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Spring is here, and many are pulling their hiking gear out of their closets and putting their winter coats away. Spring is a time of hope and opportunity, and there is great potential as the state Legislature resumes its session after completing the budget process and taking a brief hiatus. The Adirondack Council is hopeful that our representatives will use this opportunity to pass legislation to reform to the Adirondack Park Agency Act and all-terrain vehicle use.

Adirondack Conservation News is a collection of the most current events taking place in New York’s Adirondack Park. It aims to highlight both threats and opportunities concerning the Park’s ecological integrity, wild character and community vibrancy. Here's April's edition.

If you’re on Instagram or Facebook and love the Adirondacks, chances are that you’ve seen Manuel Palacios work. Known as Zone3Photo, Manny is best known for the way he captures beautiful natural landscapes from the Adirondacks to Iceland. Our own Mary Godnick recently chatted with Manny about how the Adirondacks have served as an inspiration for his photography.

April is the time of year when residents of the Adirondacks are tested. During “mud-season,” it’s easy to be an impatient outdoor recreation enthusiast. When the occasional sunny day occurs, it’s tempting to leap ahead to warm weather activities like hiking and mountain biking. But for the sustainability of the trails, it’s essential to show restraint, and allow the trails to dry out – completely – before subjecting them to the onslaught of use that is now the Adirondack norm in the summer and fall seasons.

From April 10 through 18, Adirondack Park visitors and residents are likely to notice military training exercises happening around them. The exercises involve several types of military aircraft and hundreds of soldiers on the ground. Army officials said it is the largest such training exercise it has ever conducted in the Adirondack Park. After heeding the advice of the Adirondack Council, the Army will avoid sensitive environmental locations, including known wildlife areas and – to the extent possible - designated Wilderness Areas in its training missions.

Being raised along the shores of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack coast, I spent many summer days at the beach. Some of my favorite activities involved rocks, more specifically skipping stones (the flatter the better!) and collecting unique rocks and feebly attempting to crack them apart in hopes of unearthing fossils. Examining these rocks would inevitably lead to puzzlement and many questions. In order to answer these questions, we must look back in time.

Monday, April 16 marks the start of Earth Week, a weeklong celebration of our earth that ends with Earth Day on April 22. While every day is "Earth Day" and "Adirondacks Day" at the Council, Earth Week is a special time to remind ourselves of what we can all do to help the planet.

The Adirondack Council expresses its deepest gratitude to thousands of its members and other supporters, who signed petitions, wrote emails, made phone calls or personally visited members of Congress, urging them to protect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) budget this year.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we honor women who devoted their lives to making our planet a better place. These amazing women helped drive the 20th century conservation movement, and blazed the trail for us (some literally), and we are grateful.

Adirondack Conservation News is a collection of the most current events taking place in New York’s Adirondack Park. Read on to see the highlights for the month of March.