Innehållsförteckning för November/December 2022 från Adirondack Explorer

State readying mine property for 62,000 panels BY GWENDOLYN CRAIG The Adirondacks is close to hosting the state’s first “build ready” solar project, about 62,000 panels generating 20 megawatts of energy to the grid. Planned atop a tailings pile of an old mine in the Town of Clifton, the panels could power about 4,500 homes, state energy officials envision. The Adirondack Park Agency passed the project unanimously in September, the second time the body OK’d a project in that range. Numerous smaller solar developments of smaller solar developments are in various stages of planning on private park lands. The Clifton project is 111.5 acres of solar panels enclosed within a chain-link fence on the tailings pile of the former Benson Mines. It is across Route 3 from a former federal…

Land conservation in Adirondacks is incomplete I was heartened to see Phil Brown’s unabashed and unambiguous call for New York conserving the 36,000 acres in Whitney Park (“NY must acquire Whitney Park” September/October). Of late, I have heard precious little from conservation advocates about the desirability of continuing the expansion of the forest preserve. As the nation’s population grows, and threats to our natural landscape (like commercial solar fields) continue, we need more, not less, conservation of natural lands in the Adirondacks. Brown puts into perspective the seemingly high price this preservation opportunity would require. I hope those who think the Finch, Pruyn & Co. purchase was the last large conservation purchase needed will listen to his plea. Mark PerreaultNorfolk, VA Notes on knotweed eradication Carolyn Shapiro’s article (“Knocking out…

Field crews during a 1980s survey of 1,476 Adirondack lakes started work many Monday mornings at far-flung airstrips in Piseco Lake, Old Forge or Star Lake. They loaded up a pontoon-equipped helicopter, crammed in with camping and chemistry gear and headed off, a heavy Grumman canoe poking out each open door. After landing on remote lakes, pilots waved goodbye to the teams of scientists, often with no plans for a return flight until Friday. The field teams worked for the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation (ALSC), which after nearly 40 years of water science across the park is set to merge with the Ausable River Association next year. The surveyors dropped nets in the water to count fish, pulled water samples, noted the lake’s surrounding landscape, collected small insects to identify…

A potter and woodworker, Jack Van Wie, 26, possesses hands for building things. That’s why he was drawn to New Russia and fixing a barn linked to a historic family. Erin Tobin, executive director for Adirondack Architectural Heritage, toured the restoration site. “Barns have a lot to say,” she said. “Looking at the construction techniques, looking at the materials, and thinking about the farmstead and the community in which it sits, it tells you what that place was.” She reflected: Historic barns are rotting to the ground. Within the Blue Line, beautiful and functional buildings are being lost. With them goes old-growth timbers and sheathing that tell of the big, straight trees that grew here. And when a barn goes, another story of a settler to this place gets buried.…

The normal route is a pleasant 3.4-mile walk in the woods to a lean-to beside the lake on a well-maintained trail, but in the words of the poet Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Middle Settlement Lake is in the 26,528-acre Ha-de-ron-dah Wilderness, the westernmost wilderness area in the park. Ha-de-ron-dah is another version of the native word “bark eater,” from which the name Adirondack is derived. The Ha-de-ron-dah is part of the larger 210,000-acre John Brown’s Tract. There were two John Browns of historical significance in the Adirondacks: the abolitionist who lived and was buried near Lake Placid, and the millionaire John Brown of Providence, R.I., for whom Brown University is…

After living and hiking in the Adirondacks for two decades, I’ve learned an obvious truth: the closer you are to a road or trailhead, the more likely you are to find trash. Exhibit No. 1 is Bigelow Road, a dirt road that intersects the Bloomingdale Bog Trail in the town of Franklin, several miles north of Saranac Lake. I’ve ridden my mountain bike on Bigelow many times, usually as a side trip off the bog trail. I’ve seen all kinds of trash along the road and in the adjacent woods (which is part of the Adirondack Forest Preserve), including bedsprings, a mattress, broken furniture, a grill, lumber, tarps and home insulation. Not to mention beer cans, soda bottles, empty shotgun shells and broken glass. A clearing off the road is…

PHIL SNYDER Age: 47 Hometown: Penn Yan Residence: Vermontville Occupation: Program manager, Adirondack Lakes Survey Corp. (see page 22) Background/Accomplishments: Associate degree, Paul Smith’s College, in science ecology and environmental technology, and bachelor’s degree from SUNY Plattsburgh in environmental chemistry. Ecology, limnology, environmental chemistry research and 23 years of acid deposition study and monitoring. Favorite view: Too many to choose from, but it includes a sunrise or sunset in the park. I like areas off the beaten path. My top or most memorable outdoor experience: Taking each of my two daughters fishing for the first time at Buck Pond Campground and Day Use Area (caught some sunfish). My key thought about Adirondack lakes: Adirondack lakes are the canaries in the coal mine and have much to tell about the failures…

The New York budget includes $500,000 for a new survey of Adirondack lakes. Survey of Climate Change and Adirondack Lake Ecosystems, known as SCALE, will focus on the threat of climate change and build on a 1980s survey of over 1,000 Adirondack lakes, a landmark study of the effects of acid rain. Syracuse University Professor of Environmental Systems Charles Driscoll Jr. is one of the few researchers from that survey who continues to actively study Adirondack lakes. He told the Adirondack Explorer about his plans in this interview edited for clarity and length. Q: What was the 1980s Adirondack Lakes Survey? A: It was an unprecedented survey, a huge number of lakes, about half the number of lakes in the Adirondacks. It was a great project to characterize the resource,…

It didn’t make the nightly news, but to Julie Holbrook that made it no less an atrocity. A half-dozen commercial pizzas in grease-stained boxes had shown up in one of her school cafeterias, along with two jugs of Coke. The new soccer coach who purchased them didn’t know. He was just trying to ingratiate himself to his young charges. No one had told him that in the seven North Country school districts with 4,000 students under Holbrook’s watch, sugar and processed foods are as welcome as a snapping turtle in a nursery. Holbrook can laugh about it now—almost. She had been trying to steer the kids away from the pizza to the colorful fresh vegetables on her salad bar, but there were no takers. It was the beginning of the…

Common ravens are members of the corvid family, species considered the smartest of all birds. Ravens possess complex problem-solving skills, use tools to reach food and excel as well as apes and young children in their ability to plan ahead. They are the largest and most widely distributed perching songbird, found in much of North America and Eurasia. I observed a raven attempting to intimidate a red-tailed hawk by making a perfect dog-whine sound (corvids are great mimics), as it towered over the hawk in a face-off on a branch. Common ravens significantly expanded their range across the state between the first (1980-1985) and second (2000-2005) New York Breeding Bird Atlases. They were nearly exterminated from eastern North America by 1900 as a result of forest destruction and persecution. Scientists…

Naturalist Tom Kalinowski was hiking in Denali Park in Alaska about eight years ago when he encountered a familiar animal: a red fox. “Wow, this is incredible that they would be way up there,” he recalled thinking at the time. That’s a big difference between gray and red foxes. Grays aren’t found north of southern Canada, but reds can be found from Florida to Alaska. “A red fox’s fur can insulate them up to about 45-50 degrees below zero,” said Kalinowski, a retired high school biology teacher and author of natural history books. That makes them a good candidate to live in the Adirondacks. Red foxes generally have a thick yellow or reddish orange fur, except the bottom of their faces and undersides, which are white. Although the state Department…

A call for smart growth If only there were a way to align the needs of the Adirondack Park with the motivations of developers who come here looking to add large scale housing complexes. It would look a lot more like the proposed $30 million mixed-use renovation project for the former Oval Wood Dish factory in Tupper Lake and less like the prospective resort and housing development proposed on more than 350 acres along the East Branch of the Ausable River in Jay. One takes a decades-old eyesore abutting a beautiful lake view with plans to create retail space and 92 apartments that will begin to chip away at the dire need for housing for working professionals, service industry workers, teachers and healthcare providers who want to make the park…

On a rainy day in June, John and Margot Ernst sat before a roaring fire in their second home in North Hudson. The four-bedroom contemporary house provides spectacular views of Elk Lake and distant High Peaks. On this day, the mountaintops were shrouded in clouds. The Ernsts stepped out on their stone terrace, pointing to the purple lupine that each year has spread down their hillside. A loon called in the mist. Aside from the 1965 home and a waterfront resort the Ernsts operate down the road, the panorama was perhaps unchanged since John Ernst’s grandfather, Bernard Ernst, admired it over a century earlier. The president of the Society of American Magicians summered on nearby Clear Pond in the early 1900s. It was when Finch Pruyn timber company owned the…

In the woods of Lake Placid at the North Country School is a house with lakeside and High Peaks views accommodating 18 people attending the Summer Institute for Climate Change Education, a partnership of The Wild Center and the Finger Lakes Institute. Down the road is the renovated barn where they will participate in presentations and workshops. The bucolic natural setting is intentional. Immersion is often the best way to learn. The group of educators represents classrooms, museums, cultural institutions, science centers, aquariums, and nonprofit organizations including the Smithsonian Institute Museums, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 4-H Camps, as well as elementary, middle, and high schools. At the end of the summit, they all hope to leave with best practices for reaching young people on the topic of climate change. The…

Earlier this year, the Mental Health Association in Essex County ramped up its “sunshine call” program. These calls, made by trained staff, go out to people struggling with depression and anxiety. Some might receive a call daily, others weekly. “We’ve found that these calls are pretty beneficial,” said Doug Meyer, the association’s director of services. “We work with a lot of people who are very socially isolated. They stay in their apartments, and they’re depressed. If someone from an agency calls and asks how they’re doing, it’s a big deal. It’s a nice part of the day.” The isolation and stress of the pandemic, combined with spiking cost-of-living and other pressures, has fueled an alarming rise in mental health issues in the Adirondacks, and providers are working hard to meet…

You have to be flexible on the Northville Placid Trail. Reading and studying for the NPT cannot prepare you for your own story of this journey. My partner, Christopher, and I hiked the path in August. I journaled about the seemingly unbothered natural world, friendly humans, tales scrawled on lean-to logs, skinny dips, loons, owls, a hummingbird, the caterpillar of a silk moth, flies nesting in my hair, Leon the Long Lake Eagle, and an end-of-day Sunny D and vodka. I noted one meltdown in a downpour when descending a mountain: I cried so hard I got lightheaded and felt like I transcended through years of deep emotional trauma, I wrote. I planned for months for this adventure, and I loved it. However, it was not frolicking through the forest…

A long roads and in sunny fields and disturbed places, we spy red foxes (see page 62) often in the Adirondacks, streaking across our peripheral vision or pouncing on mice. Yet let us not forget that while we’re seeing red, these mountains also represent a gray area. In shady hardwood forests and mixed woodlands, gray foxes, not color variants of the red but representatives of a distinct species. My guess is that gray foxes in our neck of the woods outnumber their better-known cousins by a fair margin, even though most of us see them less often. A gray fox could be mistaken for a coyote. But it’s much smaller, averaging only 10 pounds or so to the coyote’s 30 or so. This year, with rodent populations apparently surging, I’ve…