This past week, a rally was held in Albany to protest the planned closures of state parks. One Assemblyman was quoted by the Albany TU: “In my 34 years with the Legislature, I have never seen an issue that has resonated so much with the public. I am getting more mail on this issue […]

Binghamton’s WSKG-TV created a series of spots to highlight the state parks of the Southern Tier. There are nine “State Park Minutes” in all. You can watch them here.

At least three of these parks face immediate closure or service reductions under the current budget proposal. At least two more of them are […]

Now that the reality of threatened park closures has had a day to sink in, maybe it’s time to take the public conversation beyond the understandable cries of protest and think about the future.
The Post-Standard, like many papers around the state this morning, is looking into the costs of keeping the parks open, but the […]

A couple crazy suggestions here for closures on the official list…
Bayswater Point State Park
Beechwood State Park
Bonavista State Park
Brookhaven State Park
Caleb Smith State Park Preserve
Canoe Island State Park
Cedar Island State Park
Chimney Bluffs State Park
Chittenango Falls
Clark Reservation
Cold Spring Harbor State Park
Joseph Davis State Park
Donald J. Trump State Park
Eel Weir State Park
Helen McNitt State Park (I’ll bet the […]

The concept of state park closures is a strange one to contemplate. After all, it’s not as if the places and their natural attractions go away. It’s just that the public is barred from using them, and the amenities fall into disrepair. But it’s the “out of sight, out of mind” aspect […]

A further word on “what’s happening to our place” is in next Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. Worth a read.
You decide that you want to get rid of the byproducts of human life and that Lake Erie will be a good place to put them. You forget that the ecomental system called Lake Erie […]

A few weeks ago I talked about the September wildflowers being a prelude to the “big October show” of the leaves. Last year around this time, I took my mom to Green Lakes State Park for a Saturday walk around the lakes on a really splendid sunny day when the leaves were at peak. […]

There is no better time to check out the flowers than this time of year. One last explosion of color amid all the serious business of going to seed and dying. I like to think of it as the pre-game special before the big October show.

This past weekend I took a camping trip down to Bowman Lake, a remote state park in the middle of Chenango County. There really isn’t much to see at Bowman Lake, which makes it the perfect place to relax and do nothing. Nowhere is usually a challenge to get to, however, and […]