Preserving Our Night Skies

by Paul Greenberg | Apr 25, 2022 | April 2022, Nature and Environment

Lake Placid’s James B. Sheffield Olympic Skating Rink with its new, broadcast-quality lights before the dimmers were installed. Photograph by Johnathan Esper On the evening of January 2nd, Lake Placid attorney Amy Quinn took her dogs for a walk in her quiet...

Shopping for the Apocalypse

by Paul Greenberg | Dec 11, 2021 | At Home in the Adirondacks 2021, Nature and Environment

illustration by Mike Reddy My dysfunctional, anxiety-ridden search for a climate-safe Adirondack haven For the last week I’ve been in the Adirondacks, not visiting my new land. My land is just a couple miles up a hill from the cottage I’ve been renting for the past...

On the Edge

by Annie Stoltie | Nov 16, 2021 | August 2021, Nature and Environment

photograph by Johnathan Esper Living with the Ausable River a decade after Irene August 28, 2011, as water flooded the Upper Jay firehouse, volunteer firefighters Ralph Schissler and Dennis Perpetua helped evacuate the station, moving equipment and trucks. Desperate...

Power to the People

by David Sommerstein | Nov 10, 2021 | At Home in the Adirondacks 2021, Nature and Environment

photograph by Aaron Hobson    How two brothers are going local with renewable energy Emmett and Ethan Smith are on a mission to change the way you think about the electricity that powers your house—to think about it as a local good, like something you buy at the...

Farm-to-Pump

by Luke McNally | Nov 9, 2021 | At Home in the Adirondacks 2021, Nature and Environment

Illustration by Gwen Jamison Vogel Turning waste fat into fuel in Whallonsburg Farmer Dillon Klepetar scratched his head through a wool cap, holding an oversized wrench in his other hand. He’d been retrofitting the farm’s tractor to run on diesel produced from pig and...

Sun-day Baking

by Paul Greenberg | Oct 28, 2020 | At Home in the Adirondacks 2020, Recreation

Writer Paul Greenberg warms up to solar cooking Photographs by Jamie West McGiver What is the absolute lowest-carbon way to cook a piece of food? I’d been trying to reach a definitive conclusion about this question for a book I was writing about lifestyle and climate...

The Legacy of Fire: Creative Destruction in Adirondack Forests

by Robin Wall Kimmerer | Oct 20, 2020 | April 2016, Nature and Environment

When I was a kid, I thought I had discovered the perfect answer to the “What do you want to be when you grow up?” question. The long hike up the mountain, the snug little cabin and the crowning glory of a fire tower with a 360-degree view, plus an occasional hiker...

Where the Land Is Teacher

by Robin Wall Kimmerer | Oct 17, 2020 | Guide to the Great Outdoors 2013, Nature and Environment

On a typical summer evening the Cranberry Lake Biological Station has a quiet hum of activity: ecology students at work, a loon call and perhaps the thwack of volleyball. But tonight it echoes with the sounds of the water drum, the hiss of shakers, the clacking of...

A Blue Lining

by Bill McKibben | Oct 15, 2019 | 50th Anniversary 2019

Photograph by Nancie Battaglia Activist and The End of Nature author Bill McKibben on the Adirondacks’ next 50 years It is, of course, difficult to predict the future. But since I have a half-decent track record, let me offer an Adirondack forecast for the next...

Return of the Natives

by Paul Greenberg | Aug 29, 2018 | Nature and Environment, October 2018

Centuries of deforestation and dam-building wiped out the landlocked Atlantic salmon that once thrived in Adirondack waterways. The Boquet River may be the last, best hope for restoring a self-sustaining population Fishing is all about longing. The angler wading into...