Table of contents for May/June 2022 in Adirondack Explorer

Researchers take note of northern spread of tick-borne illnesses BY CAYTE BOSLER Those venturing into the woods face varied dangers posed by ticks migrating in greater numbers into North Country counties. The black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, also known as the deer tick, transmits up to seven different diseases, many on the rise, as the tiny arachnids creep farther into areas they previously were not. Scientists attribute this in part to climate change. Tick-borne diseases already account for more than 75% of reported vector-borne diseases nation-wide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The overall warmer and wetter conditions brought by climate change probably favor tick survival and an increase in their populations. They have a better chance of surviving the winters because they are milder,” said Paul…

To some, a loon call is an ethereal sound like a lurking spirit. Or it harks back to childhood memories. Or perhaps it is a symbol for the wilderness as a whole evoking reverence and mystery. But these aquatic birds, Gavia immer, so tied to the Adirondacks face increasing threats like unprecedented winter conditions and sudden storm floods, which can disturb their migrations and nests. Recent loon rescues have underscored the importance to conservationists for strategic plans needed to support them in the coming years. Iced in In early March, staff from the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation helped rescue five common loons “iced-in” on Lake Champlain. Rescuers found them stuck in a small hole, vulnerable to exhaustion and predation, and brought them to safety. Before lakes freeze in December…

The energy crept into my limbs as I read the weather predictions for the weekend, highs in the mid-50s and sun. The spring equinox was arriving this Saturday, and the snow had recently melted away. I was excited. Warmth brings dryness, giving way to more available ground. After months of rinks and indoor skate parks, I now could feel the wind and my wheels simultaneously again. I am high energy, easily excited and even easier to entertain. I also work a lot. I have multiple jobs and I volunteer a considerable amount of my time on community projects, most notably as a treasurer on a board of a nascent nonprofit. Although I am active snow-boarding, hiking and pursuing other hobbies indoors all winter, something happens in my soul these first…

Seeking a just Whiteface trail plan We object to the current draft of the Unit Management Plan Amendment proposed by ORDA for upgrades at Whiteface Mountain. We join the youth of the world and many world citizens who are finally facing facts and mobilizing to mitigate climate change and promote climate, social and economic justice. The new plan prioritizes widening of ski racing trails to accommodate the upcoming World University Games and other national and international events. The plan initially called for deforestation of 27,000 trees, including parts of the habitat of the Bicknell’s thrush, a bird that is of high conservation priority. The current plan is less precise, with ORDA’s legal counsel saying, “the process will determine just how many trees need to be cut.” Forests help stabilize the…

The towns of Keene, Wilmington, Jay and Black Brook are typical of the Adirondack Park. Removed from the touristy villages, they are still attractive to vacationers and have a hint of the industrial past where homes are typically more affordable. But good luck finding a home there. In an area that includes 7,000 residents, it is virtually impossible. “There are 10 homes in Jay you can buy,” veteran Realtor Mike Straight said in early March during a video conference with the Au Sable River Valley Business Association. “There are two in Keene you can buy. There is one in Wilmington and one in Black Brook, and that’s a camp, it’s not even a home.” For home buyers, it’s not so much a matter of being priced out of the market…

Camp Dudley is a 19th-century Adirondack camp for boys on the shores of Lake Champlain. The complex of cabins and impressive lodges are tucked on a hillside off state Route 9N on a namesake road. The camp’s motto is “The Other Fellow First.” Camp Director Matt Storey typically welcomes visitors in the summer, but on a cloudy March day, MacLean lodge was filled with the toasty smells of breakfast, the warmth of a crackling fireplace and the laughter of 20 students from SUNY Potsdam. It was spring break in the Adirondacks. Clifton Harcum, director of the college’s Center for Diversity, watched his students perform icebreaker games instigated by Claudia Ford, chair of Potsdam’s environmental studies. After hitting roadblocks during the coronavirus pandemic, the two were thrilled the one-week trip was…

BY PHIL BROWN Thomas Howard had climbed some of the world’s biggest mountains—Denali in Alaska, Mount Huascaran in Peru and Xixabangma Peak in the Himalayas. Yet he died in the Trap Dike, by comparison a minor objective. After a three-day search, forest rangers found Howard’s body in March under four feet of snow at the base of a frozen waterfall. Police investigators ruled it an accidental death from blunt force trauma. When I read of the tragedy, I thought about my predicament a few winters earlier. Like Howard, I set off to climb the Trap Dike by myself. It was all ice, top to bottom. Two younger guys let me tie into their rope to ascend the waterfall, the crux of the route. I continued solo. By the time I…

When I heard the Olympic Regional Development Authority planned to start cutting trees along the White-face Highway to create new ski trails, connector trails between the existing trails and the new ones, and to cut more trees for a path for a new lift, I wanted to learn more. I contacted the authority and received its proposed Unit Management Plan, 169 pages with charts and graphs that stunned me, particularly because the text discussed the Bicknell’s thrush and its breeding schedule. I breathed a sigh of relief but wondered how thoroughly ORDA understood the Bicks’: “Tree cutting operations above 2,800 feet in terrain identified as suitable Bicknell’s habitat shall be prohibited between the dates of 15 May and 01 August to minimize impacts during the active nesting cycle.” LISTEN The…

Inclusivity is something we’re working on in the Adirondacks, knowing that the visitor demographics are skewed toward the privileged and white. At the same time, stakeholders are working on ways to ensure hikers coming to the High Peaks region can safely navigate Route 73, that they are prepared for challenging hikes and that they won’t harm the fragile environment—its beauty being the very reason people want to come. Any solutions we adopt around managing use, though, should encourage rather than discourage visitors—especially those who have not had the benefit of growing up with time in the Adirondack Park, and people from groups who historically haven’t participated in hiking, climbing and skiing here, including those from minority groups. Visitors are the region’s economic lifeblood and equal owners of a park that…

The scale of Hydro-Quebec’s portfolio of dams and reservoirs is staggering. The projects have remade the social and natural landscape of northern Canada. The impoundments, many of which lie in vast boreal forests more than 500 miles north of Montreal, dwarf Adirondack lakes. Quebec’s largest reservoir, Caniapiscau Reservoir, covers 1,600 square miles, almost four times the size of Lake Champlain. Before the Caniapiscau River was dammed in the early 1980s, the original Caniapiscau Lake covered 180 square miles. In the northern Quebec watershed of the La Grande River, Hydro-Quebec has 11 dams and eight impoundments, which cover a combined area more than twice the total area of protected wilderness in the Adirondacks. In 2005, while creating the Eastmain-1 Reservoir on the La Grande, Hydro-Quebec flooded 113 square miles of…

A lab analyst for Bionique Testing Laboratories in Saranac Lake recently quit after a year on the job. A primary reason: He couldn’t find a decent place to live. Bionique, which specializes in mycoplasma analysis for the pharmaceutical industry’s development of new drugs, has expanded its workforce from 30 people three years ago to an expected 50 by the end of this year, said Gladis Zamparo, the company’s CEO. But it’s hampered by an impenetrable housing market across the region. Rentals and homes are scarce and prices—reflecting that limited supply–are staggering. For the senior management candidates Bionique wants to hire, it struggles to offer a competitive relocation package that includes a housing option, Zamparo said. On the other end of the experience spectrum, recent college graduates that Bionique brings on…

Doug Johnson remembers noticing Japanese knotweed for the first time about 15 years ago in southern Vermont, where his wife’s parents own an old farmhouse. He didn’t recognize the plant, so he looked it up and learned of its invasive behavior. Johnson wondered whether it was in the Adirondacks around his second home, on Seventh Lake in the town of Inlet. It was. But it wasn’t yet as far gone. Johnson saw an opportunity to get rid of the aggressive knotweed before it infested the town and squeezed out the native plants where it colonized in byways and waterways. “I really hadn’t been aware of it in the Adirondacks until I started looking,” said Johnson, who lives in Springfield, Mass. He “started seeing a lot of it. Inlet was being…

Hiking up Severance, one follows in the footsteps of pioneering families searching for opportunity, Hudson River School artists seeking inspiration and 19th century tourists looking for an escape from industrial life. Severance, just northwest of Schroon Lake, presents two picturesque views for a short but strenuous effort, a 2.4-mile roundtrip with a 750-foot elevation gain. Severance also faces an identity crisis. While the state uses “Mount Severance,” the U.S. Geological Service, on maps dating back to the 1890s, named it “Severance Hill.” There is no specific classification for a mountain in the United States. The designation is often just based on intuition and pride. One explanation from geographer Roderick Peattie suggests that “mountains should be impressive, possess individuality and should enter into the imagination of the people who live near…

BY BRAD EDMONDSON Former Adirondack Council lobbyist Bernard Melewski advises: “Find out what motivates the people you need to take action. Convince them that your goal is something they also want.” Melewski’s new memoir, “Inside the Green Lobby: The Fight to Save the Adirondack Park” is drawn from three decades as an environmental powerbroker in Albany. He is a fine storyteller and the book should be irresistible to political junkies, but it is also worthwhile for those who don’t know much about how a bill becomes a law. People often think of politics as a game of competing ideas where the outcome depends on who spends the most money. But that is only part of the truth. Melewski adds missing pieces. Legislative politics is about relationships. Lobbyists study legislators the…

Climb just about any Adirondack mountain. As you ascend toward 2,500-foot elevation and beyond, you may notice a change in the paper, or white, birches you’re passing. Lower on the slope, the trees looked like the ones growing in your backyard or outside the window of your hotel or B&B. The chalky-white bark, marked by horizontal aggregations of pores called lenticels, peeled in paper-like sheets on the trunks, and the leaves were flat green, toothed along the edges and vaguely egg-shaped. Yet higher on the slopes, the paper birches look subtly but decidedly different. When the leaves of the upper elevation trees unfold in May, they take the shape not of eggs but of elongated versions of the hearts you learned to draw as a child. Look closely at these…