Search Results for: Pond Road

Judith Enck Meets with Ezra Prentice Residents

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by Tom Ellis   ALBANY, NY: When we learned that US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional administrator Judith Enck would be speaking in Albany the same evening Save the Pine Bush as the scheduled August dinner, SPB decided to cancel the dinner and hear Ms. Enck speak. On August 17, Ms. Enck, formerly of Albany, participated in a forum with the new NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) commissioner and residents of the Ezra Prentice Homes (EPH) on South Pearl…

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Ward Stone Speaks

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by Tom Ellis   ALBANY, NY: Saying “I am very happy to be here,” Ward Stone launched into a very interesting and wide-ranging lecture at the December 16th SPB dinner.  Using deadpan humor, he said, “I spent a very environmental evening” last night watching the Republican presidential candidates.  Later he said “These Republican candidates are not good for the environment . . . We need to educate the politicians.” Ward Stone, who is 77, was the NYS Wildlife Pathologist from 1969 to 2010.  He was…

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Don Reeb — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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by Tom Ellis   ALBANY, NY: Retired University at Albany economics professor and McKownville Improvement Association president Don Reeb was the speaker at the November 18 SPB dinner.  Don spoke about SUNY Poly — formerly College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE): The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.  Don is 82 years old.  He said the neighborhood contain 900 houses and the neighborhood association has a $300 annual budget.  He said only forty percent of registered voters in county legislature districts 3 and 4 voted in November.  He makes…

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

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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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City of Albany Office of Energy and Sustainability Visits Save the Pine Bush

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by Tom Ellis   ALBANY, NY: Kate Lawrence of the Mayor’s Office of Energy and Sustainability was the speaker at the March 18 SPB dinner. She said former Mayor Gerald Jennings launched the sustainability office in 2011; he signed a national green jobs pledge in 2008, the bicycle master plan was completed in 2009, and the 2030 plan was completed in 2010 and approved by the Common Council in 2012. An Albany Common Council sustainability advisory committee was approved  in 2013,…

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Michael McLaughlin, Director of Research for Albany County Executive Dan McCoy Speaks to SPB

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By Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Michael McLaughlin, the Director of Research for Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, was the SPB dinner speaker on May 21, filling in for McCoy who was attending the convention of the NYS Democratic Party.  He said he is involved in many of McCoy’s policies. Mr. McLaughlin said the Polystyrene ban signed by McCoy in December is a flawed law, the county executive is taking steps to strengthen it, McCoy wishes to extend it to all restaurants, the…

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Chris Amato Speaks About the Oil Trains

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by Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY: Albany Law School graduate, former DEC Assistant Commissioner, and Earthjustice attorney Chris Amato spoke at the March 20 SPB dinner about Oil-by-Rail in Albany. Mr. Amato said the recent massive increase in North American oil-by-rail shipments impact most of NYS and he hopes to represent a broad coalition on this matter.  The North Dakota Bakken and the Alberta tar sands are different types of oil but both are an issue for Albany and New York….

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The Importance of the Tivoli Preserve

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by Tom Ellis ALBANY: George Robinson, a restoration ecologist with the University at Albany’s Department of Biological Sciences, spoke at the June 19 SPB dinner at Westminster Presbyterian Church about the history of restoration planning for the Tivoli preserve. For those unfamiliar with it, the Tivoli preserve is located north of Livingston Avenue and behind the former Philip Livingston school. The Tivoli lake (or pond) is a few hundred yards west of the former school. Also located in the Tivoli…

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Late Fall Hike Report No snow or ice so it was a hike

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by Claire Nolan   ALBANY: We had three hikers join us for a chilly pre-Holiday stroll along the recently re-routed “Yellow Trail” behind the Pine Bush Discovery Center. Two more joined us for a mountain bike ride on the same trail. The two mountain bikers are students at UAlbany who came to the Pine Bush all the way from Japan. As you may remember, the Pine Bush Commission decided to re-route the trails to eliminate the inner loops. Instead of…

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What’s afoot at the Preserve?!

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By Grace Nichols November 2010 was notable in that folks in the community kept contacting us about the Albany Pine Bush Preserve. First it was the neighbors over on Lincoln Ave, wondering why the “forever wild” patch next door was being clearcut, as a new road was being put in connecting Lincoln Ave and Fox Run. Now that the people who had asked for that road for a decade were evicted, the City has put in a good one. Fox…

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SPB Awarded Stewardship of Aquifer

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SPB Awarded Stewardship of Aquifer We couldn’t resist. . . What can I say? My husband, Daniel W. Van Riper, and I were strolling through a fair in Scotia, New York, when we came upon an exhibit from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). They were handing out applications to adopt bodies of water in NYS. On a lark, we picked one up, as Dan thought Save the Pine Bush could apply to adopt the aquifer under the Pine…

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Overview of Climate Crisis and NY Renews

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by Tom Ellis ALBANY, NY Mark Schaeffer of 350.org and Conor Bambrick of Environmental Advocates (EA) spoke at the September 21 SPB dinner about the climate crises and the need for a political climate change. Mark led off saying pre-industrial age atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations were 280 part per million (ppm) and today are 400+ ppm, in part the result of years of inaction resulting from decades of disinformation by the fossil fuel industry, including Exxon. He said we…

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Jerry Jennings Blinked

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by Tom Ellis   First-term Albany Common Council member Frank Commisso, Jr., has figured out how Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings operates and is determined to make substantive changes.  A member of the common council’s finance committee, he led a revolt over two proposed bonding ordinances – one for $7 million to expand the city’s Rapp Road landfill yet again, the other for $2.35 million to “restore” the landfill.   Both ordinances were enacted on April 2 but Jennings made concessions. About one-half the 15-member common council attended…

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Town of Colonie to Adopt Comprehensive Plan

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by Lynne Jackson COLONIE: The Town of Colonie held a public hearing on July 14 for its “Town of Colonie Final Draft Comprehensive Plan.” The Town began the comprehensive planning process in 2003 with a town-wide survey, and had held dozens of public meetings about the plan. The Town is expected to adopt the plan at its August 11 meeting. There is still time for the public to comment about the plan. A copy of the plan can be downloaded…

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What is Missing?

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ALBANY: The Honorable Dominick Calsolaro (1st Ward) discovered that a significant US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) letter was missing from the proposed hotel’s Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS). This 8-page letter, written on February 1, 2007, offers a rebuttal to many points made by the developer for this proposed project. One of the most significant points is the response made by the USFWS to this comment by the developer: The developer wrote in a letter to the USFWS: “By…

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Save the Pine Bush

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A pair of right wing propagandists are using misinformation about the Pine Bush and the Karner Blue Butterfly to attack grass-roots preservation efforts across America, and are calling for overturning the Federal Endangered Species Act. Hailed as the new bible of radical anti-environmentalism, Noah’s Choice, The Future Of Endangered Species, is the product of rightist magazine editor Charles C. Mann and the notorious reactionary apologist Mark C. Plummer. This slippery tome carefully avoids mentioning Save the Pine Bush, although our…

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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

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  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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Second lawsuit filed over Guilderland Planning Board’s approval of Pyramid project

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Published on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 – 17:34 in the Altamont Enterprise Lynne Jackson of Save the Pine Bush speaks at a press conference announcing a Nov. 20 court decision to halt Pyramid’s plans to build a Costco and 222 residential units near Crossgates Mall in Guilderland.  GUILDERLAND — A week after a judge in Albany County Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of Westmere residents and a Guilderland gas-station owner who were seeking to stop construction of a 222-unit development…

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The Residents and the Pine Bush Win Against Pyramid Justice Prevails

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by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: In an astonishing, detailed, and carefully written decision, Judge Peter Lynch handed a victory to Westmere Terrace residents and a gas-station owner, the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the Town of Guilderland Planing Board and Pyramid Management Group. The decision makes null and void all of the approvals the Planning Board gave to Pyramid for its proposed development project known as the “Rapp Road Residential/Western Avenue Mixed Use Redevelopment Projects. This is a significant victory…

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An Albany County Environmental Mystery

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by John Wolcott A great unanswered environmental acquisition mystery of the Capital District is the long failed Albany County Historic and Nature Preserve and Historic and Nature Preserve Trust Law of 1976. This law was never implemented. About the only thing ever done with this well designed and well intended law was to place the Ann Lee Pond and one or two other properties, already owned by the county, in the projected preserve system. This law, however, specifically authorizes acquisition…

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Updates in Brief — Trucks, Zero-Waste Tulipfest and a Leaking Landfill

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by Tom Ellis Rensselaer city residents have intensified their efforts to stop nearly 100 large trucks per day from driving through the downtown. The trucks, which have 18, 22, 24, or 26 wheels. supposedly carry construction and demolition (C&D) debris wastes. They traverse Broadway and turn east onto Partition Street with its steep hill en-route to a C&D dump at the east end of Partition Street. The trucks arrive beginning at 6:30 each weekday morning; dozens go by before 7:30,…

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Letter-Writing Made a Difference Your Letters Needed to Help the Karner Blue Butterfly

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by Lynne Jackson, Mar./Apr. 92 The Karner Blue has been proposed to be listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If the butterfly is listed as an endangered species with a designated critical habitat, any developments proposed within the habitat would need to have a federal permit in order to be built. Obtaining a federal permit is a much more rigorous and difficult process to go through than the zoning changes or Planning Board approvals-and…

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Fighting the Crossgates Expansion

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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

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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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