Morels in the Forest – A review of four essays in The Great Experiment in Conservation, Voices from the Adirondack Park*

review by Tim Holmes

As a compilation of 34 essays on just about as many issues, this new contribution to the Adirondack literature is a literary conference on the Adirondack Park with presentations by many of the Adirondack’s most informed researchers and observers.

With authors such as Charles Canham on forestry issues, Chad Dawson on tourism, Craig Gilborn on Great Camps, Karen Roy on acid rain, Rainer Brocke on predators, Stuart Buchanan on the DEC, Robert Glennon on the APA, John Penney on regulatory issues, and Terry Martino on economic development, to name only a few, the volume is an excellent primer for the new student of Adirondack issues as well as providing a convenient resource for the well-informed.  Even the most knowledgeable will have a few of their facts corrected by the nine-page Adirondack Park chronology of key events.

To the editors’ credit there is disagreement and inconsistency among the essays, remaining true to form for any discussion of Adirondack Park issues.  Whether in 1890, 2009 or anytime in between, there tends to be a difference of opinion on how and why decisions were made, laws were passed and lands were protected. In their introduction to each of the three main sections that organize the essays, the volume’s editors – Willam Porter, Jon Erikson and Ross Whaley – illuminate the importance of those differences and the related conflicts that continue to shape discussions and management decisions about the Adirondack Park.

At only 12-pages each on average, it is hard to imagine anyone not finding an essay of interest.  The most involved and informed on the Adirondacks will find many – while also thinking of many others that could have been or should have been included.  For those, we will have to wait for a Volume Two.

Without exceptional and inspirational writing, awareness of the great experiment will be limited and support for it even more so.  It should be documented with great writing, essays that represent the Adirondack Park’s value to those outside of the region and beyond New York’s borders – including those who might not know a carry from a cairn.  Well written essays on the Adirondack Park can inspire just about anyone to consider the interrelationships of conservation, biodiversity and sustainability.  The following four essays from the collection seem to have that ability.

Great Camps and Conservation, by Craig Gilborn

Wildlife for a Wilderness, by Rainer Brocke

A Perspective from the Forest-Products Industry, by Roger Dziengeleski

The Adirondack Park in Global Perspective, by Bill Weber and Amy Vedder

* The Great Experiment in Conservation, Voices from the Adirondack Park. Edited by William Porter, Jon Erickson and Ross Whaley. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2009.

Bike the Byways of the Adirondack Region in Northern New York

Holmes & Associates developed this regional branding effort that uses the framework of 15 Scenic Byways to better inform the pubic on the region’s wide diversity of bicycling opportunities.

Cape Vincent road to Tibbetts Point Lighthouse

Using a WordPress theme from StudioPress, the Bike the Byways website provides a tremendous amount of information in an attractive, easy-to-use format. Features include over 400 photos organized on Flickr, over 400 links to other information, 44 bike shops, 35 bike paths, 43 mountain bike rides, and 40 road bike routes. The WordPress platform provides a cost-effective, sustainable solution for long-term website management with its blogging and media features that ease the process of updating the site, which helps keep the content fresh with new posts and images.

This is a unique effort that might serve as a model for other Byway programs. Heavy use of Google Maps helps users quickly orient themselves and encourages their exploration of various routes, rides and points of interest. Over 400 links to additional information offer the user a wide variety of biking and tourism resources, which allows ANCA to keep its focus on the Scenic Byways and what they have to offer.

Developed under contract for the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA), this was a New York State Scenic Byways Program project managed by the Adirondack North Country Association, funded by the Federal Highway Administration and administered by the New York State Department of Transportation. The quality of the project benefited greatly through collaboration with Sharon O’Brien, ANCA’s Scenic Byways coordinator, along with other ANCA staff.

http://www.bikethebyways.org

Launch event summary (6/17/11) – http://www.adirondack.org/category/scenic-byways/

Northeastern Vine Supply – West Pawlet VT

Finding Fine Vines Online

Had the good fortune to meet up with Andy Farmer in cold storage – the only place to keep his supply of cold-hardy grapevines that are in hot demand from Bar Harbor to Duluth. Andy has steadily built his business – Northeastern Vine Supply – one vine at a time using the biggest vine of them all – the Internet – and it seems to be a match made in heaven. His customers would certainly agree because grape growing is a passion in every corner of the country, but few are as passionate as the growers north of 40 (might be related to the long winters). A problem has been finding the cold-hardy grape varieties – the local garden centers usually sell out pretty quick, at least in the Adirondacks.

Enter Northeastern Vine Supply, with Andy’s passion for grape vines, farming and an idea that this thing called the Internet might give his little farm in Vermont the marketing boost it needed. They say that a pizza was the very first sale over the Internet – after meeting Andy, I’d guess a grapevine must have been second. Many of his customers are in the Northeast and New England, but just about as many are in the Midwest – Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. And that’s a testament to Andy’s skills and product quality, because many of the hardy vines he propagates can be traced back to the upper Midwest and especially Minnesota, as Andy calls it: the epicenter of cold-climate viticulture.

So if you are in the north and into grapes check out Northeastern Vine Supply, but be sure to order early – if the snow has melted you might have waited too long. They are primarily an online retailer and respond quickly to email. Their website is very informative and has links to much more info. And if you were a little too late this year, get on their mailing list and mark the calendar.

Just one more example of the agricultural renaissance in the NE & New England.

Bike Rodeo – Saranac Lake

Come to the Bicycle Rodeo in Saranac Lake

Saturday, May 21, 2011:  10 AM – Noon

Saranac Lake Civic Center

Featuring:

• Safety Course
• Bicycle Helmets
  

  Bike rodeo course in Civic Center

• Mechanic  from Placid Planet Bicycles
• Bicycle Raffle
• Refreshments

inside the Civic Center – so Rain or Shine!

Supported by:
Kiwanis Club of Saranac Lake
Saranac Lake Police Benevolent Association
Saranac Lake Civic Center
Placid Planet Bicycles
Stewart’s Shops

Children should be accompanied by an adult  –  Old helmets can be traded in

Checking out the Bikes

Checking the fit of a new helmet

Collaboration & Coordinated Planning – a Marketing Strategy for Adirondack Communities

In 2009, the Adirondack North Country Association published a unique tourism study for the Adirondack Region – its focus is the region’s Scenic Byways and its method was a intercept survey of randomly selected visitors to the Adirondacks – basically stopping people on the sidewalk, in museums, at ferry stops, and at train stations – and asking:  how did you decide to visit the Adirondacks, what kinds of things are you doing, what do you most like about the area, and what do you know about the Scenic Byways.

Adirondack Scenic Byways Market Trend Assessment

The Adirondack North Country Scenic Byways Market Trend Assessment is full of information about visitors – 328 of them interviewed in 32 small communities around the Adirondacks.

Here is a sample:

70% of visitors surveyed stated they were drawn to the region in general, rather than to a specific destination.

That indicates that almost three-quarters of visitors along the Scenic Byways are “explorers” rather that “homesteaders” in terms of their travel preferences.  That is great news for the region’s small communities because it levels their playing field with the region’s most popular destinations.  It also points out that the two most important tourism strategies for small communities are:

• Collaboration and
• Coordinated Planning

Together, communities can create experiences that take visitors to several Scenic Byways communities, a productive approach that can attract visitors to a new area for the first time – and they’ll be back if they like what they see and have an enjoyable time.

A great example is the annual Black Fly Challenge bicycle event that links Indian Lake and Inlet across 40 miles through the Moose River Plains, with the start alternating between communities from year to year.  It brings new people to communities that they might not otherwise visit, it attracts them during an off-season – the 2nd weekend in June – and it offers them a more diverse and interesting experience with the two communities involved.

That’s a winning combination – and one that brings some families and friends back year after year.

Improving Online Visibility

On 3/16/11, Tim Holmes of Holmes & Associates and Andy Tinti of Adworkshop presented a 2.5 hour training session at Clarkson’s Adirondack Business Center in Saranac Lake.

The seminar stressed four key areas where the small business should focus a majority of their activity with free online marketing tools:  geo-location, images, blogging software and social media websites.

Marc Compeau - My Small Business 101 - Adirondack Business Center

The focus was on a number of free, quick and easy tools a small business could use to give their online appearance a tune-up.  First impressions often happen on the web, especially with online information increasingly being delivered to customers’ smart phones, navigation systems, and other mobile devices.  The good news is that all of these online marketing tools have practical applications for the small business based in a rural area – such as in the Adirondack region of northern New York.

Our presentation used online examples to illustrate one or two practical activities with each service that a small business could do to enhance their online visibility in an increasingly online world.

Each of the tools we discussed is outlined in this Google document:

15 Online, FREE Tools that are Useful to Improving Online Visibility

Sustain Brand – Malone’s Local Food Producer

Had the opportunity this week to meet with Shawn and Craig of Sustain Brand in Malone.  The two young men returned home to the Adirondacks to build and grow a manufacturing and distribution business that uses local agricultural products as its raw material.  That’s a small business development story that could be the beginning of a new diversification in the region’s agricultural sector.  They certainly are developing an interesting model based on collaborative manufacturing with existing food products producers in Keeseville and Boonville – as well as at their new facility in Malone. That makes their manufacturing business a region-wide effort that should have regional organizations lining up to ask what we can do to contribute to your success.  Local college professors in business and marketing have expressed the most interest in their business model and the partners are developing some fruitful collaborations with some of those classes, and that’s a partnership that yields dividends for the college students who gain real world experience with business planning and marketing.  Thanks in part to the students’ efforts, look for Craig and Shawn’s north country-produced potato chips, salsa and ice cream on many more store shelves this summer.

Dewey Mtn Fundraising with the Hammer Down

Fundraising to build a cross-country ski lodge is reaching new heights in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York.

Bill Demong – 2010 Olympic Nordic Combined Gold and Silver Medalist – grew up racing on the Dewey Mountain ski trails near Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains.  Now a campaign is underway to replace Dewey’s base lodge with an attractive, energy-efficient structure that better meets the current and future needs of area youth.

One of Demong’s favorite caffeine stops, Adirondack Bean-To Coffee of Saranac Lake, is pitching in with a limited edition “Hammer Down” inspired by Demong and based on their locally popular Hammer blend small batch roast. A portion of the sale of every one-pound bag will go directly to Dewey Mountain.

Available only in Saranac Lake until now, the gold bag with Demong’s picture  can now be purchased online just in time  for the Holidays.  For any skiers on the list, it’s a gift that could provide an extra boost to get them up and out on the trail. And for the contender, what could be more inspirational  than Billy Demong’s picture next to the coffee pot, because as they say in Saranac Lake,

If you don’t have the Hammer Down, you’re not going to make it around – FIRST !

Find Limited Edition Hammer Down Coffee online at:

http://www.okobojistore.com/products/Hammer-Down-Limited-Edition-Coffee.html

http://www.adirondackcraft.com/XPH/coffee/ProductInfo.htm

Search the Adirondack Scenic Byways

The recent addition of Google Custom Search to ANCA’s Adirondack Scenic Byways website provides another option for finding points of interest among the 63 communities and more than 600 historic, cultural and natural resources.

Search the Adirondack Scenic Byways

Only three of the 13 Adirondack North Country region’s Scenic Byways are featured on AdirondackScenicByways.org at this time:  Adirondack Trail, Central Adirondack Trail and Olympic Byway.

Great Camps and Conservation, by Craig Gilborn* – a review

as reviewed by Tim Holmes

By placing the history of Great Camps in the context of conservation, Craig Gilborn is able to use his historical and architectural expertise to explore and illuminate the pivotal role that the Great Camp estates played in conserving the Adirondack landscape that we appreciate today.  When he began his study of Great Camps in 1972 “…the particulars about them and their importance in the aggregate were not understood.” Thanks to his work and this delightful essay, that is no longer the case.

Using available history, first-person reports and data from public records Gilborn relates anecdotes about particular camps and families, while filling in details about why the Great Camps are so relevant – if not instrumental – to conservation in the Adirondack Park.  Who owned the camps, how they came to be, and how some persisted while others did not, all are addressed by the pen of Gilborn in this surprisingly informative essay of only 11 pages.

It is tempting to quote any number of passages that demand re-reading.  The following example illuminates how anecdotal reports provide texture to Gilborn’s tale:

“For the late Anthony N. B. Garvan, whose mother delivered him at Kamp Kill Kare, the charm of the Great Camps was that they made difficult things look easy in an unbroken forest.  Silver and crystal at dinner, commonplace at his mother’s other homes in Manhattan and Millbrook, were magical in the Adirondacks.  Diversions like those were indulgences, but then so were the preserves surrounding the camps.”

Gilborn paints a picture of the Great Camps and their surrounding estates as islands of consistency in the swirling cultural and economic currents relentlessly seeking to put “waste” land to productive use. As he points out, the period after the Civil War was one of the most tenuous for the uninterrupted forests in the Adirondacks.  In Gilborn’s hands, in becomes clear that the divisive issues of those periods and many others continue in the present and on into the foreseeable future. From an historical perspective, there is no end to divisiveness or controversy when in comes to conservation. What is of more concern is the quality of the decisions that are made during the more divisive periods, and how those decisions eventually effect the ecology, culture and history of the Adirondack Park.

Or, as Gilborn delights at pointing out, it could be that indecision is the best decision for the benefit of conservation.  As when the legislature in Albany – through their indecision – postponed the date of destruction of the Santanoni Great Camp near Newcomb, now considered one of the most interesting and unique of the Great Camp compounds.  As he points out, “It was an instance of good coming out of foot-dragging by a bureaucracy.” Fortunately for us, Craig Gilborn did not drag his feet when the editors called and the result is a most informative essay on the history of conservation in the Adirondack Park.

* Pp. 145-156 in The Great Experiment in Conservation, Voices from the Adirondack Park, edited by William Porter, Jon Erickson and Ross Whaley. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2009.