The Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area is a 5,100 acre upland tract, situated approximately eight miles west of Dansville, New York. Roughly two-thirds of the area lies in southern Livingston County, while the remaining third lies in northern Allegany County. The tract was purchased in the 1930’s under the Federal Resettlement Administration and is one of several such areas turned over to DEC for development as a wildlife management area.
The area is appropriately named after the Timber Rattlesnake, which may be occasionally found in the more remote sections of the “Hill”.
The area offers an interesting blend of upland habitats such as mature woodland, overgrown fields, conifer plantations, old growth apple orchards and open meadows.
The area is inhabited by a variety of game species and is open to public hunting. The white-tailed deer, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, grey squirrel, cottontail rabbit and woodcock are found on the area. An occasional snowshoe hare may be observed adjacent to thick creek bottom brush or conifer plantation habitats.
A number of small marsh units have been developed and provide limited hunting for waterfowl. Some of the area’s furbearing species such as mink, beaver and raccoon may be occasionally viewed at these marsh units.
Many people I know giggle or maybe take a gasp when I tell them I am a liberal Democrat, or something like that. I mean, I voted for both Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and for Jill Stein in 2016. I did consider voting for Donald Trump in 2016, but ultimately went with Stein as protest vote against both Trump and Clinton. I voted for Senator Sanders in the Democratic primary, but honestly I wasn’t thrilled about either candidate in the primary. I thought Donald Trump would be a change, much like Obama was a change, and a fresh voice in 2008. I was very impressed with Barack Obama’s work as president, even if many of his best ideas got held up by the Republican Congress. I’m mostly indifferent to all the candidates that run for office, not liking many of them.
I believe it’s important for government to regulate big corporations and big urban concerns, when we are talking about thousands or millions of people. As they used to say, individually people are really beautiful, but together there is a lot of collective ugliness. Most human impact is limited, but becomes more problematic when thousands or millions of humans act together – like driving automobiles in cities, generating solid waste, or using megawatts of electricity. Your 100 watt light bulb doesn’t impact shit, but burning coal to power millions of homes and oil to power millions of automobiles is producing such an incredible amount of carbon dioxide, it’s warming the planet.
I am not a believer in individual action or lifestyle statements, except for political lobbying. Replacing your incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs or buying a hybrid car is going to nothing to change the trajectory of our planet as it continues to warm. Neither will trading in your SUV for a hybrid or taking the bus is going to alone change a thing on the planet. But fuel economy standards can force manufacturers to make millions of more efficient cars, and investing in convenient transit options, can move millions in ways that reduce carbon emissions.
I am also not a believer in expanding social programs per se. I do see the need for universal healthcare, but it should be provided a mix of a public and private partnership. The government should be the insurer of expensive healthcare operations, while private insurers can cover ancillary needs like lost wages, premium parking, cable television or Internet at hospital rooms, or other non-essential benefits that will help to make health care pleasant. I also think college education should be highly subsidized, so students who work summer jobs and live conservatively, can afford it without going to debt.
I do not agree with welfare or providing certain individuals with special government subsidies just because they are poor – government shouldn’t be providing the poor with vochures to buy food or rental assistance. But government should work to ensure that there is an adequate supply of affordable healthy food for all regardless of income, and same with safe, decent housing for all.
At the same, I am a believer in the government creating good public places for all to use, without consideration of income. Every community should have good public spaces where people can get together and work on issues of common interest. Public libraries, free and open to all, are important in every community, so people can learn and access the Internet. Learning shouldn’t end just because you graduate from a publicly funded school. I also think parks that are free and open to all are important, as people need a chance to get some fresh air and enjoy healthy recreation. Public forest lands can provide numerous recreational opportunities from hunting to fishing to camping and hiking, and can also provide important products to industry like timber, oil, and coal – which in turn can fund their use for all.
I don’t think government has much of a role regulating individual lives. I don’t support gun control, instead I think government should be working to produce healthy communities that are largely free of violence, because people have other ways to work out problems. Strong communities have good jobs, good schools, good community centers, and a mix of people that always are keeping an eye on their street. Neighborhood watches, and local anti-crime citizen groups should always be the preference over more cops and government regulation.
In urbanized areas, there needs to more regulation of private property, to protect community character, but sometimes regulation gets a little out of hand. In rural areas, there can be more freedom, because there is less of a chance of conflict. But I think there should be more review of regulations, and repeal of outdated regulations, and implementing regular sunsets of laws. It seems like there too many laws, especially on the local level, that don’t always make sense to continue.
The other day I was out walking on a chilly early autumn afternoon outside of Manlius Center and I smelled wood smoke – that wonderful smell of cooler times to come in small-town America.
While wood is mostly just a supplemental source of heat in these more suburban areas it is a necessity for many farms and rural homes that rely on it as a primary source of heat. And it’s a wonderful thing.
It makes me dream about the days to come – not just when I make it to my long term goal of owning an off grid cabin – but also the more short term goal of my road trip and camping in mid November once this election cycle has come to an end as they always do.
Nice long November nights curled up by the fire are always nice, especially if the stars are out and I can also warm myself by the propane heater. Nice evenings to cook and relax. Something so relaxing about having a nice fire.
Indeed there is something nice about the warmth of a woodstove. Beyond November I may be cold in my apartment but the money saved today is money saved for a better tomorrow. I look forward to the days to come.
People say that Western Pennsylvania hasn’t changed much since the Deer Hunter first hit the silver screen forty years ago. Not true. The beat up Cadillacs people drive around have somewhat smaller tailfins.
The highest year round highway in New York State is Ulster County Route 47 past the Winnisook Lake Club near Slide Mountain in the Catskill Mountains at 2,640 elevation.
The highest year around open highway maintained by NYSDOT is NY 16 in Knapp Creek, Cattaraugus County just north of the Pennsylvania border 2,370 elevation.
I was listening to The World about a S-Market grocery store in Finland that discounts expiring foods at the grocery store 🍇by 60% at nine o’clock every day.💸
What a great idea! 💭 Less things thrown away and a great discount for cost sensitive customers. And stores are making money rather than spending money to dispose of expiring foods. 🍲
I saw a grocery store near the Mason Dixon Line that was called Scratch ‘N Dent Discount groceries, I thought about checking out. 🍑 Foods are a big part of working folks budget and the more savings people can get and the more food kept out of landfill the better. ♻
“And then they have cans of soup. And they throw the cans of soup. That’s better than a brick because you can’t throw a brick. It’s too heavy. But a can of soup, you can really put some power into that, right? And then when they get caught, they say, ‘No, this is soup for my family.’ They’re so innocent. This is soup for my family.”
“And you have people coming over with bags of soup — big bags of soup. And they lay it on the ground, and the anarchists take it and they start throwing it at our cops, at our police. And if it hits you, that’s worse than a brick because that’s got force…And then the media says, ‘This is just soup. These people are very, very innocent. They’re innocent people. These are just protesters. Isn’t it wonderful to allow protesting?’ No.”
Climate change action is important but let’s be cognizant of the environmental impacts of renewables
Burning fossil fuels has largely known and well documented impacts. From the much touted carbon emissions to air pollution and acid rain to acid mine discharge from coal mines and scarred landscapes from mountain top removal and strip mines to drilling cuttings, fracking chemicals and produced water to cracked casings and oil spills the impacts of fossil fuels are well documented and somewhat regulated and controlled but probably not to ideal levels as production and low cost is often emphasized over safety and environmental protection.
But what is much less discussed and documented is renewable energy impacts. It must be green so there is no environmental impacts or the impacts are de minimus. But that’s far from the truth. Renewable energy consumes enormous amounts of land, it in future years has a real possibility of urbanizing enormous parts of countryside, paving over farm land and forest, producing enormous amounts of toxic waste like wind turbine blades and discarded, broken solar panels to impacting watersheds and fisheries alike, reducing scenic beauty and take land out of other uses. Things that deserve serious consideration and environmental analysis.
To be sure we do need to build more renewable energy but we have to always thinking about the consequences of our choices, not blindly building it because renewables are good and climate change is really bad and scary. Being aware of the environmental impacts of renewables doesn’t mean you’re pro fossil fuels, it means that you are a thinking society, trying to avoid negative environmental problems down the road.
We need to take a serious look before we leap – is the solar plant or wind farm appropriate for the place we are sitting it
We need to mitigate like planting pollinators friendly or native grasses around solar farms
We need to look at building more renewables in cities – be it mandatory solar panels on buildings, over highways or in urban waste lands like old garbage dumps, highway medians, or contaminated industrial sites
Why build a solar farm over green farm fields or forests when you can build over Love Canal?
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