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.”
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.
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
The Paint Mine and the Tower
Part 2 of 3 Locals regarded Crane and Huckleberry mountains as places to pick berries—specifically blackberries, raspberries, and huckleberries (blueberries)—as well as a source of paint pigment and other minerals. Outsiders, however, viewed the mountain in terms of its recreational potential.
The Lady of Crane Mountain
Part 1 of 3 The former Crane Mountain guide and log skidder also returned annually to the Adirondacks, where she continued to feel a connection to the rugged landscape and the people who sought a living there.
Stewardship within the Adirondack Park
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.
VUM Topic of Next Wilderness Webinar
The Glory of Fall in the Adirondacks
If there is one time of the year that I wish would last much longer, it’s the period from mid-September through mid-October. The lack of bugs, the cool days and cooler nights, the brilliant sunshine and the crisp moonlit forests — these are all the things that form the roots of life’s deepest pleasures.
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.
So Much Work to Be Done
Part 4 of 4 I believe that it is important to know the history of Adirondack trails in order to participate in the public process of creating plans for the units of the park. So, I have written this to give perspective to those who will do the planning.