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The Mountain Mix series features articles and essays by Protect the Adirondacks board members, members, and friends, about anything Adirondack. Articles will not necessarily conform with PROTECT positions, or may address issues on which we do not yet have a position.
Most folks, if asked, would say, “Sure, I love nature.” Who doesn’t love grass and trees and flowers and birds and butterflies and such? I certainly do. Always have. I grew up in a Michigan boatyard, after all, surrounded by lakes and streams and forests and all kinds of flora and fauna. But at one [...]
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A grassroots effort to provide quality goods at a reasonable price will help to sustain Saranac Lake as a small Adirondack town. After the Ames Department Store closed in 2002 residents had to drive outside of the Park to Plattsburgh or Malone to meet many of their shopping needs. When Wal-Mart wanted to build a [...]
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My relationship with hiking trails started when I joined the Onondaga Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club in 1981. One of my first ADK events was a trail building trip on the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) in Central New York. I was amazed as we hiked out at the end of the day that what [...]
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Inclusion of more lands in the forest preserve is viewed by some as a “kiss of death” for the economy. I don’t agree. Here is an example. Several months ago a couple entered our boat shop and told us their story. This was their very first trip to the Adirondacks. They had spent the night [...]
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Because we’ve taken too much already. Movement is as essential to animals’ lives as are sun, water, and family; yet we North Americans have deprived our fellow denizens of most of their living and traveling spaces. Across most of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, wildlife habitats are so diminished and fragmented by roads, [...]
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Not only are 1,000 pound, $10,000, 100 mile per hour machines being allowed to drive on forest preserve lands which were to be kept wild forever; but now multi-ton tracked groomers will be driving on so-called “trails” and on bridges, complete with reflectors for night driving and made to support 10,000 pounds, to make smooth [...]
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An Adirondack bio-blitz was held in the village of Saranac Lake and surrounding areas on the weekend of July 14-15, 2012. This was a follow-up to the initial one held in 2010 in the Follensby Pond tract of the Nature Conservancy. Participating in the survey , which was coordinated by Dr. David Patrick of Paul [...]
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The forests of the Adirondacks, while often wonderfully recovered from clear-cutting and burning 100 years ago, are “spring chickens” compared to my favorite ecological retreats—peat bogs. When the glacier melted back 10,000 years ago, huge ice chunks were sometimes left buried in rock debris. When these eventually melted, they left “kettle hole” ponds with no [...]
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Please don’t buy, transplant or allow this nasty plant to invade our forests: Japanese barberry (called “red barberry” in nurseries) used to behave itself around here, but as is the case with many invasive plants and animals, with warming temperatures in winter they are able to thrive farther north. Now we need to gear up [...]
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The Adirondack Park, larger than Connecticut and the largest park in the lower 48 states, is a unique mix of public (52%) and private (48%) ownership. The private forest lands are fundamental to the landscape of the Park. Indeed, the “forever wild” core of the Park requires carefully managed private lands to preserve that wild [...]
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