Why fire is our best tool against megafires – Vox

Wildfires 2021: Why fire is our best tool against megafires – Vox

A number of unique factors in recent seasons combined with long-term trends and created the devastating blazes. But a major reason for the massive scale of the destruction is that natural fires and burning practices first developed by Indigenous people have been suppressed for generations.

Wildfires are essential to many Western ecosystems in the US, restoring nutrients to the soil, clearing decaying brush, and helping plants germinate. Without these fires, vegetation in woodlands, grasslands, and chaparral shrublands accumulates, so more fuel is available to burn, especially when a megadrought keeps drying out the fuel, year after year. A debt to the landscape starts to mount, and when it comes due, there is hell to pay.

10 weeks until autumn

10 weeks until autumn … πŸ‚

Average High – 72 degrees
Daylight – 12 hours, 9 minutes
Sunrise – 6:43 AM
Sunset – 6:52 PM, which is 1 hour 39 minutes earlier then tonight

More Choppiness

Communities face garbage double bind | Adirondack Explorer

Talking trash: Communities face garbage double bind | Adirondack Explorer

The Adirondack Park’s 6 million acres of pristine waters, mountain peaks and forestlands were not always the main attraction for all vacationers.

Some came for the dumps.

In the 1960s and ’70s, nearly every town in the Adirondack Park had its own dump or landfill. With lax regulations, black bears would descend on these open-air pits and feast on garbage. Tourists and residents descended, too. They lugged cameras, set up lawn chairs and took the family out for a night of wildlife viewing—some of the bears close enough to touch.

“It was a big attraction on a Saturday morning,” said Kevin Hajos, superintendent of public works for Warren County. Hajos used to go with his grandparents to watch the bears at the North Creek landfill.

That was before Gov. George Pataki and his administration decided in the 1990s that the Adirondack Park was not the place for trash.

For the last couple of decades, New Yorkers have spent millions of dollars keeping dumps out of the public-private park. Annual subsidies have helped the two counties that are wholly within the Adirondacks to truck their garbage elsewhere. But those subsidies are now in doubt, and some observers question the practicality of continuing to haul out all of the garbage that tens of thousands of residents and millions of visitors generate each year. The uncertainty could dump a financial load on park residents as local officials figure out how to tackle garbage in the future.

Albany Lumberyard (1857 vs. 2017)

[nychistory id=”25314″]

Near the intersection of Colonie and Water Street, under Interstate 787 near the long vacant Albany Cold Storage Building was the start of the original Erie Canal and the Albany Lumberyard, where lumber products were transferred from small boats on canal to larger vassels heading down the Hudson River.

Long since filled in with urban debris, the area is now home to Interstate 787, along with several industrial facilities and warehouses. Facilities include a DEC Warehouse with records storage, a NYS Assembly printing plant, the City of Albany maintaince garage and a now closed city landfill that was used for many years for emergency demolitions.

Oldest Streets in Albany 🏘

Oldest Streets in Albany 🏘

This is a listing of the streets in Albany with the oldest median year of building construction from City Tax Records. Albany’s tax records aren’t very good for building construction dates back in the 1800s, but they do give you an idea where some of the oldest buildings within the city are located.

Street Median Year of Building Construction
Quackenbush Sq 1800
Clinton Pl 1832
Schuyler St 1835
Clinton St 1845
Wilson St 1846
Ludlow Aly 1847
Madison Pl 1848
Green St 1850
Bleecker Pl 1851
Columbia Pl 1852
Philip St 1859
Boice St 1860
Eagle St 1860
Grand St 1860
Plum St 1860
Ten Broeck St 1860
Hall Pl 1865
Catherine St 1870
Colonie St 1870
Fourth Ave 1870
S Swan St 1870
Elm St 1871
Jefferson St 1872
Browne St 1872
Orange St 1872
Jay St 1873
Third Ave 1873
Trinity Pl 1873
Stephen St 1875
Hamilton St 1876
Willett St 1879
Dove St 1879