Adirondack Park Agency seems to be following the same trajectory as some of its predecessors, in that in 2022 it is explicitly seeking creative ways to get around its own restrictions—in this case, “no material increase.”
The Road to Tongue Mountain
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.
The Era of Referendum and Recall
It seems to me that a decision concerning the best management or ownership for Follensby Pond is one that will require plenty of study and deliberation, with the help of a goodly number of “citizen watchdogs.”
Examining Hiker Dispersal: What’s Next
ne of the issues AWA is working on is dispersal: the strategy of redirecting hikers from busier to lesser-used trailheads. We started with an informal survey sent to our supporters, to help us gain additional perspective on hikers’ views of dispersal. We learned quite a bit from…
Leading the Way on Adaptive Management
In partnership with our allies, including Adirondack Wild, the Adirondack Mountain Club, Paul Smiths Visitor Interpretive Center and Technical Advisor Chad Dawson, AWA is leading the way in promoting adaptive…
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Cuomo’s Divisive Adirondack Legacy
The Adirondack legacy of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is more than just a land acquisition and a failed snowmobile master plan. The one project that can be fully attributed to Cuomo involved a mine, a protected wilderness, and a highly controversial amendment to the state’s constitution that allowed one to gain access to the other.
Cotton Lake: The Wilderness No One Knows
The preferred method for preserving the “Cotton Lake Wilderness” as a state-recognized wilderness is to remove the quotation marks – for the APA board to take definitive action and reclassify the land per the procedures set in place by the SLMP. Doing so would elevate Cotton Lake to equal status with the nearby West Canada Lake and Ha-de-ron-dah areas.
Hiker Dispersal – Take the Survey!
Dear AWA Supporters: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Adirondack Mountain Reserve (AMR) have enacted a pilot permit program at the AMR. This brings to the…
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What to Watch in the AMR’s “Permitting Pilot”
Adirondack websites and social media are abuzz with news of a new pilot permit program that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Adirondack Mountain Reserve (AMR)…
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Expertise and Adaptive Management for the High Peaks
AWA’s first order of business in serving on the High Peaks Advisory Group (HPAG) was to ensure that protection of the Wilderness was a paramount and inviolate principle. That was…
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Leading with Principles
Friday, March 5, 2021 Dear AWA Supporter: Earlier this afternoon, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released the long-awaited Final Report from the High Peaks Strategic Planning…
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UPDATE: Development Continues on AWA’s Visitor Use Management App
Earlier this year, I wrote about a proof of concept app we had started working on to produce better data about visitor activity in the Adirondack Park. The concept was…
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