Conservation Minded Design for Adirondack Subdivisions Still Rarely Employed By Dave Gibson Ecologist and land use planner George Davis and his staff at the Commission on the Adirondacks in the 21st Century wrote in the Commission’s final report in 1990 that “rising land values and increasing costs of land ownership are making it difficult for forest and…
Michael Wilson – A river ran through him Michael died this winter, and I will remember him with much affection and admiration. I remember his laugh, and his eyes lit up when we met. I remember Michael investigating the social, cultural, and class dimensions of Adirondack wilderness, conservation, architecture, and other histories all around his…
Adirondack Park Agency Staff: ‘We Have A Hostile and Toxic Work Environment’ By Dave Gibson On February 12, 2025, the regional field representative for the Public Employees Federation (PEF), the union representing approximately 50,000 State employees with professional, scientific and technical responsibilities, sent an email to each of the eleven members of the Adirondack Park…
COMMENTARY: Ten Questions to Challenge Business as Usual at the APA By David Gibson The Adirondack Park Agency’s monthly public comment opportunities and long list of permits issued during the year are duly posted on the APA website and at Adirondack Almanack. This posting of basic Agency information is positive. However, behind the apparent conduct…
COMMENTARY: Is APA OK with ceding its authority over the Master Plan? For decades the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (APSLMP) has required that State Land Unit Management Plans “will address, on a site specific basis the identification, in intensive use, historic and appropriate portions of wild forest areas accessible by motor vehicles, of…
Peter Brinkley: The Adirondack Brand What follows is a guest essay by Peter Brinkley who lives in Jay and is Senior Partner of Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve. This essay was prompted in part by new Almanack contributor Kimberly Rielly’s piece “Understanding the Adirondack Brand“. We hear of the need for businesses in…
COMMENTARY: APA Proposes to Weaken Wilderness Protection On behalf of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, I was one of the intervenors to sign the 2001 Galusha v. NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Adirondack Park Agency (APA) consent order before U.S. Federal Judge Kahn in Albany. Following the lawsuit in federal…
Bearing Responsibility for the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan Former member of the Adirondack Park Agency and former chair of its State Land Committee, Dick Booth, offered this advice about the most significant, controversial legal issues facing APA during his time as one of its members (2008-16): prioritize, anticipate, prepare, be transparent, and issue…
Adirondack Wild Comments on 30 by 30 The New York State Draft Strategies and Methods for Conserving Thirty Percent of New York Lands and Waters by 2030 (hereafter “30 x 30”), introduced in early July 2024, is an outstanding first step in an effort to achieve a daunting objective in just 5 years. Adirondack Wild…
The Adirondacks – Where Wilderness Preservation Began Today is Sept. 3, 2024, the 60th anniversary since the National Wilderness Preservation Act was signed into law on Sept. 3, 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson.Today we celebrate the fact that the federal Wilderness Act protects: Did you know that the National Wilderness Act was modeled on New…