As the sap starts to run and the rivers surge with snowmelt, here’s a look back at events and field trips that made winter fun for the Adirondack Land Trust. Sign up for email updates from the Adirondack Land Trust to be the first to hear about spring and summer events.
Enhancing Access to Birding & Nature
“Our jobs are to do what we can, when we can,” says Virginia Rose, the founder of Birdability, a nonprofit that enhances access to birding for people with disabilities and other health challenges. At a January 28 virtual event, Virginia shared the Birdability Map, a crowdsourced map that shares accessibility features at birdwatching sites worldwide. Virginia has used a wheelchair since experiencing a spinal cord injury when she fell off a horse at age 14. She began birding 17 years ago and discovered her best self in nature—an opportunity she wants for everyone. Watch Virginia’s presentation on our YouTube channel.
Tracking wildlife at High Meadow Preserve
Deep snow reveals the hidden lives of woodland creatures. That’s what participants learned from Brian McAllister as he led a field trip at High Meadow Preserve in Lake Placid on February 23. Humans left snowshoe tracks while finding paw prints, tail drags, and wing marks left by wild neighbors. Learn winter wildlife tracking basics from outdoor guide Elizabeth Lee on our YouTube channel.
Learning how to live on the land
Professor Brett McLeod shared how he transformed an overgrown plot into productive land at a February 26 virtual event. Couldn’t join us? His book The Woodland Homestead: How to Make Your Land More Productive and Live More Self-Sufficiently in the Woods, available from The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid. You can also learn more about horse breeds for farmsteading and forestry from Brett in this free podcast from Mother Earth News.
Exploring the western Adirondacks on skis and snowshoes
We saw how conservation and outdoor recreation work together on a March 8 field trip to the Black River Environmental Association (BREIA) trails in Boonville. BREIA owns 1,500 acres with approximately 50 kilometers of trails to hike, mountain bike, cross-country ski (see photo above), or snowshoe at no cost. The Adirondack Land Trust is proud to partner with BREIA to conserve 865 acres at this site. We’ll be back next winter—and we hope you will too!
Photo credit: Kathy Woughter