Search Results for: Forest Dr

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Jerry Mueller brings Lasagna to Nicaragua – The Pine Bush as Example for the World Jerry Mueller brings Lasagna to Nicaragua The Pine Bush as Example for the World by Lynne Jackson In 1987, when Save the Pine Bush was only 9 years old, and before any major acquisition of land had occurred because of our lawsuits, I attended a speech made by an friend of mine who had just come back from El Salvador. She described the conditions for…

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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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Ecosystem Commonalities and the Albany Pine Bush

by Grace Nichols Recently visiting the West Coast after nearly two decades away, I was reacquainted with the familiar San Francisco Bay and introduced to the Sierra Nevada habitat. I found amazing correspondences between our ecosystems here and some west coast territory. For example, our beloved Pine Bush ecosystem is highly fire dependent. Forest fires help open the pitch pine seeds, though they will open on a very hot day as well. The fire is also needed to prepare the…

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Climate Change and Hell and High Water

Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Hell and High Water: New York Responds to Climate Change was title of the talk given by Mark Lowery at the November 16 SPB dinner. Mr. Lowery is a climate policy analyst in the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Office of Climate Change (OCC). He said OCC helps NYS mitigate and adapt to climate change. Prior to his talk, he told me he could speak for many hours on this topic. Toward the end of…

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Say ‘No’ to proposed pipeline

  In 1996, the Iroquois Pipeline Co. pleaded guilty to four felony counts and paid multimillion dollar fines for overseeing hundreds of criminal violations of the Clean Water Act during the construction of a 375 milelong gas pipeline across New York state. A decade later, the construction of the Millennium Pipeline resulted in the same catastrophic erosion events and negligent destruction of aquatic habitats. State regulators once again levied fines and hundreds of enforcement actions as they sought to repair…

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Crossing paths: Area farmers fear risks from 2 gas pipeline proposals

By Brian Nearing — Published in the Times Union, Saturday, June 27, 2015   It’s a long way from a sea of natural gas wells scattered through Pennsylvania’s Bradford County to Libby Reilly’s organic farm off Clarks Chapel Road in Nassau. And it is even longer from her farm, where about two dozen beef cows graze in grassy fields, to remote cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. But these far-flung places share something in common —…

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The Unforeseen Consequences of Tobacco

  Most people view cigarettes as a health problem, but they are a huge environmental problem as well. The entire life cycle of a cigarette has an impact on the environment – from growing the tobacco to throwing away the butt. Tobacco Farming -Tobacco cultivation is responsible for a myriad of environmental problems, including land and water pollution due to pesticides as well as deforestation.  Tobacco plants are prone to many insect pests, and therefore tobacco farmers are forced to…

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Neil Gifford Brings Good News

by Lynne Jackson   ALBANY: Neil Gifford, conservation director of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, spoke at the Save the Pine Bush Earth Day dinner on April 22. He brought good news. Neil began by describing “young forest management.” Young forests are dominated by shrubs and saplings, and are often found where old farm fields and pastures used to be, in places regenerating from timber and in pine barrens. Many species of greatest conservation need live in these young…

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Puerto Rico protects premier turtle nesting site

  Editor’s note: we all love turtles at Save the Pine Bush and Rezsin thought others would enjoy this success story SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s governor on Saturday signed a law to protect a swath of land along the island’s northeast coast that is a top U.S. nesting site for the world’s largest turtle species. The law ends a 15-year fight that environmentalists and celebrities including actor Benicio Del Toro had waged against developers eager to…

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Run Away Climate:

by Grace Nichols   ALBANY: Steven Leibo, Phd, a Sage Colleges Professor of International History and Politics, as well as an International Affairs Commentator on WAMC Northeast Public Radio, came to speak to us about the Climate Change crisis. Dr. Leibo has been a constant presence on the academic and environmental scene in the Capital Region for the past several years, in a recognizable fisherman’s cap, speaking, holding seminars and films, and keeping us focused on change. Dr. Leibo gave…

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Fishers in the Pine Bush! May 2011 Pine Bush Dinner with Scott LaPoint

Albany, NY: Recently, a friend out in Rensselaer County grabbed my arm and said “don’t you dare release your rehabilitated (orphan) rabbits out here—The Fisher will get them!” She went on to describe an animal so mean and vicious that no other mammal would be safe around them. And so, though I haven’t ever met a fisher, I got an idea of the reputation that precedes them. It turns out that fishers are a member of the weasel family. They…

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Habitat Restoration and Mitigation Project: How it Fits in to the Preserve Goals for Restoration” Neil Gifford Gives Save the Pine Bush Dinner Talk in March, 2011

by Grace Nichols ALBANY, NY – Neil Gifford, Conservation Director at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, has been working in the Pine Bush since the early 1990s. He describes the mission of the Albany Pine Bush Commission, a body representing the many different governmental interests in the Pine Bush land, as “to preserve the pitch pine/scrub oak barrens” as authorized by Environmental Conservation Law Article 46 (1988) in which the legislature declared it is in the public interest to protect…

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Crossgates Casts a Dark Shadow Over the Pine Bush

ALBANY, NY: Just when you thought it was safe to go to the mall, Pyramid Crossgates proposes yet another project to destroy Pine Bush and potential Karner Blue habitat. Albany City Hall was the setting for Pyramid to describe to the Albany Common Council Zoning Committee how its proposal to build a residence inn hotel on 3.72 acres adjacent to the one of the largest sites of Karner Blues will have no environmental impact. In 1998, Pyramid Crossgates illegally bulldozed…

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Guilderlandt

by Sandy Sheridan Birk The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) approved the final version of the Karner Blue Butterfly Recovery Plan in August. Part I of the Plan describes the butterfly’s life cycle and ecosystem, as well as the threats to its survival*. Part II delves into the plan of action needed to reach the ultimate goal of de-listing the Karner Blue Butterfly (KBB) from the Federal list of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants. Certain benchmarks must be…

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Surveys seek to define status of night birds

ALBANY – On a warm, moonlit night in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, a group of biologists listened at the foot of a grassy dune for the lilting, three-note song of a once-common nightbird that has now become rare. “We were pretty excited to hear the whippoorwill here again,” said Neil Gifford, conservation director of the preserve. “It had been 13 years since it was last heard around here.” Gifford believes intensive work in recent years to restore the rare…

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Study Links Lyme Disease, Rural Building

by Claire Hughes, Staff writer Excessive development of rural countryside, which leads to the loss of some animal species there, could be the reason the Capital Region and other areas of New York have seen recent spikes in rates of Lyme disease, according to a study being published this week. A group of researchers, including a biologist from Union College, have concluded in a paper to be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that biodiversity loss contributes…

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Neil Gifford Presents A Pine Bush Update

by Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: At times speaking poetically, Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission (commission) Conservation Director Neil Gifford spoke at length about the Karner Blue Butterfly (KBB) at the March 21 SPB dinner. He began with a friendly joke that “It’s Lynne and Rezsin’s fault I am here tonight,” a reference to the commission being created by state government after many years of SPB advocacy and litigation to protect the local pine barrens known as the Pine Bush. Mr….

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Sally’s Recycling Corner

Compiled by Sally Commings   Recycle After you’ve cut back and reused till the cows came home, the next step is one of our favorites here at Earth911: recycling. The act of recycling has become second nature for a lot of us over the years and even if you do it every day, there is usually always a little room for improvement. Our first tip focuses mainly on not just participating in the act of recycling, but perfecting it. Then…

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DEC and State Parks Release State Open Space Conservation Plan for Public Comment Public Comments Accepted Through December 17; Public Hearings to be Held Statewide

  Press Release from DEC and State Park on Wednesday, September 17, 2014 Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens and Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) Commissioner Rose Harvey today released the 2014 State Open Space Conservation Plan for public comment. The plan guides State Environmental Protection Fund investments in open space protection. Public comments on the draft plan will be accepted from September 17 until December 17 and a series of public hearings will…

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Sprawl Raises Taxes: The Myth Of The Expanding Tax Base

By Daniel Van Riper Every time the City of Albany Common Council Members approve a “development” in the Pine Bush, it results in a loss of revenue to the City that can only be made up by raising taxes. In other words, this year’s tax hikes are directly caused by the last few years of Pine Bush building approvals. Deceptive and/or ignorant politicians are fond of repeating the phony story that these approvals “expand the tax base” and thus bring…

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Fighting the Crossgates Expansion

Dear All, The proposed apartment complex on Rapp Road in Guilderland is back.  Pyramid sold the 19 acre parcel to a local developer.  This new developer has proposed some modifications to the project.  The new name for the project is Apex at Crossgates. The area where the proposed apartment complex is to be built is recommended for partial protection by the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission. The public hearing: Wednesday, July 13 at 7:00 PMGuilderland Town Hall5209 Western TpkGuilderland, NY…

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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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