Winter’s Moring

Walking down to the express bus this morning, I was reminded what many a winter's morning looks like.

Taken on Thursday December 9, 2021 at Delmar, NY.

NYSDEC’s Management Fiasco in the High Peaks Wilderness Area – – The Adirondack Almanack

NYSDEC’s Management Fiasco in the High Peaks Wilderness Area – – The Adirondack Almanack

A very strange thing happened this fall in the High Peaks Wilderness Area. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) worked for weeks in 2021 with heavy machinery to rebuild an old logging road in the Dudley Brook area of the MacIntyre East section of the High Peaks Wilderness. This is the same area where the DEC had worked for months in 2019 and 2020 to tear apart old logging roads. However, the DEC says they’re not rebuilding the road; they say they’re simply correcting a massive mistake that somehow its leaders in Albany had failed to notice for the last two years.

This is one of the strangest things I’ve seen in Forest Preserve management at the DEC in the last two decades.

In 2019, DEC approved a work plan to do something new and different. The DEC set out in 2019 and 2020 to expedite ecological restoration and reclaim a series of old logging roads in newly purchased and newly classified lands in the MacIntyre East section of the High Peaks Wilderness. These lands are on the south side of the Opalescent River, include the southwestern flanks of Allen Mountain, and are bordered by conservation easement lands and a Primitive Corridor logging road. Since DEC work plans are not published, and since this is a trailless section of the High Peaks Wilderness where public access is difficult, involving a deep ford of the Opalescent River, we did not learn about this work right away. We had heard about similar road reclamation work in the Boreas Ponds area, but public access to that area has been limited and restricted in recent months.

There are many old logging roads in Wilderness Areas, such as the Burn Road in the William C. Whitney Area, among many others, that see slow change over the decades as the forest steadily, but incrementally, eats away at them and reclaims these roadways. Many of these old roads retain old culverts and human geometric forms from benchcuts, banking, grading, and borrow pits, among other road construction features, for decades. In the MacIntyre East and Boreas Ponds areas, DEC organized work crews in 2019 and 2020 to tear apart these road corridors, and build a series of pits and mounds (see below) that mimic the natural forest, with the objective of changing the long linear geometry of these road corridors and expediting forest reclamation. (Click here for pictures of abandoned roadways where pits and mounds were built to restore the road corridor.) This work covered nearly 20 miles total of abandoned roads.

Upcoming Sunsets – December 9, 2021

Upcoming Sunsets:

Earliest Sunset – Friday, December 10 at 4:22 pm
4:30 pm sunset – Tuesday, December 28
4:45 pm sunset – Thursday, January 13
5:00 pm sunset – Tuesday, January 25
5:15 pm sunset – Saturday, February 5
5:30 pm sunset – Thursday, February 17
5:45 pm sunset – Tuesday, March 1
7:00 pm sunset – Sunday, March 13
Daylight Savings Time Begins – Sunset on Sunday, March 13 is at 6:59 pm
7:15 pm sunset – Saturday, March 26
7:30 pm sunset – Friday, April 8
7:45 pm sunset – Thursday, April 21

Weather Update – December 9, 2021

This morning is rather frosty but the same can’t be said about next week β˜€

It’s amazing how quickly our standards are lowered come the winter time. 🌨 50 degrees is a nice day in December. I probably should take off Monday if I can. 50 degrees and sunshine is basically beach πŸ– weather.

Today.
Feels like …
December 22nd.

Scattered Flurries

Scattered flurries before 8am. Partly sunny.

Northwest wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light in the afternoon.

and

36 degrees , 4:21
sunset.
Tonight.
Feels like …
December 7th.

Slight Chance of Snow Showers then Chance of Snow Showers

A chance of snow showers, mainly before 3am. Cloudy.

Calm wind becoming south 5 to 7 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

and

25 degrees , 7:14
sunrise.
Friday.
Feels like …
November 28th.

Mostly Cloudy

Mostly cloudy.

South wind 6 to 9 mph.

and

44 degrees , 4:22
sunset.
Friday Night.
Feels like …
November 13th.

Mostly Cloudy then Rain is likely

Rain likely, mainly after 4am. Mostly cloudy.

Calm wind becoming south 5 to 7 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

and

32 degrees , 7:15
sunrise.
Saturday.
Feels like …
October 19th.

Showers

Rain likely before 7am, then showers between 7am and 10am, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 10am.

South wind 10 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

and

60 degrees , 4:22
sunset.
Saturday Night.
Feels like …
November 10th.

Showers is likely then Slight Chance of Showers

Showers likely, mainly before 10pm. Mostly cloudy.

Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

and

33 degrees , 7:16
sunrise.
Sunday.
Feels like …
November 28th.

Sunny

Sunny.

 

and

44 degrees , 4:22
sunset.
Sunday Night.
Feels like …
November 20th.

Mostly Clear

Mostly clear.

 

and

30 degrees , 7:17
sunrise.
Monday.
Feels like …
November 13th.

Sunny

Sunny.

 

and

50 degrees , 4:22
sunset.
Monday Night.
Feels like …
November 20th.

Mostly Clear

Mostly clear.

 

and

30 degrees , 7:17
sunrise.
Tuesday.
Feels like …
November 21st.

Mostly Sunny

Mostly sunny.

 

and

47 degrees , 4:22
sunset.
Tuesday Night.
Feels like …
November 23rd.

Mostly Cloudy

Mostly cloudy.

 

and

29 degrees , 7:18
sunrise.
Wednesday.
Feels like …
November 23rd.

Mostly Cloudy

Mostly cloudy.

 

and

46 degrees , 4:22
sunset.