Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2025 i Adirondack Explorer

Before he died in Saratoga Springs last August, John F. Hendrickson decided to let his older brother handle the future of his multimillion-dollar estate, including 36,000 acres near Long Lake that are among the most desired private holdings in the Adirondack Park. Filed in Palm Beach County, Florida Oct. 31, Hendrickson’s will directs Edward Hendrickson, 62, who lives in Alaska, to make key decisions. John Hendrickson named his brother and Carolyn Steuer as his representatives but designated Edward Hendrickson to have final say. Steuer is a former employee of Marylou Whitney, John Hendrickson’s wife, who died in July 2019. Steuer received a Saratoga Springs residence as part of millions of dollars Whitney willed to friends and family, her will states. The heiress’ file in the Saratoga County Surrogate’s Court listed…

An exodus of green group leaders in the Adirondack Park is setting up 2025 as a year of change. Longtime leaders of two influential environmental organizations—the Adirondack Council and Protect the Adirondacks—stepped down and new ones are stepping up. And at one of the largest nonprofits, the Adirondack Mountain Club, a search is underway for the next CEO, with the interim director in the running. Beyond that, environmental organizations with more niche focuses are also experiencing turnover at the top. The Lake George Association welcomed Brendan Wiltse, who left the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College, as its new executive director. The Open Space Institute is now headed by the former state commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Erik Kulleseid. Entering 2025, how will these advocacy groups be…

As Ashley Walden heads into her second full year leading the Olympic Regional Development Authority, she has a huge budget and tough decisions ahead. Attempting to reorganize a branch of gov-ernment set in its ways, she has been responding to a host of management and operational deficiencies that need to be shored up, according to data and interviews. “These are things that take time in a large scale, relatively slow-moving organization,” said Tait Wardlaw, head of marketing and communications, one of Walden’s newest hires. After nearly $700 million in improvements to facilities since 2017, and hundreds of million more in the pipeline, the authority aims to bring in big events, many of which lose money but help fill hotel beds and restaurant seats. With facilities in the best shape they’ve…

Satellite renderings of the Adirondack Park show unusually shaped patches of flat greenery amid the rugged mountains, vast forests and hundreds of lakes and ponds. These sections, from 150 to about 500 yards long, are surrounded by trees and other flora. These odd parcels, their long swaths of greenery, their brighter circles of green at the end, and tiny areas of beach-like sand, are devoted to a sport that has grown in popularity since the 19th century and represents yet another reason over 12 million people visit the Adirondacks each year: Golf. It provides employment and fosters tourism. And there is something special about golf in the park, avid golfers say. The courses—some 32 parkwide—help attract visitors and serve as small economic engines that employ residents and generate tax revenue.…

It was eight days in a van and seven days camping with my family through the American heartland: Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. The idea for this trip came from my father, a Black, Cuban, retired DEA officer from the Bronx who had never camped a day in his life. Each night I had to remind him to lower his voice. By the fourth night, annoyed at his loudness, I asked him if he was afraid of the quiet. He said, “yes.” He wore bear spray on a holster like he was on a beat. The man who was so excited to see Mount Rushmore spent far more time at the Crazy Horse Memorial. We learned the Indigenous history absent from Dad’s parochial school curriculum in the 1970s,…

As Aaron Mair exits the Adirondack Council to lead a nonprofit startup, he sees the Adirondack Park conservation movement at a turning point. Rising visitor numbers and the effects of climate change are straining the region and its natural resources, the Schenectady-based environmental activist warns. “We're beyond recreation,” Mair said. “This is an ecological necessity to protect humanity.” Mair, 64, a former epidemiological-spatial analyst for the state Department of Health, is moving on from his post-retirement job at the helm of the Adirondack Council’s “Forever Adirondacks” campaign. His three-year post ended in December. In addition to lobbying for the region to transition to a green job-based economy, Mair has focused on protecting the park’s wilderness areas and waterways, which he said play an outsized role in maintaining the state’s air…

The Bloomingdale Bog trail is one of those slow, relaxed strolls, flat and undemanding, that locals have typically used to work off Sunday brunch. It was a rail trail before there was the Adirondack Rail Trail, although today it seems more commonly hiked than biked. Since it is Adirondack Rail Trail-adjacent, however, it may become a bit more of an opportunity for cyclists who have ridden the Tupper Lake-to-Lake Placid route and want something more. Hikers can take comfort that, unlike the more popular rail trail to the south, it contains natural speed bumps (roots, ditches, ballast) that discourage nuisance-level speed. It also is great for skiing. The Bloomingdale Bog trail, originally a line of the Delaware & Hudson Railway, runs from Route 86, 2.5 miles north of Saranac Lake…

There are six “crossbill” species—finches with mandibles (lower part of their bill) that cross either to the left or right. Two, white-winged crossbill and red crossbill, breed in the Adirondacks. With an excellent red spruce cone crop in the Adirondacks, red crossbills nested during late summer of 2024. Watch for late winter nesting in 2025. Crossbills are social and nomadic, wandering, sometimes across continents, searching for conifer seeds that unpredictably produce cones. It is a mystery how they know where to find these good feeding areas. They nest any time if they can find sufficient cone seed crops to feed their young. Red crossbills are absent from the Adirondacks when all conifer species simultaneously cycle with poor cone crops. Their habitat is in lowland to submontane mature coniferous forest in…

At 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11, whitish pillars of light rose into the sky over the barn at Donnelly’s Corners in Harrietstown. Rising from northern hardwood forests in Lake Clear, they glowed above the mountains. In his Jeep, parked at the Upper St. Regis Lake boat launch, amateur photographer John Faltus slept beside his tripod and camera. An exhausted Faltus had spent most of the night hoping to capture the aurora borealis. At sunset, he hiked Panther Mountain near Tupper Lake. After, he drove north of Saranac Lake, stopping at Glenview in Harriet-stown and then proceeded to Vermontville. But clouds covered the sky. He considered returning home to his warm bed, but by 11 p.m. he took up watch again at Upper St. Regis Lake. With clouds continuing to…

For Adirondack Diversity Initiative director Tiffany Rea-Fisher, inclusivity is a fundamental ingredient in the region’s economic and social well-being. “It behooves us to be a welcoming place,” she said. “For this area to thrive, people have to fall in love with it.” Rea-Fisher, 43, has been traveling back and forth between the Adirondacks and New York City for over 20 years. She became captivated by the region during her early years as a dance instructor at the Lake Placid School of Dance. After becoming the school’s director in 2018, she found that her role as a Black female leader in a predominantly white community deepened her understanding of the complex experiences of people of color in the Adirondacks. Professional dance obligations continue to tie Rea-Fisher to Manhattan. She serves as…

As superintendent at the Lake Placid Central School District, Roger Catania focused on closing the “opportunity gap”—the unequal distribution of resources that makes smaller, rural districts hardpressed to provide the same quality of education as more affluent, suburban peers. He helped found the Educational Opportunity Fund, a non-profit that raises money for field trips, college visits and reading programs for Lake Placid students. He made sure students had access to advanced placement courses and programs for career and technical education. Most of all, he prepared graduating seniors to succeed. “The gap in opportunities in school correlates highly with outcomes in life,” Catania said, during a wide-ranging interview. “Poverty and inequality are at the root. But it doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. Schools need to provide opportunities students won’t…

Could hotel taxes help? The recent acquisition of Big Tupper offers a unique opportunity to establish a year-round destination that harmonizes the natural landscape with various sporting activities. The mountain has been effectively closed for nearly 30 years, during which outdoor recreational activities have surged in popularity, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, with many evolving into professional sports. Unfortunately, the climate conditions have hindered the natural snowfall necessary for a sustainable business model, prompting a need for change. The rise of competitive sports, including mountain biking and trail running, has led to the formation of organizations such as the Pro Downhill Series and UCI. Pickleball, disc golf and hiking have also gained traction. This trend should inspire optimism among Big Tupper’s new owners and the community, as it…

The first summer on our 18 Adirondack acres, a quarter century ago, Debbie and I had frosts in July and August and every other month. Back then, the old joke about there being two Adirondack seasons, winter and the Fourth of July, hit the nail on the head. To quote Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin.’” Winters are shorter and milder, summers are longer and warmer, and the mammals we see in our yard and in our neighborhood are a-changing, possibly as a result. The most dramatic shift has been an increase in the number of raccoons. A decade or so ago, I kept a trail camera trained on our compost pile. While I captured plenty of images of fishers and foxes, I documented a raccoon rarely. Away from…