denied to the public-at-large, but driving out the leaseholders who were already there. One can rightly argue that as public lands they will serve more people and provide all sorts of wilderness-based benefits, but I’m sure it still stings for the minority who find themselves at the losing end of the equation.
The Future Forest
Part 4 of 4 It has been a slow process, but it has been a privilege to observe these changes over a twenty-year period. Now instead of imagining the future,…
Read More 
Wilderness by Description or Proscription?
Part 3 of 4 When you walk through the woods for miles at a time, it stimulates blood flow throughout your body. The brain is often a passive beneficiary, and…
Read More 
A Wilderness of Roads
Part 2 of 4 The year 2000 was memorable for two reasons: I had met Barbara McMartin that winter and became her newest guidebook assistant, and in the summer DEC…
Read More 
Roads of Recovery
Part 1 of 4 – Introduction Recent news that the remaining portion of Whitney Park, one of the last surviving private parks erected in the 1890s, is on the market…
Read More 
Cathead Mountain: Where Public Safety and Wilderness Meet
The evening of Halloween 2019 brought strong winds and torrential rains to much of northern New York. The storm caused widespread damage over a vast region: significant flooding in communities…
Read More 
The Wilderness beyond Mohegan Lake
The snow before us was virginal, and it covered an entire road that extended for several miles into the backcountry. Beyond the mountainous snowbank that marked its beginning, the ribbon…
Read More 
AWA Proposes Adjustments to Wilderness Snowmobile Plan
The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recently announced plans to construct a 4-mile segment of a community connector snowmobile trail through lands classified as the Blue Ridge Wilderness. Adirondack Wilderness…
Read More 
2B or Not to Be
In the grand scheme of things, the topic of wilderness preservation in the Adirondacks seems trivial. There are issues of social equality, stability, and toxic practices that, at face value,…
Read More