Search Results for: lupine

A Journey to Nabokov’s Karner, New York – a Conservation Dilemma

  A recent date to speak about Nabokov’s blues in Albany, New York — the state’s capital — afforded me a chance to visit what is left of old “Karner”, New York. Karner is the little hamlet that, in common parlance, has attached its name to Nabokov’s famous endangered species Lycaeides melissa samuelis, the “Karner Blue”. Karner got the nod for samuelis’s common name because Nabokov chose specimens of samuelis from Karner for his type series (the specimens he used…

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16-09 Sept-Oct Newsletter

16-09 Sept-Oct Newsletter Sept/Oct 16 No. 132 • 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY 12210 • email pinebush@mac.com • phone 518-462-0891 • web http://www.savethepinebush.org • Circ. 600 Vegetarian/Vegan Dinner Wednesday, September 21, 2016, 6:00 p.m. Climate Crisis and Practical Solutions Conor Bambrick Air & Energy Director, Environmental Advocates of NY will speak about NY Renews and practical solutions for transition to clean energy Mark Schaeffer who works with 350.org will speak about Overview of climate crisis and need for a political…

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How did the Karner Blue butterfly come to live in the Pine Bush?

  Q. How did the Karner Blue butterfly come to live in the Pine Bush? A. The Karner Blue is a sub-species closely related to the Melissa Blue, a common butterfly of the Western US, that feeds on a number of plants of the pea family. Some 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, the last ice-age came to an end and the glaciers that covered the upper Midwest and Northeast in over a mile of ice melted. From 2000 to 4000…

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Save the Pine Bush Goes to the Appellate Division Over Butterflies in Clifton Park

On February 15, oral argument was held in the appeal by Save the Pine Bush and 11 people who sued the Town of Clifton Park Planning Board in September 2006 after the board gave approval to seven industrial warehouses and hundreds of parking spaces adjacent to and in Karner blue butterfly habitat. The plaintiffs were all denied standing by Acting state Supreme Court Justice, Barry Kramer who granted the Town’s and developer’s motions to dismiss the case in November 2006….

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The Pine Bush Makes the Grade Sierra Club Included the Pine Bush in America’s Wild Legacy 52 Places: A Sierra Club Report

The Pine Bush has been identified by the Sierra Club as one of the fifty-two most exceptional places in the United States that must be preserved. The report says the following: All across America, communities are working to protect our public lands from threats like oil and gas drilling, unchecked development, irresponsible recreation, logging, and global warming. In order to save what remains of our nation’s wild legacy, the Sierra Club has launched a campaign to protect fifty-two of our…

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Environmental Study Requires Restoration of Karner Blue Habitat in Clifton Park

Clifton Park, NY: Tuesday, April 25, the Planning Board of the Town of Clifton Park held a public hearing regarding a proposal to build a “7 Flex-Space Light Industrial Buildings” on Wood Road in Clifton Park. A Karner Blue butterfly site is located on the North (also sometimes referred to as the “East”) side of Wood Road, where the industrial complex is proposed. Eight people attending the hearing spoke passionately against building this industrial complex and destroying the Karner Blue…

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Petition Filed With State Dec Seeks Ruling On 1994 Protection Agreement For Karner Blue In Clifton Park

CLIFTON PARK: A petition for a Declaratory Ruling under the State Administrative Procedure Act was submitted in January to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation by the environmental preservation group, Save the Pine Bush together with 22 Capital Region residents asking the DEC to rule on a 1994 habitat protection agreement meant to save the endangered Karner blue butterfly and its associated ecosystem near Wood Road in the Town of Clifton Park. The petition, dated January 23, was filed on…

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Pine Bush burn feeds Karner blue

COLONIE – Save the butterflies, burn the forest was the Pine Bush Preserve’s approach on Thursday. The controlled burn creates the needed openings for the blue lupine, which is the endangered Karner blue butterfly’s only food plant while it’s a caterpillar, said Christopher Hawver, executive director of the preserve. Fire rejuvenates the plants, which adapted to burning, Hawver said. “Nowadays you don’t have natural fires, or if you do they’re put out quickly. What we do is mimic natural fire.”…

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Blues Connection

by John Wolcott Click on map to see larger image Now: you can see it at a glance. The top topo map displayed here, is of the Karner Dune Field, the Type Locality of the Karner Blue Butterfy, in the Pine Bush, as it was way before Rte. 155 appeared. A unified field, fully connected west to east. This dune field is a grouping of sand dunes within the much larger Schenectady-Albany “Dune Belt.” All. of the cultural information has,…

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Save the Pine Bush Asks the Albany Common Council for Justice

Press Release For Immediate Release: September 8, 2005 For Further Information: please call: Lynne Jackson at 434-6659 ALBANY, NY — Save the Pine Bush asks that the Albany Common Council pass a resolution tonight to take land the City of Albany acquired from the Nature Conservancy for preservation and dedicate it to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission as required in its permit to operate the landfill. Save the Pine Bush further asks the Council to reject Mayor Jennings proposal…

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Ward Stone Speaks about the Most Important Environmental Problems of Our Time

Over $25,000 in grants support public education and outreach and Federal and private funding allows dramatic increase in habitat restoration. Contractors removed invasive black locust trees from 25 acres and 21 acres were planted with native grasses and wildflowers including wild blue lupine. The project was assisted by the Commission’s new John Deere tractor and Truax seed drill. Over 30 acres of new habitat have been planted in the Preserve over the past three years. Monitoring data indicates that the…

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From the newsletter of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission

Winter Programs: Saturday, February 14: 8:30am-10:30am: Tracking Wildlife with Dr. Roland Kays & Carl Herzog. Meet Madison Avenue Pinelands Trailhead #7. Friday, February 27: 6:30pm-8:00pm. Owl Prowl. Bring a flashlight. Meet Great Dune, Trailhead #8 (end of Willow Street). March 26-28: Capital District Garden & Flower Show at HVCC. For more information: 785-1800 x100. News Briefs: A four-member crew from the Student Conservation Association were hired for 12 weeks focusing primarily on eradication of black locusts. They worked at 25…

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In Flurry of Motion, Lessons Take Wing

by the Associated Press WILTON — Habitats of the endangered Karner blue butterflies will be preserved under a $321,000 grant announced Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The grant will be used to preserve 75 acres of high-quality Karner blue butterfly habitat in Albany and Saratoga counties, according to the federal agency. The grant was presented to state and local officials at a former Boy Scout camp, part of which is frequented by the tiny butterflies. The butterfly…

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Integrating the Landfill into the Pine Bush or What do you do with a Landfill?

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: Dr. George Robinson gave an excellent succinct speech about landfill reclamation at the January Save the Pine Bush dinner at the First Presbyterian Church. Dr. Robinson, an associate professor of biology at the University of Albany, started by talking about the history of landfills. He mentioned many historic buildings, such as the Imperial Palace in Peking, are built on landfills. Landfills, explained Dr. Robinson, are land forms. They are highly engineered, and have about a 25-year…

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Crossword Puzzle

by Sandy Sheridan Birk Try your hand at our first Save the Pine Bush Crossword puzzle! Click here for answer key. Across 1. The Karner Blue Butterfly is currently listed as ____________. 5. Butterfly’s young 8. How many generations of Karner Blue Butterflies are hatched each year in the Pine Bush? 9. These insects often share a mutualistic relationship with the Karner Blue Butterfly. 10. The soil in the Pine Bush is full of _____________. 13. _____________ the Pine Bush!…

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Save the Pine Bush is 25!

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY: Save the Pine Bush celebrated its 25th birthday at the February vegetarian lasagna dinner at the First Presbyterian Church. The dinner began by members telling stories about the early years. Save the Pine Bush was born in the middle of a snow storm on February 6, 1978. It snowed that day. It snowed so much that the offices of the New York State government closed down and stayed closed the next day. This is the only…

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New Plan for the Preserve – – 2002 Management Plan Revealed

ALBANY: Neil Gifford, Conservation Director of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, gave a powerpoint presentation to the attendees of the September vegetarian lasagna dinner at the First Presbyterian Church on the new 2002 Pine Bush Management Plan. State Law requires the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission (the Commission) to review its management plan every five years, and prepare a new one if needed. The Commission released a new management plan in April, 2002. This new plan replaces the Implementation…

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Save the Pine Bush

A program of controlled burning in the ecologically precarious Pine Bush went off without a hitch this fall, and managers of the preserve are aiming to do more. "We hope they will get bigger," said Stephanie Gebauer, director of the Albany Pine Bush Research and Management. A total of 44 acres of the 1700 acre preserve was burned this spring and over the last couple of weeks, said Gebauer. The goal is to eventually burn about 200 acres each year….

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Save the Pine Bush

"Man has disrupted the natural order in the Pine Bush with roads, developments and suppression of fires," said Stephanie Gebauer at the December Save the Pine Bush dinner. Ms. Gebauer, the first director of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Research and Management of the Eastern New York Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, went on to describe how fires benefit the Pine Bush. Fires used to occur in the Pine Bush every five to ten to fifteen years. Particularly since the…

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Save the Pine Bush

  All that sand was left by a glacial lake. The Pine Bush ecosystem sitting on that sand, however, may have been created by Native Americans practicing fire management techniques. At least, that’s what some people believe. One of those people is Dr. Harvey Alexander, professor at the College of St. Rose, who spoke at the Dec. 10 SPB dinner at the Unitarian Church in Albany. Doing some fast talking, he laid out the story of the formation of the…

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Save the Pine Bush

For Immediate Release: December 10, 2002 For Further Information: Contact Lynne Jackson at 434-1954 or 366-7324 ALBANY, NY: Save the Pine Bush volunteers demonstrated today over the destruction of the Pine Bush for the building of Avila House. Avila House is proposed to be built in the rare Pine Bush ecosystem. The Pine Bush is home to the Karner Blue butterfly, a federally-listed endangered species. The Federal Government has stated that the decline in the population of Karner Blues is…

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Our Favorite Butterfly – The Karner Blue in 2001

The October lasagna dinner was the setting for Kathy O’Brien, Invertebrate Specialist with the Endangered Species Unit of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, to tell us about the current status of our favorite butterfly. O’Brien began by describing the butterfly. Karners are tiny, about the size of a quarter. The females are brownish, while the males are very blue. Perhaps the most endearing quality of the Karner is that it is not unusual for the Karner to land on…

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Clear-cutting

by Emily Corcione I recently drove past the SEFCU building off of Route 155, and immediately thought the Pine Bush was under attack by developers once again. Ostensibly, the felled trees and bare sand, which have so often preceded the disappearance of precious pine barrens land, seemed like one more residential or business invasion of the environment. But after speaking with Joel Hecht, Stewardship Director for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, I learned that in this case, the clear-cutting…

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Captain Planet Comes to the Pine Bush

Captain Planet Comes to the Pine Bush   Captain Planet Comes to the Pine Bush by Dr. Alan Fiero "Captain Planet He’s our hero. Takes pollution down to zero." For those of you that have not heard this theme song, Captain Planet is a cartoon character seen on TV that fights to save our environment. Where better than the Pine Bush would Captain Planet’s super powers be needed? All of us trying to save the Pine Bush know that "super…

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Our June 23rd Hike in the Pine Bush

After my planned Pine Bush hike got rained out in May, it looked as if Mother Nature, combined with the “Hughie” curse, was going to throw me another bone for my June Hike. However, as it turned out, the rain held off just long enough to allow we five hikers to complete our 3.5 mile hike of the Red (Sand Dune Trail, as well as part of the White and Yellow Trails at the Madison Highlands. Most the Pine Bush…

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Steve Downs Tells the Legal History of Save the Pine Bush at SPB’s 40th Birthday Party —Part 1

by Lynne Jackson ALBANY, NY: Lynne Jackson, a volunteer for Save the Pine Bush, gave a brief introduction and described how SPB started. On the night of February 6, 1978, as the “Blizzard of 78” was pounding the Capital District, a couple dozen brave souls nevertheless ventured to the Albany Public Library to speak out at a public hearing on four proposed developments in the Pine Bush. Prior the the hearing, a few people met first at an old fashioned…

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Save the Pine Bush

by Grace Nichols, July 26, 2009   The survival of the Federally Protected Karner Blue Butterfly in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve is in doubt here in Albany – its numbers have been critically low for at least ten years. This butterfly was first named by Vladimir Nabokov, the famous writer, and became one of the best known insect species on the East Coast. It is a beautiful brilliant blue color when it spreads its wings, while the undersides of…

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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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Ward Stone Speaks

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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Hi again, Karner blue

  Albany: More than 20 years of habitat restoration and breeding programs have helped the endangered Karner blue butterfly make a comeback in the Capital Region pine barrens where it was discovered by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov decades ago. “This project has been unbelievably rewarding,” said Neil Gifford, conservation director for the 3,200-acre Albany Pine Bush Preserve. “Getting to see an animal that was on the brink of extinction locally now have a robust and healthy population is just incredible.”…

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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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Karner blue to get habitat in Saratoga Spa State Park

By Stephen Williams   Reporters who devote more than a semicolon and three dashes to environmental coverage find their inboxes full on Earth Day. The delete button and recycling bin are wonderful things, but a few items seem worth passing on. First, the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is creating new Karner blue butterfly habitat at Saratoga Spa State Park. That’s nice. The dime-size blue butterflies are pretty, and outside of a handful of places in the…

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Saratoga County’s Wilton preserve helps Karner blue

  Wilton: More land at the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park in Saratoga County is being restored to sand dunes, scrub trees, prairie grasses and lupines needed to support growing numbers of endangered Karner blue butterflies. This winter, the state Department of Environmental Conservation will clear trees from about 20 acres near Ruggles Road, east of Route 50, to restore it to meadow suitable for growth of wild lupines, the sole food for Karner blue butterfly larvae. About 145 acres of the…

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Too Little Burning Done

by Dina Cappiello The Albany Pine Bush Preserve just can’t seem to get a break with the weather. In the last seven years, drought or wet weather has limited managers of the inland pine barrens to burning a total of 288 acres, a fraction of the 200 acres each year they are supposed to set afire since prescribed burning started in 1991. So far, in 2002, the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission has overseen only one seven-acre fire, despite setting…

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Pine Bush Gets National Status

By Sarah Roberts/For The Daily Gazette ALBANY — The Albany Pine Bush Preserve, a patchwork of 3,200 acres, has been designated a National Natural Landmark, after National Park Service officials determined it to be “an outstanding example of a globally rare ecosystem.” The preserve will join 596 other natural landmarks as prime examples of biological and geographical features. The Pine Bush is one of only 20 remaining ixnland pitch pine scrub oak barrens in the world. Special features Albany Pine…

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Editorial: A toast to the Pine Bush

  THE STAKES: It’s a tribute to those dedicated to protecting it from development. In the late 1970s, the Pine Bush, the sprawling pine barrens that extend from the city of Albany to Schenectady County, was considered by some a vast wasteland ripe for development. Its central location appealed to investors, who saw it as a prime building location, with easy access to major highways, including the Interstate 87 and 90 interchange. It was an ideal spot for retail, offices and residential…

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Composting of Food Waste in Charleston, South Carolina

by William Engleman   CLIFTON PARK, NY: At the Wood Road “south” habitat site of the Karner blue butterfly in the Town of Clifton Park in 1978, there were thousands of Karner blues, according to a study done by researchers John Cryan and Robert Dirig, who discovered this site in 1975. In 1989, Dr. Dale Schweitzer estimated that these two sites plus another nearby site located south of Ushers Road which he discovered, contained about 600 Karner blues that year. He…

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Public gets say on Wood Road DCG project in Clifton Park

  CLIFTON PARK —The Planning Board has agreed to hold a public hearing on the second phase of a controversial Wood Road development project. At the July 10 meeting, the board voted 5-1 to hold the hearing at a date to be determined. The parcel’s owner, DCG Development Company, wants approval for a 16-acre expansion of its Wood Road Light Industrial shovel ready project. The company has already developed 25 acres of the 36.6-acre site under a previous approval. The…

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Neil Gifford of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission Speaks

by Tom Ellis   ALBANY: Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission Conservation Director Neil A. Gifford was the featured speaker at the March 22 SPB dinner.  Reszin Adams introduced him.    Mr. Gifford said he is a conservation scientist by training.  He said the Pine Bush Commission now has 27 staff, is an authority, the preserve contains 3200 acres, including at least fifteen invasive species.   He said there are hundreds of acres of Blue Lupine planted, the Karner Blues Butterfly population doubled from 2010 to 2011, the preserve…

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Pine Bush fires cut tick threat

ALBANY — Fires used in the Pine Bush to restore native habitat of scrub pine and open grassland also greatly reduce chances that hikers will pick up ticks that could carry Lyme disease. A study by two Union College professors has found areas of the Pine Bush that have already been restored carried 98 percent fewer ticks — and that each avoided case of the tick-borne illness saves on average about $8,500 in medical costs. The concept on display in…

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he Farnsworth Middle School Pine Bush Project

If you weren’t at the June 15 dinner, you missed hearing from six of Dr. Alan Fiero’s outstanding Farnsworth Middle School students about their work in the Pine Bush. Their names are: Christine Myers, Katie Lamar, Matthew Krieg, Salil Chaudhry, Meghan Dillon and Miranda Seguin. The authors of the article below are Matthew Krieg, Christine Myers and Meghan Dillon. On June 15, 2011 Salil, Christine, Meghan, Miranda, Katie, and I all went to the Save the Pine Bush dinner. I…

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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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What’s afoot at the Preserve?!

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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Metroland Local Hero – Lynne Jackson

Lynne Jackson remembers when Save the Pine Bush was founded. It was February 1978, and the Albany City Planning Board had gone forward with a public hearing on four development proposals in the Pine Bush, despite a snowstorm so bad the state workers had been sent home early. Then the city planner closed the hearing because of the weather before all the opponents who had showed up anyway got to speak. Enraged, a group got together and eventually decided to…

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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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Opinion – Saving butterflies

Opinion – Saving butterflies Opinion – Saving butterflies The following editorial is reprinted with permission from the Concord New Hampshire Monitor. This editorial appeared on the Opinion page on September 1, 1989. This editorial is about a tiny plot of land near Concord New Hampshire, where a few Karner Blues make their home. It may soon be time to kiss the Karner Blue goodbye. As a story in Wednesday’s Monitor by reporter Tad Shannon pointed out, the last New England…

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Building called threat to butterflies

by: DENNIS YUSKO Staff writer CLIFTON PARK — A 142,000-square-foot facility proposed by DCG Development along Wood Road would further undermine the area’s endangered Karner blue butterfly habitats, town residents and area environmentalists told the Planning Board. DCG wants to build a warehouse or a light industrial space on 37 acres its owns between the east side of Wood Road and Route 9. "We don’t know who the tenants are at this point," said Gordon Nicholson, who represented DCG at…

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Petition: Shield Karner blue habitat

  ALBANY — The state Department of Environmental Conservation should enforce a 1994 agreement with a landowner to protect endangered Karner blue butterflies in Clifton Park, Capital Region environmentalists said Thursday. In a petition filed with the state agency Monday, the Albany-based Save The Pine Bush and 22 area residents asked DEC general counsel James Ferreira to make sure DEC protects a Karner blue habitat located off Wood Road near Northway Exit 10. They cited a 1994 agreement between DEC’s…

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Pine Bush bridge work to defer to rare butterfly

By JILL BRYCE Gazette Reporter COLONIE – The fate of the tiny Karner blue butterfly will be a factor when crews begin replacing a Route 155 bridge this spring. Even the butterfly’s flight patterns have been taken into consideration in the design of the new $2 million bridge in the Albany Pine Bush, which will span the CSX tracks. From May 15 to Aug. 15, no work will take place within the wetlands adjacent to the roadway, or within a…

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