Search Results for: Adirondack

A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks

by Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Long time SPB member Tom Ellis spoke at the June 22 SPB virtual meeting. He reviewed the book, “A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks” by Brad Edmondson, published last year. Tom discussed the same book at an in-person review on May 24 for the Friends of the Albany Public Library. Tom said the title of the book (A Wild Idea) came from what, in the late 1960s, was a utopian belief:…

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The Politics of Hunting – Ward Stone Mothers a Bear

The Politics of Hunting – Ward Stone Mothers a Bear   The Politics of Hunting Ward Stone Mothers a Bear by Daniel W. Van Riper Officials in the State Dept. of Environmental Conservation are mainly concerned with promoting the sport of hunting, and give little thought to wildlife management. The only wildlife management policy is hunting, said NYS Wildlife Pathologist Ward Stone, speaking to a capacity crowd at the Dec. 16 SPB dinner at First Presbyterian Church in Albany. "Deer…

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30×30 – Let’s Buy All of the Remaining Pine Bush!

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY, NY: Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation (A.5390B/S.6191A) that sets the goal to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. land and water by 2030. This legislation will promote biodiversity and preserve New York’s wildlife, forests, and clean water sources, which are all essential to New York’s health and economy. Governor Kathy Hochul said, “New Yorkers rely on our clean water for recreation, forests to provide wildlife habitats, and the outdoor spaces for jobs and adventures,” It’s…

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Save the Pine Bush Lost Good Friends – Mark Plaat, One of the Founders of Save the Pine Bush

ALBANY, NY: Mark Plaat was one of the founders of Save the Pine Bush in February, 1978. He led many hikes, cleanups, and organized a cross-country ski race. Here is his obituary. On May 13th, Mark Plaat, loving husband and father of two boys passed away at the age of 72. Mark was born on May 8, 1950 along with his twin sister Tina, in Bronx NY to Shirley and Julius Plaat. He left home to attend SUNY Albany where…

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Save the Pine Bush Presentation – Down to Earth, 4/20/22

On Wednesday, April 20, 2022, Tina Lieberman and Bill Reinhardt of the Capital District Community Energy delivered the following presentation, via Zoom to the Save the Pine Bush Virtual Meeting. Links and accessible text are available below. Down To Earth:  Practical Steps You Can Take to Reduce Carbon Emissions & Save Our Climate Tina Lieberman, Vice Chair, Albany Sustainability Advisory Committee Bill Reinhardt, Albany County Legislator, Co-Chair Solarize Albany Founding Chairs, Capital District Community Energy, Inc. Notes: One main takeaway…

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Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic Defends the Pine Bush

by Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Todd Ommen and Robert O’Connor of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic (PELC) made a joint zoom presentation at the June 16th Save the Pine Bush dinner. Lynne Jackson hosted the event. Mr. Ommen led off. He is the PELC managing attorney and supervises interns. He began practicing environmental law in 2007, joined PELC in 2016, after prior corporate litigation and a stint with the NY Attorney General. He said there was little environmental law in…

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PAUSE Corrects the Record on the Bank Protest

Contrary to the comments made by individuals who know not of what they speak, the TD Bank Protest event on February 23rd did not happen as reported by the TU Staff writer. There were a good 25 enthusiastic supporters at the TD Bank protest, but only those trained in Non Violent Civil Disobedience went inside the bank. Those who did not wish to be arrested left as requested by the police officers when they arrived. The incident with the officer…

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Save the Pine Bush Loses A Very Dear Friend

It is with great sadness that we observe the passing of our dear friend, Louise Burch. Louise was a stalwart volunteer for Save the Pine Bush for decades. She folded newsletters and drove Rezsin and the newsletters to the post office. But, most important of all, she selflessly washed the dishes at the dinners, so that others could enjoy the food and the listen to the speakers. She did those behind the scenes important necessary tasks that needed to be…

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Researcher: Coyote is Part Wolf

by Stephen Williams, The Daily Gazette It’s one of the great animal kingdom migrations of the last century — the arrival and flourishing of the coyote in the eastern United States. The thick-furred canine and its high-pitched, ethereal yips and howls have become commonplace across the Capital Region over the last 30 years. Even suburbanites hear them. The eastern coyote is a bigger and more aggressive beast than its western counterpart — capable of taking down deer, rather than living…

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Save the Pine Bush loses a friend Peter J.R. Buttner

  Below are excerpts from an article about Peter Buttner from the Altamont Enterprise: Peter J.R. Buttner was a man who, by his own reckoning, worked to build a brighter future no matter how dark the present. He did this in his personal life and in his professional life as director of Environmental Management for the state. He also did this for his community; when he lived in Guilderland, Dr. Buttner led a citizens’ board that pushed to have toxic…

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Carnivores in the Pine

ALBANY: Dr. Roland Kays, Mammalogist with the New York State Museum, explained to a large, appreciative Save the Pine Bush audience, why carnivores are important to ecosystems. Carnivores have a Òtop downÓ effect on ecosystems. For example, wolves eat moose, who eat plants. A change in the number of wolves will affect a change in the number of moose, which changes the vegetation in the ecosystem. Or, coyotes are known to eat cats. The population of coyotes has an effect…

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Furry Pine Bush Residents

Furry Pine Bush Residents Furry Pine Bush Residents The butterfly is not the only resident of the Pine Bush. Little furry animals also reside in the Pine Bush. I had no idea how many different types of moles, voles, mice and other tiny creatures there are-or how important they are to the ecosystem of a forest. Rezsin and I saw an article about voles in the Pine Bush in the paper, and just had to find out about these small…

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Peter Vallone For Governor – A Superb Environmentalist   Peter Vallone For Governor A Superb Environmentalist By Daniel Van Riper It shouldn’t be a secret. Peter Vallone, Democratic candidate for Governor of New York State, has an outstanding environmental record and deserves to be our next Governor. Sure, he’s from downstate, but his vision is clearly statewide. Here are some main points from Mr. Vallone’s 13 page response to the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Political Committee Environmental Questionaire. After he…

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Proposals for Paving the Pine Bush Come Fast and Furiously

Proposals for Paving the Pine Bush Come Fast and Furiously Proposals for Paving the Pine Bush Come Fast and Furiously Guilderland, Albany consider destroying Full Protection Areas Guilderland, Feeney and Ford: Town of Guilderland Planning Board officials heard a preliminary proposal to destroy 103 acres of Pine Bush by allowing 30 plush, expensive houses to be built on land owned by Feeney and Ford. This land is adjacent to and just west of the State Preserve. The Albany Pine Bush…

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Black Bear Encounter in the Pine Bush

Black Bear Encounter in the Pine Bush   Black Bear Encounter in the Pine Bush by Alan Gilda It had always been a dream of mine; an encounter with a wild bear–approached with some trepidation I’ll admit. Many opportunities had existed. Trips to the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone, and Adirondack Mountains had yielded tantalizing clues of bear activity, but alas, no actual sightings. Until a magical summer night in the Pine Bush. On Sunday, June 21, around sunset, I was enjoying…

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Emergency Appeal

Emergency Appeal Emergency Appeal Save the Pine Bush thanks everyone who has sent a contribution so far to our emergency appeal. We have received many encouraging notes along with checks. Mrs. Thomas L. Johnson wrote: "Save the Pine Bush will use the money we give wisely and indeed the Pine Bush must become forever wild as is the Adirondacks forest preserve." Thank you Mrs. Johnson and thank you to everyone who has sent a donation. Our deadline is January 31….

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Does Sprawl Promote Lyme Disease?

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY, NY: The First Presbyterian Church was the location of the March Save the Pine Bush vegetarian dinner which featured the excellent presentation on biodiversity and Lyme Disease by Kathleen LoGiudice, PhD. Dr. LoGiudice opened her remarks by saying that the battle over Crossgates Mall made a big impression on her in high school. She was pleased that Save the Pine Bush was still fighting after all of these years. In the beginning of her presentation, she…

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The Patroon Creek and the Pine Bush

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY, NY: Dr. George Robinson shared his adventures studying and speculations about the mysterious Patroon Creek, Albany’s only remaining above-ground creek at the November SPB lasagna dinner at the First Presbyterian Church. The Patroon Creek begins in Lake Rensselaer, which is in the Pine Bush. The creek is fed by water filtered through huge amounts of sand of the Pine Bush which means that the water is of good quality. This is an unusual situation, because, unlike…

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Solid Waste Issues in the City of Albany, the Town of Colonie and the Proposed Changes in the NYS Solid Waste Regulations

by Tom Ellis ALBANY. NY: There is much to report on issues regarding solid wastes. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC or En Con)) DEC held a public hearing in Albany to receive comments on proposed revisions to its Part 360 regulations, DEC is assisting the Town of Colonie with its landfill expansion application,” and the City of Albany recently held a short public comment period on its proposals to (1) mechanize the collection of household wastes and recyclables,…

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200,000 marched in DC Heat — Report back — Circle Up

by Grace Nichols WASHINGTON, DC: Darting in and out of the crowd, you could catch the energy and creativity of the groups. Huge puppets from El Puente; Reclaiming Appalachian (huge red flag and lots of marchers), right next to Southern Christian Leadership Conference on Environmental Justice and tons of local groups (don’t dump on our county etc.) from all over the South. They were shouting “NO Justice, NO peace.” and I felt right at home. My people are the ones…

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Peter Henner

NEW SCOTLAND — A man of principle and passion, Peter Henner worked for causes he believed in with the same logic and commitment he used when playing chess. He tackled his legal work as he tackled mountains on climbs with his wife — with a sense of adventure. “He always told everything straight,” said Nancy Lawson, his wife. Mr. Henner died at his Clarksville home on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016. He was 64. The pages of The…

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Henry Diamond, First DEC Commissioner, Dies

By Tim Truscott   Henry L. Diamond, New York State’s first environmental conservation commissioner, who was appointed by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller on the inaugural Earth Day in 1970, died on February 21 in Washington at age 83. Mr. Diamond recalled in a recent article in The Environmental Forum that, at the time, in the early 1960s, “ecology was thought to be for eccentrics,”. “Conservation was an afterthought on political platforms,” he continued However, by 1970, the environmental movement had…

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Bakken Crude Oil Rail Shipments in Decline, But Surplus Tank Cars a Problem

by Tim Truscott   As most people in the Capital Region know, Albany became a hub for crude oil shipments by rail when the Bakken crude oil began flowing from North Dakota. It was perhaps the third largest Bakken crude oil hub in North America and was dubbed by some as “Houston on the Hudson”. But rail shipments of Bakken crude seem to have fallen off in recent months, as East Coast refiners are now not taking in as much…

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Lyme Disease: A Growing Epidemic

by Tom Ellis   ALBANY, NY: Holly Ahern, an Associate Professor of Microbiology at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, was the guest speaker at the August 29 SPB dinner. She discussed Lyme Disease: A Growing Epidemic. Ms. Ahern began saying the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the NYS Health Department (DOH) have a definition of Lyme disease – you see a tick and get a rash – that differs from the “other’ more common form of the disease. With…

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Willow Street Again

Willow Street Again   Drumlin Fields Its Not Over ’til Its Over (There is still time to call your Council Member!) by Lynne Jackson Dramatic events have happened since our last newsletter, when we made an appeal for Save the Pine Bush supporters to contact their Common Council members and ask them to vote “no” on the Drumlin Fields proposal before the scheduled vote on January 21. The Common Council did NOT vote on January 21. They received a mountain…

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Prayer

Prayer Prayer Breakfast May 11, 2004 On Tuesday, May 11 at 7:00 AM, people gathered to listen to Rev. Sam Trumbore of the First Unitarian Universalist Church read a prayer outside the Empire State Plaza Convention Center. View photos of the protest. This is his prayer: Protest Prayer Before a Bush/Pataki Prayer Breakfast Blessed God of our hearts, minds and spirits Holy Spirit of Light, Life and Love Precious Saving Power that moves us toward the good Protector of our…

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Earth Day Update

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY, NY: The First Presbyterian Church was the location of the April Save the Pine Bush vegetarian dinner which featured representatives of five environmental groups telling us about the state of the environment. Bobbi Chase, of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CEC), gave us an update about toxics. The state superfund has run out of money and has not been re-funded by the state. There are 770 toxic waste dumps around the state that have no…

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Words Over Lasagna – Recent Dinner Speakers

Words Over Lasagna – Recent Dinner Speakers Words Over Lasagna Recent Dinner Speakers April/May 1995 By Daniel Van Riper We’ve had some excellent presentations at our monthly lasagna dinners at First Presbyterian Church in Albany over the past five months. All were well attended. Here’s a roundup: November 94 – Dr. George Robinson of the SUNY Albany biology department talked about plant and animal surveys in NY State. "I am interested," he told the crowd, "in preserving biodiversity and keeping…

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Space Saver

by Gary S. Kleppel The state Department of Environmental Conservation recently released the 2001 draft Open Space Conservation Plan for public comment, a near-final step toward its adoption. Hailed by environmentalists, business leaders and academics as a benchmark in environmental policy, the plan demonstrates that conservation can serve both economy and ecology. There is but one significant glitch. There is no state funding for implementation. At a time when New Yorkers clearly need the economic, recreational, environmental and spiritual values…

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COUNTING FORESTS’ SENIOR CITIZENS

by DINA CAPPIELLO, Staff writer They are the trees that have survived it all — the bouts of disease, the axes of loggers, the lightning storms that uproot a forest like a gardener’s hand pulls weeds. Most would be older than your great-great-great-great grandfather, if he were still alive. But until this Saturday, there was no systematic search under way for eastern New York’s stands of old-growth forest. Most were discovered during the course of other research, or by chance…

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Save the Pine Bush Virtual Meeting – Wednesday, February 22, 2023 6:30 PM

Save the Pine Bush Zoom Meeting February 22, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. Alÿcia Bacon Moms Out Front and Save the Pine Bush Volunteer, will speak about … How to Get Our Government to Protect the Remaining Pine Bush Organizing a Lobbying Campaign Alÿcia Bacon will give a presentation on creating an effecting lobbying campaign. The battle for Pine Bush preservation started 45 years ago this month. Up until now, Save the Pine Bush has mostly used litigation to stop development…

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Lou Ismay and the Environmental Forum

by Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: On August 21, Lou Ismay completed the lecture he began in April about his experiences teaching and leading the Environmental Forum course at the University at Albany beginning fifty years ago. Lynne Jackson introduced Lou saying Lou’s office was in the Arts building. Lou hung strings from the ceiling connected to manila folders with the names of the many Forum guest speakers. Lynne happily recalled the cookie jar in Lou’s office that held large cookies….

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Everybody Wants One – Preservation Plan Makes Waves

by Daniel W. Van Riper With a public flourish, SPB released the Pine Bush Preservation Plan at the first Albany Common Council meeting of the year by presenting a copy to each alderman. Immediately, interested persons and organizations clamored for copies of the plan, including neighboring municipalities, state agencies, county legislators, neighborhood groups, environmentalists and reporters. Demand for copies remains high, along with requests for SPB members to speak. The Plan calls for $13 million in NYS Environmental Trust Fund…

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SPB Newsletters Listed by Date – 2020s

2020s 🦋 2010s 🦋 2000s 🦋 1990s Search Newsletter Archives: 2023 🦋 2022 🦋 2021 🦋 2020 2023 Newsletters 🦋 News Articles from April / May 2023 Newsletter The Costco Public Hearing & Climate Change by Lynne Jackson – April / May 2023 Newsletter Ward Stone — NYS Wildlife Pathologist Worked for the People by Lew Oliver – April / May 2023 Newsletter Ward Stone was employed by the state but he worked for the people, animals, and environment by…

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Newsletters Articles Ordered by Subject

Search Newsletter Archives: What is Full Protection, Partial Protection and who is the Pine Bush? – By Lynne Jackson – June / July 2022 Newsletter A Tribute To Lew Oliver, our wonderful lawyer The Pine Bush’s Most Famous Resident – The Karner Blue Butterfly Save the Pine Bush Victories and Fights The Thruway Authority Comes Across Royally, Dec 99/Jan 00Save the Pine Bush is 25!, Mar/Apr 03 Legislation regarding standing in court We Need the Environmental Access to Justice Act,…

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