Con ’95 Blowdown | Banded Eagle | Adirondack 46erservationist · dark, I once found myself...

AUGUST 2015

’95 Blowdown | Banded Eagle | Adirondack 46er

ConservationistNEW YORK STATE

Dear Reader,This will be my last letter to

Conservationist readers. It has been a joy leading the Department for the last four years and sharing the stories about New York’s unparalleled natural resources, the great outdoor opportunities for sportsmen and women, hikers, birders and everyone who wants to experience nature. During my last weeks as Commissioner, I had the opportunity to participate in Cycle the Erie Canal, Parks and Trails New York’s annual 400 mile bike ride from Buffalo to Albany. A record 610 riders from 35 states and several countries partic-ipated in the eight-day event, which brought riders through historic canal towns, New York’s agricultural heartland, and along one of the country’s most enduring engineering marvels. It was an amazing ride and reaffirmed my love and appreciation for New York’s natural and built environment.

The Canal bike tour reminded me how important it is to make our outdoor bounty here in New York accessible to people of all walks of life: inner city youth, the elderly, and the disabled. One of the many extraordinary people I met during my tenure at DEC was Brother Yusuf Burgess, a DEC employee who passed away late last year. Brother Yusuf’s special gift was his ability to connect people with nature and use the restorative powers of nature to transform urban youth through hiking, camping, skiing and kayaking trips.

I recently had the honor of attending a tribute to Brother Yusuf, held at Six-Mile Waterworks near Albany. It was clear at this event, that although he is no longer with us, Brother Yusuf’s legacy continues in the lives of the young men and women he inspired to continue their education, contribute to their community, and connect with the natural world.

One of those people he inspired, TreVaughn Taylor, is pictured here with me at the tribute. Although TreVaughn’s family now lives in New Jersey, he made the trip north to attend the event. In the picture, he is pointing to pictures taken of him as a child at events organized by Brother Yusuf. Today, TreVaughn is a fine young man earning honors in school, playing basketball, and planning a career in environmental science.

As Last Child in the Woods author Richard Louv reminded us in the last issue of the Conservationist, connecting children with nature is critical, for a host of reasons, and just may be the key to the long-term health of the planet. We need young men and women, like TreVaughn, to appreciate the importance of our natural world and to develop into the next generation of environmental leaders. Please consider supporting an outdoor youth mentoring program in your area, take a young person to an outdoor event or natural area, or just take them on a bike ride. It will make a difference.

As I move on the next phase of my career with the Open Space Institute, I will reflect fondly on my time at DEC and the staff who, like Brother Yusuf, dedicate each day to protecting New York’s amazing natural resources and sharing their love for the outdoors with others.

I’ll see you on the trails,Commissioner Joe Martens

Volume 70, Number 1 | August 2015 Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of New York State

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATIONMarc Gerstman, Acting Commissioner Dianne L. Patterson, Director of Communications Harold Evans, Director of Office of Communication Services

THE CONSERVATIONIST STAFFDavid H. Nelson, Editor Eileen C. Stegemann, Assistant Editor Megan Ciotti, Business Manager Jenna Kerwin, Staff Writer Jennifer Peyser, Art Director/DesignerJeremy J. Taylor, Conservationist for Kids Ellen Bidell, Contributing Editor OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION SERVICESElaine Bloom, Contributing Editor Jim Clayton, Staff PhotographerBernadette LaManna, Contributing Editor John Razzano, Contributing Editor EDITORIAL OFFICESThe Conservationist (ISSN0010-650X), © 2015 by NYSDEC, is an official publication of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation published bimonthly at 625 Broadway, 4th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-4502. Telephone: (518) 402-8047

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ConservationistNEW YORK STATE

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Departments26 On Patrol | 27 Briefly | 30 Letters | 32 Back TrailsFront cover: Blue Guide Boat by Michael Ringer Back cover: On Tabletop Mountain; courtesy of Lincoln Hull

Contents2 Homer Revisited

Artist Michael Ringer recreates some of Homer’s classic Adirondack scenes

8 Inner Nature Finding peace by conquering the 46 peaks By Lincoln Hull

12 The ’95 Blowdown: Then and Now By Dave Smith

16 Watchable Wildlife Site: Green Lakes State Park Turquoise lakes, picture-perfect views

18 Goodman Mountain Tribute to courage, beacon of hope By John Razzano

22 Southern Pine Beetle Comes to New York Destructive tiny beetle discovered on Long Island By Jessica Cancelliere

25 Eagle Flies On 38-year-old eagle found in NY By Dave Nelson

What is it?

See page 17

August 2015 Volume 70, Number 1

See page 16

John Rozzell

As a youngster, the outdoor paintings by Winslow Homer captured my imagination. I yearned to be in those paintings and experience firsthand, the adventure of the wilderness. Many of those paintings were views from the celebrated North Woods Club (NWC) in the Adirondacks. NWC is a private club, so I could only dream of seeing the places Homer had painted.

I was in my gallery just north of Alexandria Bay on the St. Lawrence River when George and Cynthia Lee from the Adirondacks stopped in. They had heard I painted in the mountains and asked to look around the gallery.

George (The Surveyor, pg. 7) and I were walking around the showroom trading Adirondack stories when I inquired, “Where’s your camp?” George glanced at me and said, “North Woods Club.” I’m sure he read on my face the significance his revelation had made.

In a pitiful attempt not to be too obvious, I wondered out loud how an artist might paint where Homer painted. “I’m going up next week, would you like to come?” he said. And with that, our friendship began!

Since then, I have had the pleasure of spending much time with my friend George at the NWC. I’ve hiked, climbed, hunted and rowed Adirondack guideboats on Mink Pond, nestled in the lap of Beaver Mountain. I’ve enjoyed casting flies to rising trout and exploring the islands of Mink. Sitting in a lean-to after dark, I once found myself mesmerized by the dancing flames of a campfire and came to a profound realization: I had become a

living part of those paintings that I had so longed to be in, made famous by Homer’s brush.

Eight visits has produced 46 NWC paintings and one bronze which I based on Homer’s Huntsman and Hounds, a scene from the side of Beaver Mountain. I hope the NWC paintings shown here stir in your imagination some of the feelings I had painting them.

Homer’s An October Day was painted at West Bay on Mink Pond, with the slope of Beaver Mountain providing a grand backdrop. Adirondack Guide Boat on Mink Pond is almost trans-posable with Homer’s except my guideboat is closer to shore, just about where it appears in Homer’s painting. The pines have filled in and grown taller, but the golden tamarack still line the edge of the pond. This is a timeless place, as either painting could easily have been painted in a different century.

Paul Moulton, the caretaker at NWC, has guided me through dense forests, over bogs and beaver dams, around hidden ponds and along mountains. He has led me to places of rugged natural beauty seldom seen by others.

I was once following Paul during whitetail season when he paused silently by a deadfall of twisted roots. He was keenly focused on a flick of movement he had caught in the corner of his eye. This is Paul’s home and he knows it intimately, is aware of his surroundings and at ease in the Adirondacks. His knowledge and love of the NWC is remarkable and he welcomingly shares it.

WINSLOW HOMER REVISTED—Artist Michael Ringer recreates some of Homer’s classic Adirondack scenes

New York State Conservationist, August 20152

An October Day by Winslow Homer

Adirondack Guide Boat on Mink Pond by Michael Ringer3


Saints Ridge is the only place where pointed Polaris Mountain can be seen from a higher elevation looking north. Polaris appears in Homer’s painting The Interrupted Tete-a-tete with two whitetail deer. In my watercolor, Hunting Saints Ridge (page 6), a hunter has replaced Homer’s deer and Polaris Mountain is not visible, as my view is slightly east of Homer’s.

Homer’s Waterfall in the Adirondacks was done at the end of Mink Pond outlet, just a couple hundred feet short of its flow into the Hudson River. I painted Mink Falls from virtually the same spot, so Homer and I may have shared the very same rock chair, separated only by time. Less water cascades over my Mink Falls, but everything is there as it has been for centuries. Though a fisherman does not appear in my watercolor, I have caught beautiful native brook trout on flies beneath the falls.

One morning, member Richard Peters rowed quietly by me in his classic guide boat. He was trolling an orange blossom streamer as he glided by a shadowy, moss-covered blow down, set against a sunlit forest. Here was NWC history, sunlight and shadow with a multitude of harmoniously blended textures, which I captured in a watercolor titled Fly Fisherman & Adirondack Guideboat (not pictured). Scenes like this compel me to paint them and are a common occurrence when I am there.

Whenever visiting, I am awed by the mountain ranges, intrigued by the history and I find solemn reverence in its ancient forest and ponds. It is humbling to be a part of it. If I painted there until my days are over, I would never weary of the place, or fail to be inspired. For me, it is a magical, almost spiritual place.

One morning while sketching, George said he wanted to show me something I might find interesting. We hopped in his “Pond Hopper,” a 1930 Ford Truck, and bumped along a dirt road to an old log barn. Climbing up a rickety wooden ladder, we soon found ourselves standing in a dark loft. George shuffled to the outside wall, unhooked a small door and swung it open. The morning light washed across the floor, partially illuminating the space and what George thought I might find, “interesting.”

I stood gazing in wonder. Before me on the age-old floor planks rested a vintage, cobalt blue Adirondack Guide Boat. A classic remnant of history from the NWC, reminiscent of Homer’s famous watercolor The Blue Boat. “Interesting” was an understatement. No one will be rowing it around Mink, but considering its age it was not in bad condition. The rest of the morning, I arranged and sketched, preparing for a watercolor predestined the moment I saw it. I painted The Blue Boat, 122 years after Homer’s.

Waterfall in the Adirondacks by Winslow Homer


Mink Falls by Michael Ringer

The Blue Boat by Michael Ringer

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Leaving NWC is never easy. I begin looking forward to the next visit whenever I leave the gate, and watch as it disappears in my rearview mirror. Painting at NWC was a dream that took nearly a half century to realize, and it was definitely worth the wait.

Hunting Saints Ridge by Michael Ringer


Road to Paul’s Stand by Michael Ringer

Retired art teacher Michael Ringer enjoys painting in oil, watercolor, acrylic and pastel. He has created more than 1,500 paintings of the St. Lawrence River, Adirondack Mountains and southern Florida. His work has appeared in eight books as well as numer-ous magazines, including Conservationist.

To see more of his work, visit www.michaelringer.com, or call (315) 482-2833.

The Surveyor by Michael Ringer

North Woods Campfire by Michael Ringer

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INNER NATURE —Finding peace by conquering the 46 peaks

It’s 2007. I’m 16 years old, and my father stands next to me. His shadow rests across my legs, flickering with his subtle movements. In every direction, the land slopes downward and is brightly lit; our location is higher than any other for miles. We are on an ethereal cloud, looking down on the shifting world below.

The summit underfoot is Whiteface, and it marks the end of our journey over the 46 Adirondack High Peaks. I close my eyes, eliminating my visual field, and focus on my other senses. Warmth ripples across my skin. A tender breeze arches over my head and rustles a bush to my left. Fresh scents cling to the inside of my nostrils. I open my eyes which are instantly flooded with the tremendous valley below, full of green gradients and twisting shadows from the churning clouds above.

By Lincoln HullPhotos provided by author

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As a teenager, my father climbed a majority of the High Peaks as part of a summer camp, but did not complete them. He moved away, pursuing education and a career, but maintained his sense of exploration, constantly travelling around the world. Later in life he found himself employed in the Capital District, and right away he felt the magnetic pull of the Adirondacks. At the time, I had barely started to walk and my brother was six.

Unsure of which peaks he had previously climbed, my father decided to wait and share the experience with both of us. I’m glad

he did. When I was seven, and my brother eleven, we began our effort. The voyage started and ended there for my brother, but I was instantly hooked. Over the next nine years, my father and I periodically took trips north to complete our venture.

Looking back, I recognize the impact the experience has had on my life. It underlined the relationship between my father and me, and served as grounds to form a firsthand relationship with nature’s beauty and, in the process, shape me. It has fostered a wanderlust, inquisitiveness, and imagination that have, in my opinion, instilled a certain awareness and sense of connectedness between me and the outside world.

Nature provides a canvas on which to paint free thought. The wilderness absorbs pressures of daily life. Nature is untamed which allows the individual who confronts it to explore his or her own creativity.

There are two frames of mind that often seem apparent to me when walking a wooded trail. One is that of deep thought while the other is a simple, yet equally profound, observation of my surroundings. To me, their lines are blurred: one informs the other, and I often find myself regularly moving between these two views. They help convey an idea of vivid exploration, and support creativity and unique thought.

“Don’t be content with what

others tell you; see what things

mean to you as the individual.”

Mount Skylight, July 2005

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The author with his father on Street Mountain in July 2001.


Spending time outdoors, hiking wilderness trails, allows me to be introspective and explore natural connections. I find that con-templating nature highlights the true complexity of the living envi-ronment and heightens my appreciation of its beauty. I feel there isn’t an insignificant part of existence; each entity has a purpose, and the more I examine this thought, the more the flames of explo-ration and wonder are fueled. Boredom becomes obsolete.

That’s what hiking the 46 High Peaks did for me, and why I encourage others to hike. Dedication to completing the High Peaks brought me through a diversity of terrain and exposed me to the full breadth of the Adirondack region.

Some summits offered little reward in terms of a view for the hardship of scaling them, but that was okay. To me, the summit, the journey across all 46 peaks, may be the objective, but it is not the ultimate purpose. It is a destination that gives direction, but the steps taken, scenes witnessed, and thoughts produced along the way are what are important. The goal isn’t the summits, it’s the journey itself and what is learned, and standing atop Whiteface, that is what I saw.

My perception of hiking the 46 High Peaks may change as I age, but that only adds to the beauty of it all. It is a dynamic interpretation, always subject to change as my worldview modifies in response to additional exploration. I live by the phi-losophy that everything is in a state of constant flux: allow the mind to flow with it, take pleasure in the search.

Mount Redfield, July 2005

Gothics, August 2000

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There is no substitute for firsthand experience of nature. Reading or hearing an individual’s experience may provide interesting insights, and perhaps unique thought, but the reactions are to another’s interpretations, not the thing itself. Don’t be content with what others tell you; see what things mean to you as the indi-

vidual. Feed your childhood curiosity. Examine your own incredible existence.

Thank you, Dad, for showing me how to do just that.

Lincoln Hull was an intern in DEC’s Ray Brook office in the Adirondacks. He currently works at the Mountain Lake Academy in Lake Placid and counts hiking and fishing among his many outdoor interests.

Adirondack 46ersThe Adirondack Forty-

Sixers, Inc. is a hiking and service club whose members have climbed to the summits of all 46 peaks over 4,000 feet in elevation (including the four peaks recently re-surveyed by the USGS to be slightly under 4,000 feet) in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State. The club maintains a list of all the peaks, as well as a list of all recorded 46ers, including their climbing number, name, and dates of first and last ascent. The club also offers a biannual magazine Adirondack Peeks, to its members.

Successful hikers can purchase a patch, T-shirt, window decal or hat to display their accomplishment. Visit www.adk46er.org for more information on becoming a 46er, or an aspiring 46er.

For more on hiking in the Adirondacks, including trail information and safety tips, check out DEC’s website at www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7865.html

Santanoni Peak, July 2006 Whiteface Mt., August 2007

Big Slide, August 2000

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It’s hard to believe this is the same forest that twenty years ago was little more than a pile of splintered, broken trees. The lush green growth and tall trees standing before me mask the fury that befell here; a deadly storm that remains etched in my memory, and in that of many others...

The evening of July 14, 1995, was especially hot and humid in Clayton, N.Y. The tem-perature was still in the upper 80s; the humidity felt equally high. Even by 11 p.m., the temperature had not dropped. It was one of those times when a cooling thunderstorm would be welcomed.

Shortly after 11:00, our Australian shepherd, Tillie, gave birth to her first pup. With the combination of heat, humidity and being in labor, poor Tillie was panting like she was running a race, so we brought her and her pup to our screened-in front porch to await more births. Over the next several hours, my wife Heidi and I took turns staying up to keep an eye on Tillie. An hour after the fifth and final pup was born—around 4 a.m.—I was headed back to bed when the wind started to blow. As I made my way back down-stairs to close windows and doors, I got hit by rain blowing through the screen door of our porch 20 feet away! I quickly grabbed the dog cage with Tillie and her pups, pulled it into the front hall, and shut the door to keep them from getting soaked.

THE ’95 BLOWDOWN: THEN AND NOWBy Dave Smith DEC photos

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The wind, rain, thunder and lightning intensified while I ran around shutting everything. As I closed the last door all I saw outside was a green blur of leaves flying by, backlit by the street lamp and almost continual lightning. The storm roared overhead, the power went out, and the lightning intensified further. About the time I thought maybe we should head for the basement, the wind and rain largely ceased, though the thunder and lightning continued to our east with an intensity and frequency I had never seen before.

We woke up the next morning to sun and mercifully cooler weather. There were leaves and branches everywhere, and our neighbor and many other homeowners in the village lost trees; roofs were damaged. With the power still out, we weren’t sure where else the storm had hit. We spent the morning cleaning up the yard.

While I was helping my neighbor cut up his downed tree, my wife came over to let me know that I had a call from someone at work. It was Lt. Bob Weitz, DEC’s head forest ranger in St. Lawrence County. He asked if I had heard what had happened in southern St. Lawrence County. I said no, as the powerful thun-derstorm had knocked out our power. Lt. Weitz then described the intense storm that had devastated forests south of Star Lake and beyond, turning much of the Five Pond Wilderness (a popular backcountry camping area) into a tangled mass of fallen trees.

I learned that a man at Eighth Lake Campground in Hamilton County had lost his life when a tree fell on his tent where he, his wife and two children were camping. His body protected the rest of them from being crushed. Not far away, another camper in the Lake Lila Wilderness area also died when a tree fell on the tent she and her husband pitched in the heavily wooded area. All around there were stories of people injured or stranded, and DEC Rangers were organizing a rescue operation for what could be hundreds trapped in the woods.

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Falling trees and branches damaged and trapped canoes tucked into the woods in the Five Ponds Wilderness Area.

The storm’s extreme winds snapped trees like toothpicks. Most of the trees fell in the same direction, indicative of a straight-line wind or derecho.


DEC Regional Director Tom Brown, Regional Operations Supervisor Bob VanWie and I traveled to Star Lake the next day to visit the rangers’ emergency operations center. After a briefing on the progress of accounting for campers in the Five Ponds Wilderness, we joined a helicopter flight searching for stranded campers.

Although we had seen extensive damage to structures and forests on the drive to Star Lake, we were still unprepared for the sight of devastated forests in Five Ponds. It seemed everywhere we looked there were trees down, and there were several intense strips of hundreds of acres where everything was flattened. It was astounding; something we had never seen before in our corner of the world.

Flying overhead, we could clearly see that virtually all the trees in each wide swath of blowdown were pointing southeast, the direction the storm had moved. We later learned this was a clear indicator of a derecho, a strong storm of straight-line winds similar in strength to a tornado, but without the swirling pattern of destruction. The many ridges, valleys and small mountains in the Five Ponds area created another visible pattern: the leeward side of each (the southeast facing slopes) had little blowdown—they were protected by the topography. So while the blowdown covered thousands and thousands of acres, there were also many thousands of acres that were only lightly affected.

I couldn’t help but imagine what it would have been like to be on a protected southeast facing slope of a narrow hill or mountain

as the storm roared overhead like a freight train: the forest trees on either side bending and waving like wheat in a field before the wind finally slammed them flat to the ground. And all of this visible, despite the darkness, due to the almost continuous lightning. I imagine it would have been an amazing, yet terrifying sight. The hundreds in the woods at the time, however, probably only felt terror.

Our flight lasted half an hour. We spotted folks in a camp on Gull Lake, trapped for the time by miles of narrow gravel roads blocked by blowdown. We also saw several campers hiking down a trail, crawling under and over downed trees, almost out of the woods.

Forest rangers spent several days finding and escorting folks out of the woods, both by foot and by air for those in remote locations. Miraculously, of the hundreds camping in the Five Ponds Wilderness, everyone made it out with few injuries, though there were plenty of harrowing tales of near disaster, damaged gear and crushed/trapped canoes.

Cleanup operations at trail heads began the day of the storm, and trail work continued for several months. Based on feedback from staff around the region, we estimated the destructive part of the storm was ± 40 miles wide and extended from where it first crossed the U.S.-Canadian border at Clayton and Alexandria Bay, southeast across the Adirondacks, past Albany and into New England.

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Twenty years after the blowdown, these young trees show the forest is rebounding.

Safety TipsIf you are hiking or camping in the woods and a windstorm comes in, here are a few precautions you can take to help ensure your safety:

• Head for a more open area like a beaver meadow, wetland or an area with younger, relatively small trees.

• If you are deep in the woods, head for the leeward side of a hill or ridge as the wind will be less intense, or seek shelter by a large boulder or rock formation which could break the fall of large trees and branches coming down.

• If you are near a lake, pond or river, head for a windward facing shore— if trees go down they will likely fall away from the shore. If that’s not possible, go to the leeward facing shore—the wind will likely be less intense if there is a ridge or higher ground blocking the wind.

Before you even start your hike, always remember to sign in at the trail register and indicate where you are going. Forest rangers will use that register as the first reference for search-and-rescue efforts. A few moments spent at the trailhead could reap great rewards in the future.

Satellite imagery of the affected areas before and after the storm, clearly showed the most severe and concentrated forest damage started just west of Five Ponds Wilderness and extended southeast, with damage decreasing as the storm exited the Five Ponds. Interestingly, the imagery also showed some anomalies where strips of severe blowdown (extending dozens of miles) were cocked at an angle to the rest of the storm damage. All in all, an estimated 38,000 acres of forest were classified as severely damaged and 109,000 acres moderately damaged.

In the year that followed, public discussions were held about what to do with the blowdown on Forest Preserve lands. There were concerns about fire danger, however the final recommendations were to leave the trees where they laid. This decision was made in large part because there is a constitutional ban against removing or harvesting trees on Forest Preserve lands. In addition, most of the forest in the affected region is referred to as the “iron forest” because it is resistant to fire due to the large amount of precipitation the area receives, keeping the wood moist.

The ’95 blowdown changed thousands of acres of mature forests. Most were second growth, having grown back after heavy harvests in the early 1900s. But some forests flattened in the Five Ponds were part of the largest block of virgin, old-growth forest in the Eastern U.S. Fortunately, trees in these areas respond vigorously to openings in the forest as demonstrated by the lush forest standing before me.

For many, the forests’ appearance after such a heavy blowdown can be depressing: trees prone and piled on top of each other; leaves and needles soon withering and turning brown. A few of the trees that still have part of their roots in the ground can hold on for a while (sometimes as long as a few more growing seasons), but they too eventually succumb. It doesn’t take long, however, for the forest to regenerate.

The first full growing season after the ’95 blowdown, the area was already greening up: grasses and other herbaceous plants popped up quickly from seeds in the soil. In the patches of ground between the trunks of trees and on upturned root masses, tree seedlings started to grow, stimulated by the sun and resultant warmth now able to reach the ground in the absence of a mature forest canopy.

Within five to ten years, vigorous crops of seedlings filled in most of the blowdown patches. A variety of species—reflective of what had been here—popped up, the most abundant being those that love full sun such as aspen, white pine, white ash, yellow birch and black cherry. During this time, the combination of thick patches of young trees and fallen timber made these areas nearly impenetrable to humans; at least to people without a saw or other cutting tool. Now, at the twenty-year mark, the forest floor is opening up again. The fastest growing trees have reached fifteen to thirty feet tall, and have shaded out the slower growing varieties and individuals. It’s the natural weeding and pro-gression of the forest. As a forester, I find this process fascinating.

Watching the Adirondack forest respond naturally is inspiring; the vigor and speed with which new trees replace the old leaves no doubt that the blowdown has just a short-term impact. In 100 years it will be largely invisible to the average person. But for those who were here when it happened and saw and lived with its aftermath for years, it will remain a life experience we will not forget.

Dave Smith is the regional forester in DEC’s Watertown office.

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Twenty years after the blowdown, these young trees show the forest is rebounding.


Green Lakes State Park Turquoise lakes, picture-perfect views—size: 1,785 acres

A great watchable wildlife site

Just east of Syracuse in central New York, Green Lakes has been a state park since 1928, when the first 500 of its more than 1,785 acres were purchased. Its most outstanding features are two nearly 200-foot-deep, blue-green glacial lakes—Green Lake and Round Lake. The lakes are surrounded by steep forested hills. In some areas, park terrain is gentler, with rolling hills and open fields.

Green Lake has a popular beach, golf course, campsites, cabins and a nature center. Round Lake is a registered

National Natural Landmark, surrounded by old-growth forests of enormous, ancient hemlocks and tulip trees. Both are meromictic lakes, meaning surface and bottom waters do not mix seasonally. Because their sediments are undisturbed by the churn of seasonal turnover, biol-ogists study them to determine what plants and animals lived here thousands of years ago. With their striking turquoise color, the lakes’ waters are an ideal backdrop for photographing the wildlife that frequent them.

Various waterfowl, waterbirds and mammals make Green Lakes State Park their home and are best observed from its trails. The most popular viewing is from the shoreline trails encircling both lakes.

Wildlife to WatchThe lakes are host to flocks of noisy,

migrating Canada geese and ducks, which also nest along the lakeshore. Stately great blue herons and bossy king-fishers hunt streams and lake shallows for fish and frogs in the warmer months. The

John Rozell

17For more Watchable Wildlife sites in NY, visit www.NewYorkWatchableWildlife.org

wooded hills hold many species of forest birds. Listen for the melodic song of the wood thrush and other songbirds in the tree canopy. Wild turkey can be seen and heard strutting through forest and field. Look for hawks circling overhead or perched in trees bordering open areas.

Wary, white-tailed deer may appear along the water’s edge or in meadows at dawn or dusk. Look for woodchucks as they pop up at the grassy margins of the woods. Red and gray fox, as well as coyote, are also occasionally spotted throughout the park as they look to pounce on gray squirrels or cottontail rabbits.

Site FeaturesSite Notes: The park is open year-round. Visitors can enjoy hiking, biking, boating, camping, swimming, fishing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. There are restrooms and a nature center. Parking is available; there is a vehicle entrance fee. Other fees and hours vary by season: contact the park directly at 315-637-6111. Fishing is allowed in season. Paddle and row boats are available for rent, giving visitors the oppor-tunity to watch wildlife from the water as well as the land.Trails: More than 18 miles of trails wind around both lakes and throughout wooded areas: perfect for hiking, biking, snowshoeing or cross-country skiing.Accessibility: This site has accessible features, including picnic pavilions, camping, a beach and cabin areas.Directions: The park is located on Route 5 in Fayetteville. For more information, including detailed directions, visit www.parks.ny.gov/parks/172/details.aspx

Bill Banaszewski

Susan L. Shafer

Bill Banaszewski

View from top of Goodman Mt.

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In 2002, an Adirondack peak overlooking Tupper Lake was named Goodman Mountain, and recently a new trail to the summit was constructed. This is the story of how that came about.

The story begins in 1883 with the birth of Charles Goodman, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants and the first in his family to attend college. Later in life, as a civil engineer, he ran a successful New York City construction company.

When his wife, Rose, became ill in 1930, her doctor pre-scribed moving her out of the city’s polluted air. Charles went to the Adirondacks and purchased 640 acres near Bog River Falls where he began construction of a three-story, seven-bedroom house of Adirondack granite. Unfortunately, Rose died before the mountain castle was finished.

After finishing the house, Charles started the annual tradition of leaving the city each summer for an Adirondack vacation with his family and many relatives. This soon included his second wife, Sylvia, and their daughter. Hiking a nearby mountain was a favorite excursion, and though they knew it was state land, they considered it their mountain. Two of the children painted their names in large white letters on bare rock at the top. Though faded, you can still make out “BILLY GOODMAN” today.

In Tupper, Charles was well known for his generosity and concern for the common good. In 1937, using his own money, he built a springhouse to protect Lumberjack Spring, a popular source of potable water. In the 1950s, the contractor building the village’s sewer plant went broke, leaving the job unfinished. Charles and his son Robert stepped in to finish the job. Later, they built a steel bridge over the Bog River.

Robert and his wife Carolyn were social activists. They pro-tested growing international fascism in the 1930s, and later opposed McCarthy’s witch hunt for hidden communists. They hosted gatherings in support of accused intellectuals and artists at their Manhattan apartment, where they lived with their three boys. Their middle son, Andy, followed in their footsteps.

Growing up, he marched for school integration at 15, wit-nessed poverty in Appalachia at 17, and served as a counselor at a summer camp for underprivileged children at 19. “You don’t just talk; you do. That was Andy,” his mother Carolyn said in her memoir My Mantelpiece.

GOODMAN MOUNTAIN: Tribute to Courage, Beacon of Hope

By John RazzanoPhotos by Pat Whalen, except where noted

Andrew Goodman Foundation

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In 1963, Andy was attending Queens College in New York City. Dramatic events in the civil rights struggle down South grabbed headlines for months, and that fall, the Congress on Racial Equality began recruiting students on campuses across the country to take part in the Mississippi Summer Project—later called Freedom Summer. A thousand northern white students would travel to Mississippi in 1964 to register African Americans to vote. Andy wrote a check to the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee to join them.

In April of 1964, Andy told his parents he wanted to go to Mississippi to help. His parents were aware of the danger, but Carolyn said, “…there was no way in the world we could have said no to Andy. Our lives, our values, would have had a hollow ring…As Andy was preparing to leave, having packed his duffel bag, I threw in some bandages, gauze, and iodine…I thought he might get pushed around a bit, perhaps even thrown in jail.”

By June, twenty-year-old Andy was attending volunteer training in Ohio and news came that the Ku Klux Klan had bombed an African American church in Philadelphia, Mis-sissippi. Two men at the training knew the area and asked for a volunteer to go with them and support the terrorized community. Andy won the coin toss.

Andy Goodman and Michael Schwerner (two white, New York City Jews), and James Chaney (a black Christian from Meridian), arrived in Meridian, Mississippi on June 21st and drove to nearby Philadelphia to investigate the church bombing. On their return trip that afternoon, they were pulled over by a deputy who escorted them to county jail and held them for several hours on “suspicion of involvement in the church bombing.”

By the time they were released, it was dark. They quickly drove into a Klan ambush the deputy helped plan and carry out. Michael was shot and killed first, Andy second, and James last. Their car was set afire and sunk in a swamp. In one of the largest manhunts in our nation’s history, it would take more than 150 FBI agents and hundreds of Navy sailors until August 4th to find their bodies, buried in an earthen dam.

In Tupper Lake, news of Andy’s murder was greeted with quiet sadness. He was a rich kid who could have been relaxing in the Adirondacks, but instead he was killed because he chose to help people that were being terrorized simply because they were black.

Nationally, the murders galvanized support for passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and led to the first successful federal prosecution of a civil rights case in Mississippi. Nineteen men were arrested for denying their victims’ civil rights. Only seven, however, served jail time. The longest sentence was only six years and not a single man at the scene of the crime was ever charged with murder.

In 1966, Robert and Carolyn established the Andrew Goodman Foundation (www.andrewgoodman.org) to keep the spirit of their son, and what he stood for, alive. The Foundation has a variety of programs that help budding activists hold our nation to its democratic ideals and remove barriers to voting. When Robert Goodman died suddenly in 1969, Carolyn took over as head of the Foundation.

More than three decades passed. The Goodmans had sold their summer home and, true to form, donated almost all their acreage to the state. Town of Tupper Lake Historian William (Bill) Frenette worried that people would forget them. He decided the best way to keep their memory alive was to make the name Goodman Mountain official, so he made it his mission to do so.

Bill started researching the name and enlisted Town Coun-cilman John Quinn to help. They had to provide evidence (maps, public records, historical documents, interviews and written testi-monials) of the name’s validity to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names and the N.Y. State Geographic Names Committee.

After months of research, mountains of paperwork, and countless phone calls and e-mails, the name Goodman Mountain was officially approved on July 25, 2002. The Goodmans were touched by this heartfelt gesture from the Tupper Lake community.

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Then, like a plot twist out of a mystery novel, the ghosts of Freedom Summer returned in 2004 when Illinois high school teacher Barry Bradford and his students Brittany Saltiel, Sarah Siegel and Allison Nichols were doing a history project on the violent events of 1964. Working with Mississippi reporter Jerry Mitchell, known for doggedly investi-gating the Klan, they uncovered new evidence leading to the arrest of Edgar Ray Killen, Jr. for murder. Though not at the scene of the crime, Killen, now 80, was considered the mastermind of the murders.

In May of 2005, Carolyn Goodman, now 89, was called to testify at Killen’s trial. Killen, remorseless even in old age, was convicted on a lesser charge of man-slaughter on June 21, 2005—the 41st anniversary of the murders. He was sen-tenced to 60 years in prison and won’t be eligible for parole until 2033.

Carolyn Goodman died in 2007. A year later, Bill Frenette passed away; his plans for a trail to the summit of Goodman Mountain left unfinished. Determined to complete what his brother had started, Jim Frenette, along with John Quinn, worked with the Adirondack Park Agency, DEC regional staff Patrick

Whalen and Blanche Town, and many volunteers, to quickly build the trail and a kiosk to honor Andy and his family.

On August 26, 2014, David Goodman, Jim Frenette, John Quinn, N.Y. State Chief Diversity Officer Mecca Santana (representing Governor Cuomo) and DEC Commissioner Joe Martens dedicated the kiosk and hiked the trail. They were joined by Bill Frenette’s wife Ginny, niece Liza and many local supporters.

Three months later, David Goodman was invited to the White House where President Barrack Obama post-humously awarded our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Andrew Goodman,

James Chaney and Michael Schwerner on November 24, 2014. The day before would have been Andrew’s 71st birthday.

Goodman Mountain, along with its hiking trail, is the perfect tribute to Andrew Goodman. From the top, hikers are rewarded with a picturesque view of the Adirondack wilderness and reminded of the beauty of all life, the same way Andy was.

John Razzano is an editor in DEC’s Office of Communication Services in Albany.

Located within the Horseshoe Lake Wild Forest south of Tupper Lake, Goodman Mountain offers hikers a scenic vista of the surrounding lakes and mountains. The 1.6-mile-long hiking trail was newly constructed in 2014, and takes you over a variety of terrain ranging from flat to somewhat steep before reaching the 2,176 foot summit.

The first quarter-mile of the trail is wheelchair accessible and ideal for families with young children and people with limited mobility. From there, the trail continues to follow the gentle grade of an old highway for another one-half-mile before steepening and turning sharply on its way up to the summit.

The trailhead and parking area are located on the east side of Route 30 just south of Tupper Lake. There is an informational kiosk that explains the history surrounding Andrew Goodman and this trail.

Take a Hike

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Last September, Monica Williams, a wildlife biologist at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge in Shirley, noticed that pine trees in the area were dying at an alarming rate. Upon closer inspection, she observed small balls of resin oozing from the trees, an ominous sign that signaled a possible southern pine beetle (SPB) infestation. She quickly called John Wernet, the DEC Region 1 forester, to investigate. He initially hoped that the damage might be a result of the more benign black turpentine beetle. Instead, their fears were confirmed when the Forest Health Diagnostic Lab (where I work) positively identified the specimen as the southern pine beetle. Since then, DEC has gone on the offensive to slow its spread.

Unfortunately, by the time our lab received the sample in early October, the southern pine beetle had already dec-imated thousands of pine trees throughout Suffolk County, Long Island. More than 30,000 trees were killed in the hardest hit areas, which included Henry’s Hollow Pine Barrens State Forest, Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge, Connetquot State Park, and Hidden Ponds Town Park.

It happened fast. Green-needled pines — healthy and vibrant in the spring —had faded through the summer to yellow, red and brown. By winter, most

SOUTHERN PINE BEETLE COMES TO NEW YORK

—Destructive tiny beetle discovered on Long Island

By Jessica CancellierePhotos provided by author

Southern pine beetles attack pine trees quickly. In response, the tree battles back by secreting resin from its pin-sized wounds. For some beetles, the battle ends here as they are unable to escape the sticky sap; others are able to miraculously burrow through the toxic substance.

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had died and dropped their needles alto-gether, leaving stark skeletons of barren trees across the landscape. How could a beetle the size of a chocolate sprinkle cause such devastation?

“The southern pine beetle is a predator of pine trees,” says Matt Ayres, a professor of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College. “It hunts and kills pine trees the way wolves hunt and kill moose, operating in large packs.”

It starts in the spring, when a single female sets out to find a suitable host tree. As she lands and begins boring into the tree, she releases pheromones—chemical signals that alert thousands of other beetles to her location. As the army approaches, they attack the first tree, and when it is full they move onto the next, and the next, and the infestation spreads like wildfire.

This is where the battle begins. Beetles must attack a tree within a short period of time in sufficient numbers to overcome the tree’s defenses. The tree fights back by secreting resin out of its thousands of pin-size wounds, encapsulating invading beetles in this sticky, gummy, sap-like substance. The fight ends here for some beetles, but many are able to miracu-lously burrow through the toxic substance and still make their way into the tree. The stronger a tree, the more beetles it will take to bring it down.

The SPB is considered one of the most destructive forest pests in the United States, attacking all species of pine. It has been wreaking havoc in southern forests since the nineteenth century, long

before its arrival on Long Island. For reasons that are not fully understood, the insect periodically reaches epidemic pro-portions, resulting in millions of dollars’ worth of timber loss.

Even though Long Island has a limited timber market, it is home to the Central Pine Barrens, an area roughly 100,000 acres in size. This unique ecosystem contains remnants of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion, a forest once thought to have encompassed a quarter

of a million acres. The region is now the largest natural area on Long Island and represents its last remaining wilderness.

While the Pine Barrens are treasured by local residents as an outdoor rec-reation destination, they are also of vital importance because they overlie part of the only aquifer that supplies Long Island res-idents’ drinking water. As important as the Pine Barrens are to people, they are also home to thousands of plant and animal species, many of which are threatened or

Since its arrival in Long Island, foresters have been particularly concerned about SPB’s effect on the Central Pine Barrens, a 100,000 acre unique ecosystem home to the remnants of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens: an important home to wildlife and a recreational destination for residents.

SPBs can quickly decimate an area, leaving dead and dying pine trees as seen by the large number of brown trees in this photo.

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endangered. Pitch pine, the dominant tree species within the Pine Barrens, is under attack, as it is the preferred host of the southern pine beetle. The beetle’s aggressiveness cannot be overstated. In this case, letting nature take its course would result in more than just a lot of dead pine trees. It would result, eventually, in no pine trees at all.

Eradication of southern pine beetle is not realistic. The pest is here to stay, and DEC will continue to work hard to mitigate its damage for years to come.

DEC is employing three major strategies to detect and control outbreaks. The first is the use of aerial surveys to detect new infestations. Changes in the forest are observed from the plane, and then documented manually onto a map, a process called “sketchmapping.” “Aerial surveys let ground crews know where to look for SPB, but just as important, it lets crews know where not to look,” says Forest Health Research Scientist and mapping specialist Scott McDonnell, who performs all our aerial surveys and sketchmapping.

The second strategy is direct suppression of small infestations that have the capacity to grow larger, using the cut-and-leave control method. This method involves felling infested trees and leaving them in the forest. The treatment disrupts spot growth—the natural expansion of untreated “spots” as additional green pines become infested by beetles seeking a new host tree—and disperses the emerging adult beetles. Emerging beetles follow a female beetle’s pheromone plume to locate the next host tree. Cutting trees disrupts the pheromone communication between the beetles, generally resulting in the beetles flying haphazardly through the trees, with no specific direction. Many of the beetles are then eaten by predators or simply run out of fuel.

The third approach, a preventative strategy, is forest thinning. Thinning is the preferred practice for reducing a forest stand’s susceptibility to attack. It reduces competition between trees and promotes tree health, which, in turn helps trees fight off

SPB attacks. The increased tree spacing also helps disrupt spot growth, and it reduces wildfire risk, which becomes much more of a danger given the amount of standing dead trees left in the wake of the infestation.

DEC’s first major suppression event occurred in March 2015, when Regional Forester John Wernet lead a team of sawyers, consisting of Forest Rangers, Fish & Wildlife staff, and several local arborists, to apply the cut-and-leave control method at Henry’s Hollow State Forest and the adjacent Munn’s Pond County Park. They were working against the clock. The 2,500 infested trees that were cut down were supporting hundreds of thousands of SPB larvae, just waiting to pupate and emerge as adults and spread to new trees in the spring. The Forest Health team has been monitoring populations at the site since beetles began flying in May. The results show success. Beetle traps deployed at the site are catching very few SPB, and very high numbers of their natural predator, the checkered beetle.

This summer, we will be tracking new spots to see if the infes-tations grow or die out. We will attack as many expanding spots as we can. We are hopeful that last winter’s severe cold may have killed off a lot of beetles, temporarily slowing the spread. “The cold winter has given us… (an) advantage, but maybe only a few months,” says DEC’s Chief of Forest Health Jerry Carlson. Matt Ayres predicts between 50-95% mortality of the beetles, but that may still not be enough. Even if only 5% survive, 5% of a billion is still a lot of beetles.

Jessica Cancelliere works at DEC’s Forest Health Diagnostic Lab in Delmar, Albany County.

What You Can DoIf you think you may have trees infested with southern

pine beetles, call DEC’s Forest Health Information Line at 1-866-640-0652 or e-mail them at [email protected]. Sending pictures of suspect pine trees with something that indicates scale, such as a penny, will help in identifying potential problems.Signs of possible infestation include:

• Pitch tubes, or popcorn-shaped clumps of resin on the exterior of the bark;• Shotgun patterned holes on the exterior of the bark;• S-shaped tunnels under the bark;• Pine trees that have recently died (characterized by reddish-brown needles).To keep SPB from spreading, remove and dispose of

infested pines. Infested trees should not be cut and moved to new areas during the summer unless they will imme-diately be destroyed.[Note: Dead pine trees no longer have living SPB in them.]

The southern pine beetle is a small beetle, only 2-4 mm in size (about the size of a grain of rice), but capable of inflicting much damage to pine trees. It causes S-shaped tunnels in the tree’s bark, disrupting the flow of nutrients. See the sidebar on this page for more signs of infestation and ways you can help.

David T. Almquist Bugwood.org

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In early June, DEC received a report of a dead adult bald eagle found along a road in Henrietta, just south of Rochester. Staff retrieved the dead bird, and when biologists looked it over, they noticed something that made this bird a special find: it was wearing a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service band on its leg.

Recovering banded birds is infrequent at best, and especially so for long-lived birds of prey like eagles. Band numbers often help unfurl interesting stories: a quick check of this bird’s band number (03412) told researchers that it had been banded in New York State as a fledgling in 1977, some 38 years before. This is five years older than the oldest recorded age for a banded bald eagle anywhere in the world!

What tales this bird could tell, if only we could hear. We do know that this bird was one of the first reared and released by DEC biologists in a process called “hacking.” This technique involves taking nestling birds from one location and raising them in another, with minimal human contact, in hopes that they become imprinted on their new location and return to the site as mature adults, to nest and raise their own young.

From 1976 to 1980, DEC raised 23 eagles at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, including 03412, who had been taken from a nest in northern Minnesota in the spring of 1977. Over the next 20 years, biologists raised and released nearly 200 other young eagles at several locations in New York, ending the program when eagle populations began to take off on their own.

In the late 1970s, New York had just one remaining, unpro-ductive bald eagle nest at Hemlock Lake in Livingston County. In 1980, the male from that nest was shot and killed. The next year, 03412 began nesting at Hemlock Lake. While we can’t be certain, the location of the bird’s death indicates that in all like-lihood, it has been nesting in the area each year since 1981, helping to bolster New York’s fledgling eagle population.

So while it is unfortunate that this bird met its demise, we can rest assured that it has been a productive member of one of the greatest wildlife success stories of our time. Early in his career, Conservationist Editor Dave Nelson worked on bald

eagle restoration efforts in New York and Massachusetts.

Eagle Flies On

For more information about eagle 03412 and DEC’s eagle program, check out DEC’s website at www.dec.ny.gov/press/102089.html and www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7068.html.

By Dave Nelson

more information

Raptor bander David Evans of Duluth, Minnesota in 1979 holding one of four eagle chicks (possibly 03412) given to New York for their eagle resto-ration program.

Eagle 03412 (right) likely nested for 34 years in New York State.25


Real stories from Conservation Officers and Forest Rangers in the field

On PatrolContributed by ECO Lt. Liza Bobseine

and Forest Ranger Capt. Stephen Scherry

Carl Heilman II

Sunbathing Seal— Richmond County

ECOs Waldemar Auguscinski and Edward Piwko were notified that there was a seal “in distress” on the beach at Great Kills Park. The officers located the seal, which showed no sign of injury or distress. However, many people had approached the animal as it relaxed on the beach. For their safety and the safety of the seal, the officers cleared the area around it. Eventually, the seal finished sun-bathing and returned to the water, and the ECOs resumed their patrol.

Slippery Fisherman Slips Up—St. Lawrence County

ECO Brett Canary received information about a local fisherman who had been taking more than his limit of sunfish on a daily basis from under a bridge along Black Lake in Macomb. The suspect was familiar to local game wardens, but after multiple arrests, he refined his techniques, making it difficult to catch him in possession of more than 50 sunfish. On one of many surveillances, ECOs Canary and Joel Schneller sat in a steady rainfall and watched as the suspect arrived, began fishing, caught his limit, hid the bucket among nearby shrubbery, and returned to

fish again. Before approaching the suspect, the officers waited while he caught a few fish more than the limit. They then seized the fish, buckets and fishing gear, and issued a ticket for exceeding the possession limit. If found guilty, the suspect’s fishing license could be revoked for up to five years and he could be fined and/or get jail time.

Bear Cub Seeks Dinner In Town—Ulster County

In June and July, female bears usually kick their yearling cubs out of the family group, forcing them to fend for themselves. While looking for food, some yearlings wind up in residential areas, where they encounter humans. Although these encounters don’t often result in serious trouble, ECO Matthew Nichols is frequently kept busy answering calls about bears in neighborhoods. The bear cub pictured here was trapped in the Town of Phoenicia. Working together, ECOs and wildlife staff tagged, tattooed, weighed and aged the cub before releasing it in more remote terrain, where it’s hoped the cub will remain.

Be Prepared—Ulster CountyRecently, Ulster Co. 911 called DEC

reporting a lost hiker on Slide Mountain. Shortly after 8 p.m. the subject had texted a friend in Dutchess County that he was lost. The cell phone ping placed him near the summits of Slide and Cornell Mountains, almost 4 miles from the road. Ranger Marie Ellenbogen and Shandaken police located the subject’s vehicle at the Slide Mountain Trailhead. While they continued to gather additional information, the subject came out of the woods at the trailhead. According to Ranger Ellenbogen’s interview, the subject began hiking at 3 p.m., intending to hike to the summit of Slide. He went beyond Slide to Cornell Mountain and began the return trip. Overcome by darkness, he began texting the complainant he was lost. On the descent, the subject used his cell phone as a light until he encountered another hiker, who gave him a flashlight. He was then able to walk out on his own. The subject was ill-prepared for such a hike, and started too late in the day.

Ask the ECO

Q: What should I do if I find an injured animal?

A: Wildlife experts agree that an injured wild animal should be left where it is found. Although it may seem cruel, it’s part of the natural cycle of life. If you feel as though you must help, or if the animal is a rare or endangered species, call the nearest DEC regional office or a local ECO. In some cases, an injured animal may be placed under the care of a licensed wildlife rehabilitator until it is well enough to be released back into the wild.

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BRIEFLY Compiled by Conservationist staff

Catskill Interpretive Center OpensRecently, the new Catskill Interpretive Center opened in

Shandaken, the heart of the Catskill Park. The Center will introduce visitors to the rich array of cultural and environmental resources available in the region. The building showcases mul-timedia displays and presentations on the history of the Catskill Park and Forest Preserve, its wildlife, watersheds, stewardship, recreational opportunities, and much more. The Center sits on 52 acres that contain a universally accessible trail, an amphitheater, picnic area and sculpture park. For more information about the new Center, including directions, visit DEC’s website.

Helping Birds and Bees Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced two new projects

to help protect New York’s wildlife. In response to the decline in worldwide pollinator numbers (honey bees, butterflies, bats), the Governor convened a task force to promote the health and recovery of pollinator populations in New York State. The exact cause of the decline in pollinator numbers is unknown, but there are many theories, including pesticide use, parasites and fungi.

Migratory bird species are also of concern. Millions of birds migrate annually through our state, but their journey is hampered by bright city lights. To address this, Governor Cuomo has enacted a new “Lights Out New York Initiative” where the state will dim non-essential lights on government buildings from 11 p.m. until dawn during peak migratory periods of spring and autumn. For more information, visit the Governor’s website.

Student ArchersThe National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) con-

tinues to grow, with 2.3 million students participating in the 2012-2013 school year. In New York, the program is sponsored by DEC and has reached more than 32,000 students at 261 schools in 143 school districts. If you are interested in volun-teering in the program, or know a school that would like to join NASP, contact Melissa Bailey, the state program coordinator, at (315) 793-2515 or [email protected]. Visit the National Archery in the Schools Program website at http://nasp-schools.org for more information about the New York program.

Action for the Hudson RiverDEC recently released the Hudson River Action Agenda,

a six-year blueprint for conserving the estuary and sur-rounding valley for residents, visitors and future generations. The Agenda identifies potential challenges and offers practical solutions that can be carried out by civic leaders, policy makers and citizens. The Action Agenda lays out plans to achieve the following benefits: clean water; resilient communities; vital estuary ecosystems; conservation of habitats; preservation of natural scenery; and enhanced opportunities for education, river access, recreation and inspiration. For more information, visit DEC’s website.

Jim Clayton

Jim Clayton

Louise Docker

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New York’s New National TrailRecently, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated

New York’s Sackets Harbor Battlefield History Trail as one of ten new national recreation trails. This three-quarter-mile loop trail provides recreational and educational opportunities for visitors to Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site, located on the eastern end of Lake Ontario overlooking Black River Bay. Ten panels along the trail tell the stories of the pivotal role of the battle during the War of 1812, the 1860s Navy Yard, and the importance of historic preservation. The trail connects to the Village of Sackets Harbor’s War of 1812 Bicentennial Recreation Trail. To learn more, visit the National Park Service website.

Battling Aquatic InvasivesAs part of a new program to prevent the introduction and

spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS),—such as Eurasian watermilfoil and spiny water flea—this year boat stewards are working at many locations across the Adirondacks. Hired and trained by staff from Paul Smiths College, the stewards show arriving boaters the signs of possible invasive threats on their watercrafts and trailers. They will also clean boats that have not been cleaned and drained, especially those last used in waters with high risk for AIS. (Boater participation is voluntary, yet strongly encouraged.) DEC continues to advise boaters and anglers to check boats, trailers and other fishing and boating equipment for any plants or animals that may be clinging to them. Follow the “Clean, Drain and Dry” standard, and if boating equipment cannot be completely and thoroughly dried, it must be decontaminated. For decon-tamination techniques and a list of AIS, visit DEC’s website.

Louise Docker

BRIEFLY

John Rozell

DEC photo

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M. Gaden

leaflets three, let it be: the story of poison ivy by Anita Sanchez; illustrated by Robin Brickman 32 pages; hardcover $16.95Boyds Mills Presswww.boydsmillspress.com 1-800-490-5111

How do you generate enthusiasm for the plants we love to hate? Writer and environmental educator Anita Sanchez uses children’s inherent interest in animals to create a fascinating page-turner with leaflets three, let it be: the story of poison ivy. Sanchez shares the overwhelmingly beneficial qualities of this vine, while cautioning readers about its potential danger.

The book’s title has long been the catchphrase warning. Other, less familiar rhyming phrases are also presented by the author. “Hairy vine—a warning sign!” describes the hairy roots that attach the vine to the trunk as it climbs straight up a tree. These vines are the main clue to deciduous ivy’s presence in winter. “Berries white—take flight!” is a reminder not to touch the unusual white-colored fruit. All parts of the plant—vines, aerial roots, flowers, fruit and leaves—contain the irritating oil, urushiol.

The author reveals poison ivy’s benefits to wildlife in each season. She portrays poison ivy as a significantly beneficial member of the natural community. Rabbits, deer and even black

bear relish the tender new leaves appearing in spring. Where ivy grows as ground cover, leaves help maintain a moist environment for toads and salamanders, and protective cover from predators searching from above. A cardinal brings a fat caterpillar to its hungry young, secure in a nest lined with poison ivy rootlets. Bees take nectar from tiny white flowers. A host of birds including red-bellied woodpeckers and turkeys feed on ivy berries.

Compelling illustrations are essential in books for young readers and Robin Brickman is up to the task. Colorful and detailed poison ivy habitats on every page enrich the narrative by moving the reader’s eyes around the pages.

The book’s “Itching to Know More” pages pose important questions and answers not revealed in the text: how we get sen-sitized, rash duration, remedies, control in our yards and more. A picture quiz helps readers distinguish poison ivy leaves from four lookalikes.

In our increasingly urbanized society, more people fear outdoor places. Turning our fears inside out, Sanchez skillfully convinces us that poison ivy is a beneficial plant, worthy of our admiration and respect. We need more books like leaflets three that dispel fears and realistically portray nature as fascinating; much more enjoyable than scary.

Botanist, fungi fancier, retired DEC Environmental Educator and frequent Conservationist contributor Frank Knight lives near his daughter and grandchildren in Gig Harbor, WA.

BOOK REVIEW By Frank Knight

Great, Great Lakes Fishing The results from New York’s 2014 Great Lakes angler

surveys are in: in recent years anglers have had exceptional fishing success on Lakes Erie and Ontario. New York’s Great Lakes’ waters offer anglers a broad diversity of outstanding fishing opportunities, ranging from fishing for trophy Chinook salmon on Lake Ontario, to winter steelhead fishing on the lower Niagara, to catching a yellow perch from a dock on Lake Erie or the St. Lawrence River. Children can enjoy fishing quiet back-waters for perch, pumpkinseeds, bluegills and bullheads. Before heading out, remember to check your fishing license. New York’s annual fishing license is now valid for 365 days from the date of issuance. Before hitting the water, be sure to determine when your license expires and renew it if necessary. With resident license fees reduced to $25, fishing in New York is a better deal than ever before. For more information on your fishing license or these survey results, visit DEC’s website.

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LETTERS Compiled by Eileen Stegemann and Jenna Kerwin

August EyesTimothy Ferris of Delmar, Albany County, sent this gorgeous

photo of the sun setting over Blue Mountain Lake. Nothing quite like a summer sunset!

Who’s the Boss?I captured this image the other day. I was surprised that the

smaller hawk seemed to be the boss as it chased away the turkey vulture.

Gert FedericiMadison, NYIt looks like this red-tail may have been honing in on this

vulture’s lunchtime find!

Muskrat MusingsI recently took this photo of a muskrat. I hope you like it. Pam MonacelliSt. Lawrence County

Great photo! Muskrats are easily distinguished from small beavers by their scaly, laterally compressed tail. These rodents are generally nocturnal, but can be seen at other times of day. They occupy a variety of aquatic habitats including ponds, lakes, marshes and streams, and can also occur in brackish habitats. They prefer to dine on the roots and stems of aquatic vegetation, but will also occa-sionally consume animal matter when vegetation is in short supply.

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Walk in the WoodsMy husband, Frank, set up a trail camera next to our pond.

We have been very lucky and have captured many photos of furry and feathered friends. We thought we’d share this image of a mother bear and her cub.

Sheryl GalinskiGloversville, Fulton CountyBeautiful capture! Thanks so much for sharing. As a reminder,

check out DEC’s website for how to reduce human-bear conflicts. Just search “black bear.”

Patient BeautyHere’s a picture of a spider on one of my peony buds. I think it

showcases the spider nicely.Susan McGeeGlenville, NYThis is a dramatic image of a goldenrod crab spider.

Goldenrod spiders are familiar garden visitors. Females are

often white or yellow and males are brown to reddish-brown. These spiders do not build webs to catch prey; instead, they sit and wait for prey to come to them.

A Note on King CanuteAlthough we enjoy your magazine and have for years, my

daughter and I were disappointed by the reference to King Canute in the story “To the Moon! (and partway back)” in the April 2015 issue. You got the facts wrong on King Canute. Canute did not believe he could stop the waves. Canute was a Danish king who conquered the Anglo-Saxons and ruled England from 1014-1035. Canute’s nobles sought to flatter the king and convince him that he was omnipotent because of his royal position. Canute realized that this hubris was folly, and took his nobles to the seashore where he commanded the waves to halt. The waves of course did not obey the king. He turned to his advisors and remarked, “Learn how feeble is the power of earthly kings. None is worthy of the name of King but He whom heaven and earth and sea obey.”

Colleen Boland Toder

Thanks for your astute candor, Colleen!

Ask the BiologistQ: I recently observed a squirrel

gnawing on a strange object. After the squirrel left, I found it had been chewing on a piece of bone. Could this bone have been chewed by a larger mammal and just found by the squirrel? And was the squirrel just sharpening its teeth, or would the bone contain something it craved?

Teddi Caltabiano Liverpool, Onondaga County

A: You are correct in both assumptions you have made about the squirrel gnawing on the bone. All rodents need to chew something hard to keep their teeth sharp and short. Rodents also require calcium in their diets; chewing bone is a great way to satisfy this need. (This is also why we see antlers in the fall, but by spring they are gone: rodents will eat them up.)

—Gordon Batcheller, DEC Wildlife Bureau Chief

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E-mail us at: [email protected] to us at: Conservationist Letters NYSDEC, 625 Broadway Albany, NY 12233-4502facebook.com/NYSDECtheconservationist


BackTrails Perspectives on People and Nature

I often wonder how I became so fond of the outdoors. I grew up in the heart of a fairly large city but hunting, fishing and trapping always interested me more than other activities. Fortu-nately, my friends and I had parents who took us fishing or to run our trap lines in the Poconos. Today, almost all my close friends are avid golfers, but golf has never interested me. I remain a creature of the forest.

My parents’ only interest in the outdoors was to pick blue-berries in the summer and wild mushrooms in the fall. I think my affinity for the outdoors was kindled by these woodland foraging excursions, especially when we went mushroom hunting.

Every fall, around the nineteenth of September, my family would pile into my father’s 1941 Plymouth sedan and head to a farm about an hour’s ride from our home. There we would search for a mushroom people of Eastern European descent call “Popinki,” known as honey mushrooms in the field guides. This group of species is quite common in New York’s woods. Popinki can be found from about mid-September to late October. Popinki grow singly or in clusters over buried wood or at the base of trees, especially oak. For me, it isn’t fall until I find and collect enough of these honey mushrooms to serve as an accoutrement for several meals. I especially love them for breakfast, fried in a little butter and served with an egg or two.

If we were lucky, my parents came home with nearly a bushel of these woodland delicacies. When we got home the work began. My parents would stand at the kitchen sink for what seemed like hours washing, slicing, and removing any woodland detritus from the mushrooms.

After they were cleaned, my mother placed the mushrooms in a large kettle of salted water and boiled them twice. After the second boiling, she canned them for use throughout the winter.

People often ask me whether I’m concerned about eating a poisonous mushroom. I tell them I only pick the ones I know are safe, and stay away from others. I use the analogy that if a person picks every blue-colored berry they find, they might get sick. However, if they only pick the edible and easily recognized huckleberry or blueberry, they will never get sick. It’s the same with mushrooms.

This past fall, I got a call from a farmer on whose land I hunt. He told me he had hundreds of large, white mushrooms growing in a clover field on his farm. He said in 60 years he had never seen anything like it and asked if I would come down to take a look. When we drove to the top of the hill overlooking the field, I saw an almost Disneyesque scene. A thick morning fog hung low to the ground and there in front of us was a field of mushrooms. My mushroom field guide showed them to be smooth Lepiota, a large white mushroom common throughout North America. Since an all-white mushroom deserves a lot of caution, I checked my identification with the president of the Southern Tier Myco-logical Society and he immediately confirmed my guess. The smooth Lepiota is indeed edible, and I felt like Charles Darwin with my new discovery.

Wild mushrooms are there for the taking by anyone with landowner permission who is willing to learn to identify some of the more choice species. The best way for a person to learn is to go with someone who knows some edible species. Popinki will be out again this fall; I’ll be looking for them. Will you?

A Southern Tier resident, bowhunter and outdoor writer, Mike Raykovicz is a frequent contributor to the Conservationist.

John Bulmer

Popinki by Mike Raykovicz

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Mike Raykovicz

Editor’s note: Never eat a wild mushroom unless an expert mycologist identifies it as an edible species.

When you purchase a $5 habitat and access stamp, you will help to create and expand young forest habitat on our Wildlife Management Areas for dozens of important wildlife species.

Invest in Our Future $5 can help conserve wildlife and their habitat

The American Woodcock

For more information, talk to your license issuing agent, or visit www.dec.ny.gov

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Con ’95 Blowdown | Banded Eagle | Adirondack 46erservationist · dark, I once found myself...

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