Link is here: http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/08-05-29/feature.html
VOLUME XXXIV No. 22
Narrowsburg, NY
May 29 - June 4, 2008
Camping conscientiously
Outdoor ethics minimize environmental impacts
By SANDY LONG
UPPER DELAWARE RIVER REGION — In 2007, Wes Gillingham, a resident of Sullivan County, NY led a group of students on a three-week trek that traced the 100-mile course of New York City’s water supply from Highmount, NY to lower Manhattan. The group employed low-impact camping practices during the backcountry stretches of their trip to minimize disturbances along the trek.
Gillingham spent a decade honing his outdoors skills as a ranger for the National Park Service, Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, and has served as acting director of field programs with the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute (AEI), leading backpacking trips all over the country.
The well-schooled outdoor educator and organic farmer believes that a low-impact attitude is key to enjoying the outdoors sustainably. “It’s a mindset, more than just a set of practices,” said Gillingham. “You become cognizant of your impact as an individual.”
A set of principles referred to as “Leave No Trace” (see sidebar) has been developed to guide outdoor recreationists to employ more mindful practices while backpacking in the wilds, enjoying a family camping outing at a state park or hiking one of the region’s many trails. Many state parks actively encourage LNT principles and have begun offering programs that show how to put them into action (see sidebar).
The guiding principle is to foster an understanding that our enjoyment of natural settings can be accomplished without inflicting harm upon the very resources we seek. For example, vegetation or artifacts such as stones should never be altered or removed.
“In the Catskills, once you get above 3,500 feet, the fragility of the environment increases. It’s important to be aware of your impact on the vegetation in such places,” noted Gillingham. “Stay on trails to avoid contributing to erosion problems, set up camp away from trails and out of sight of other campers. And use compact backpacking stoves, rather than open fires, to cook food.”
The main objective of conscientious recreation is to participate in such a way that your activities have no altering effect on the setting. “You’re there to enjoy the place and to leave it as you found it,” said Gillingham. “It’s a reciprocal relationship.”
Gillingham is also a founder of the non-profit Catskill Mountain Keeper, which works to protect the ecological integrity of the Catskill Mountain range while promoting sustainable growth. He plans to lead another expedition of students in 2008. For more information, visit stroudcenter.org/nytrek2007/.
Leave No Trace principles
• Be prepared: Poor planning can result in unforeseen events leading to solutions that cause environmental degradation. Select gear and make plans by thinking about how it will impact the environment.
• Camp and travel on durable surfaces: Stick to worn trails and campsites to minimize damage to untrammeled areas and avoid increasing soil erosion.
• Pack out what you pack in: Take trash home with you. Don’t bury or leave it behind.
• Properly dispose of what you can’t pack out: Empty dishwater far away from springs, streams and lakes. Eliminate soaps and detergents. Bury human waste in “catholes” that are six to eight inches deep and 200 feet from water.
• Leave what you find: Don’t disturb natural features such as rocks and plants, nor alter campsites by digging, chopping or hammering.
• Minimize use of fire: Lightweight camp stoves minimize the demand for firewood at campsites and produce faster food results. If a fire must be constructed, keep it small, use established fire rings and avoid leaving any sign that it has occurred. Never burn plastics.
• Practice “Negative Trace:” Go beyond LNT and clean up trash left behind by others. Undo damage by dismantling cairns or firepits constructed in otherwise wild areas.
Resources for conscientious outdoor recreation
• The Pocono Environmental Education Center ( www.PEEC.org ) in Dingmans Ferry, PA is offering a series of programs about environmentally friendly outdoor recreation activities. On June 14, “Summer Outdoors” will teach how to prepare for overnight camping, hydration and Leave No Trace (LNT) practices. August 22-24 is the “Catskills Backpacking Trip,” which includes a backcountry overnight outing. September 12-14 concludes the series with “Canoe Trip,” meant to teach LNT practices for canoe travel and basic paddling skills. Call 570/828-2319 for more information.
• Promised Land State Park in Greentown, PA will offer a LNT program, focused on preserving natural settings as they are found, at 7:00 p.m. on June 28.
• Learn what’s happening in your area through the Leave No Trace State Advocate Program, which assists LNT educators and volunteers with local efforts to promote and teach minimum impact outdoor ethics. (Visit lnt.org/training/stateadvocate.php for more information.)
• Visit nols.edu/ for information on improving outdoor skills through the National Outdoor Leadership School.
• Visit outwardbound.org/ for programs that improve resilience and problem-solving skills through interactive outdoor education.
• Visit dec.ny.gov/outdoor/camping.html for information on New York State camping.
• Visit dcnr.state.pa.us/outdooradventures.aspx for information on Pennsylvania camping.
• Visit kta-hike.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 for low-impact hiking and trail opportunities with PA Keystone Trails Association.
• Though based in Washington state, Wilderness Awareness School offers a home study outdoor skills course that helps students refine knowledge of their local natural resources. Visit wildernessawareness.org/.
TRR photo by Sandy Long
Campfires should be avoided or minimized. Utilize existing firepits or, better yet, a compact camping stove. Don’t leave evidence of burning behind. (Click for larger version)
TRR photo by Sandy Long
The smallest tent that will meet your needs will also minimize the footprint it leaves at your campsite. Select sites that are already established. Avoid removing vegetation to create a site. (Click for larger version)
Problems? Comments? Contact the Webmaster. Entire contents © 2008 by the author(s) and Stuart Communications, Inc.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
New York, Pennsylvania, share common concern over gas drilling
 | Thursday May 22, 2008
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Copyright © 2008 Mid-Hudson News Network, a division of Statewide News Network, Inc. | ||
| New York, Pennsylvania, share common concern over gas drilling | ||
HONESDALE PA – Catskill Mountainkeeper is taking its latest environmental battle across the river. The rapidly growing concern over the rapid influx of natural gas prospectors threatens the Delaware River, from both sides, says Mountainkeeper Program Director Wes Gillingham. Speaking before a crowd of more than 500 in Honesdale, about 20 miles inside Pennsylvania from the Delaware River, Gillingham said there is little, now, that would stop gas wells from being drilled practically on the banks of the river. He adds there is little that restricts potentially devastating mining practices, anywhere the wells go. If wells are to be a part of the scene, the concern is to make sure it is done in the least invasive way. “They’re not going to do it if don’t make them do it that way. We have to … when I say ‘we’, I’m not just talking about Catskill Mountainkeeper, I’m talking about every individual landowner and resident of this region, really have to take control of this issue, and force best management practices. Landowners, too, can band together and choose not to sign leases, because it’s not worth the risk.” Attorney Harry Weiss, of Philadelphia, representing a group of Wayne County property owners, agreed the National Park Service authority is generally restricted to the river itself, not adjacent properties. That point also conceded by Upper Delaware Council Executive Director William Douglas. But Weiss does not see gas prospecting as all bad. “It has potential, if things are done right”, Weiss said. He urged partnerships between property owners contemplating signing leases with drilling companies. Many of the people attending the more than two-hour session wanted little to do with unchecked natural gas extraction. Among the concerns voiced during a question and answer session were what happens if one property owner is harmed by drilling on a neighbor’s property, what kind of chemicals are used in the extraction process and what recourses do anyone have, if there is damage by drilling companies. One well is already being drilled in Wayne County, just across the Delaware from Sullivan County. Several people on both sides of the river have been approached by drilling companies. The forum in Honesdale was organized by the Upper Delaware Council and National Park Service. Audio comments For more on gas leasing forum, visit PoconoNews.Net | ||
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Bluestone Boom Opens Quarries to New Allies, and to Change
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Gerald Wormuth at a Catskill quarry. Mining permits could become permanent for New York’s bluestone industry, which is one of the state’s oldest.
By ANTHONY DePALMA
Published: May 13, 2008
HANCOCK, N.Y. — Five-foot-10, 270 pounds, with truck axle arms and a rawhide neck, Earl F. Hennessey is a third generation Catskill quarryman who always did things the way his daddy and granddaddy taught him.
Now the state wants him to change.
Hennesseys have been pulling bluestone out of a ridge near Gee Brook since 1934. Mostly they used hand tools — sledges and wedges and rock hooks and butterfly plugs — to get at the smooth, flat slabs of stone that are shipped off to New York City and other places for old-fashioned sidewalks and new rustic patios. When they were done with one section, they would push the scrap rock over the ridge, and let their old trucks rust wherever they died.
After more than 70 years of gnawing at this rock ledge, the Hennesseys have roughed up their mountaintop some. As big a man as he is, Mr. Hennessey is dwarfed by the rusted metal, old wood and mounds of bluestone scrap of his past.
But since he took out a state mining permit for the first time two years ago, this 53-year-old quarryman in jeans, T-shirt and blue bandanna headband, has been piling up scrap rock where he can easily put it back when the bluestone runs out. He’s also been cleaning up. “The state told me I really should get rid of the old metal, and that’s what I’ve been doing,” he said. Last month he sliced up a 1936 International Harvester dump truck and hauled it to a scrap yard.
That, in essence, is the kind of reaction the State Department of Environmental Conservation has hoped for since it started experimenting with mining permits in 2002. The new permitting process combined with an increased demand for bluestone has led to a boom in one of the state’s oldest and most traditional industries.
Scores of new mines have been opened in the last six years, and many old ones have been reactivated. Bluestone, which had shrunk to little more than memories — is now a $100 million-a-year industry, located mostly in economically depressed Delaware and Broome Counties in the Catskills.
At the same time, the state hoped that by issuing permits it could assert some control over the bluestone industry, rein in renegade miners from out of state, and change the habits of the fiercely independent quarrymen.
State officials consider the effort so successful from both economic and environmental perspectives that they have taken the unusual step of openly lobbying to extend the two-year measure, which expires at the end of July. Legislation to make it permanent has passed the State Senate and is expected to come up for a vote in the Assembly this month.
“Rather than go in wholesale with guns blazing and multiple enforcement against the industry, we decided to first undertake an education program with them saying, ‘This is what you’ve got to do,’ and then give them time to come into compliance,” said Bradley J. Field, director of the division of mineral resources at the Department of Environmental Conservation.
That softer approach has convinced some quarrymen that the state does not mean to harass them. Even those who have never gotten a permit before find themselves siding with the department and asking for the law to made permanent. Environmental groups are more tentative. “The state says it’s a win-win situation because the law will improve the economy of the region, and at the same time give regulators the ability to keep an eye on what’s happening,” said Ramsay Adams, executive director of the Catskill Mountainkeeper, an environmental group. “If that’s the case, then it’s something worth looking at. But I’m just not sure that the law they are trying to pass permanently is strong enough.”
The link between the Catskill Mountain bluestone quarries and New York City is as durable as the stone slabs themselves. Some of New York’s first sidewalks laid in the early 19th century were made of Catskill bluestone, and in parts of the city they are still in place, though Mr. Hennessey said he had never seen one because he has never been to New York. The rock, a kind of sandstone found only in New York and eastern Pennsylvania, usually is light blue, but it can be gray, green or red.
By 1870, cutting the slabs out of mountain ledges became such big business that William M. Tweed, the political boss, finagled a partnership out of the New York and Pennsylvania Bluestone Company. He profited greatly by then arranging for the company to supply bluestone for city sidewalks.
By the end of the 19th century, an estimated 10,000 men worked bluestone in New York. The Catskills were riddled with quarries.
As concrete sidewalks replaced bluestone, the industry declined. Then, in 1996, Pennsylvania tightened its restrictions on bluestone mining. Pennsylvania quarrymen flooded into New York, apparently misreading New York’s bluestone mining law.
The law requires quarrymen to have a permit if they extract more than 1,000 tons of minerals in a year. The Pennsylvania quarrymen assumed that meant 1,000 tons of bluestone, and they simply never bothered to get their permits. But officials said that “overburden” — the dirt and rock that have to be moved to get at the bluestone — was meant to be included in the 1,000 tons.
Harry S. Triebe Sr., owner of Sonny & Sons Stone Co. in Downsville, N.Y. and a past president of the New York Bluestone Association, said that quarrymen usually have to remove ten times as much overburden as bluestone when they mine a deposit. He said they could exceed the 1,000 ton threshold in as little as a day.
“Until we actually work a quarry, we don’t know what’s there,” Mr. Triebe said. That meant going through the process of getting a full scale mining permit, and putting up a $5,000 to $10,000 reclamation bond, without knowing if there was enough good quality bluestone to even recoup the cost of the permit. An average quarryman can make about $25,000 to $35,000 a year, Mr. Triebe said.
Most bluestone quarries are nothing like the big sand and gravel excavation pits commonly seen in New York. Bluestone quarries typically cover less than five acres and are worked by one to five men. Most are invisible, hidden in hollows or at the far end of back country roads.
There are now 85 fully permitted bluestone mines in New York. Many more continue to operate without permits. In 2002, New York amended its mining law to give quarrymen more flexibility in exploring for bluestone. Instead of forcing them to get a full mining permit before they could start working, the state issued less costly exploration authorizations. These permitted Mr. Hennessey and other quarrymen to work on less than one acre for a year to see if there was enough bluestone in a new ledge, or in an abandoned one, to turn a profit.
But there’s more. The permitting process allows state officials to get onto the quarries, where they can work with the men, as they did with Mr. Hennessey, to clean up and better protect the environment.
“Earl’s quarry is a perfect example of what the state wanted to accomplish,” said Thomas P. Decker, a geologist who works with the quarrymen. “Before, the state didn’t have knowledge of places like this. Now they know where they are, and they can make sure that after the quarrymen are done, they put these places back the way they were.”
The authorizations can be renewed for a second year. After that, they must either be converted to a full five-year mining permit, or surrendered, and the one-acre site restored. There are now 85 fully permitted bluestone mines in New York. Many more continue to operate without permits.
Blood ties to land and stone are strong in this region. Mr. Hennessey’s father first brought him to the quarry when he was 3, and rock dust has been in his blood since then. Even during the 20 years he served in the Navy, he dreamed of coming back to the mountain.
“It’s kind of like farming; it’s a way of life,” Mr. Hennessey said. His days start at sunrise, summer and winter, and when he is on the ridge, alone or with his brother-in-law Gerald Wormuth, there is no phone, no electricity, no water. The work is back-breaking hard, and the material pleasures are few.
But at 2,500 feet above sea level, Mr. Hennessey can see across several valleys without spying a house or a road. Deer and hawks come close, and it’s awesome, he says.
“It’s a hard way to make a living,” he said, “but it’s a good way to live.”
The quarrymen have won the support of Senator John J. Bonacic, an upstate Republican who sponsored the bill to make the exploration authorization laws permanent. He did the same three years ago when the law expired for the first time, but the effort stalled in the Assembly.
Assemblyman Robert K. Sweeney, a Long Island Democrat who is chairman of the Environmental Conservation Committee, said the state’s endorsement of the measure this time should make the difference. “Without that, we wouldn’t be making it permanent,” he said.
Mr. Hennessey said he did not look forward to changing the way he had done things since he was a boy, but he realized that change may be necessary, and he was willing to give it a try.
“I’m not saying it’s bad, the stuff they want us to do,” he said. “You’ve just got to do things different than you did them years ago.”
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Green energy expo runs on kid power
The Rive Reporter
The future belongs to themGreen energy expo runs on kid powerlink is here: http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/08-05-08/feature.html DINGMANS FERRY, PA — There’s a Native American saying that we do not inherit the planet from our ancestors, but rather borrow it from our children.
GPA was founded by faculty and students of The Homestead School in Glen Spey, NY. The event was the latest in many examples of the group’s activism, including a public presentation to Pennsylvania Congressman Chris Carney to urge his support of the restoration of the Clean Water Protection Act, a tour of Mirant Corporation’s Bowline power plant on the Hudson River and a trip to the coalfields of West Virginia (see “Power to the Little People” in our March 27 issue). The group’s current focus is on mountain top removal in coal mining, but the event was an occasion for people of all ages to see how our lifestyles, habits and policies are connected to the degradation of the environment in a variety of ways.
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