Albany Pine Bush

The Albany Pine Bush, referred to locally as the Pine Bush, is one of the largest of the 20 inland pine barrens in the world, and is centrally located in New York’s Capital District within Albany and Schenectady counties, between the cities of Albany and Schenectady. The Albany Pine Bush was formed thousands of years ago, following the drainage of Glacial Lake Albany.

The Albany Pine Bush is the sole remaining undeveloped portion of a pine barrens that once covered over 40 square miles (100 km2), and is “one of the best remaining examples of an inland pine barrens ecosystem in the world.” Today it includes all parcels of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve (a state nature preserve spanning 3,200 acres (1,300 ha)), the properties that connect these protected parcels, and some of the surrounding areas that abut the preserve. The 135-acre (55 ha) Woodlawn Preserve and surrounding areas in Schenectady County are the western sections of the Pine Bush and are separated from the Albany Pine Bush Preserve in Albany County.

The Pine Bush has been a historical, cultural, and environmental asset to the Capital District and Hudson Valley regions of New York. Pioneers moving west passed through the pine barrens, which later became the site of the first passenger railroad in the United States. The Pine Bush is also home to the Karner Blue butterfly, an endangered species first identified by Vladimir Nabokov in 1944 using a type specimen from the Pine Bush.

How Skyrocketing Gun Sales Are Helping To Conserve Butterflies | FiveThirtyEight

|

"The Karner blue butterfly is a tiny thing, with colorful wings that extend just an inch across and a life that rarely wanders more than 600 feet from where it began. Its caterpillars can only eat wild lupines — a flower that’s become less abundant in the wild because of development and habitat fragmentation. As a result, the Karner was named an endangered species in 1992. But Karner blues are getting help from an unlikely source: gun sales."

"The Nature Conservancy has a project in the works near Saratoga, New York, that will preserve an area that’s already home to these lupines and butterflies, and much of the program’s funding comes from the sales of guns and ammunition. For that, Karner conservationists can thank the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act."

Ward Stone

|

As a follow-up to tonight’s Save the Pine Bush Dinner,  Ward Stone will be on WAMC’s VoxPop Radio at 2pm on 90.3 FM in Albany and wamc.org on the web.

I am delighted he will be back doing his advocacy and research — he knows his stuff and after hearing him stand at the lectern and speak for an hour,  I can tell you he is as sharp as ever.  He is still warning us and still telling us unpopular things,  much like Rachael Carson 50 years before him.

Being retired from state service, he doesn’t have to worry about pissing off politicians and people in high places — they can denounce and belittle him — but they can’t fire him again or take away his constitutionally guaranteed pension earned by his decades over hard-work to the people of New York.

Ward Stone is 76. He had some physical ailments but his multiple strokes haven’t taken away his energy or commitment to our environment. If anything, thanks to the past five years out of the public eye and recovery from his stroke, he’s in better health then before.

Nobody in powerful positions should write off Ward Stone. He has a lot more to do for our community in the coming years.