Tag: Wildlife

My 2026 Arbor Day Story It’s become a Monroe Wildlife Area tradition. Each spring the month of April is tree planting season. 2026, however, I vowed would in one key way be different. With three decades of past years’ plantings established in ground, I was going to significantly cut...

Well, that’s it. Seven cedar post mounted signs installed in seven days. Now the Monroe Wildlife Area’s National Wildlife Federation “Certified Wildlife Habitat” status is official. It only took 35 years! Thirty five years spent clearing miles of tangled barbed wire and long since abandoned rusted farm debris remnants....

It seems most of the country is experiencing a record breaking heat wave. Not so the north country. With daytime temps in the 30s, overnight temps below freezing, and more snow in the forecast, as we head towards April, March is clearly intent on reinforcing its role as winter’s...

As I sit here basking in the warmth of my woodstove as the thermometer plummets to 28 below zero & we all wait for winter’s next windswept storm surge of ice, cold & snow, I thought I’d share a humorous take on a familiar tome. Because a little levity...

Adventures Await As we bid farewell to 2025 and welcome 2026, I wanted to share an exciting Monroe Wildlife Area announcement. For those who haven’t yet heard the news… Through the National Wildlife Federation, The Monroe Wildlife Area is now officially CERTIFIED ! This has been an undertaking I...

A Whitetail Christmas Wish Deer Santa Claus, I’ve been a good buck this year So I’m making my list In hopes that as your sleigh passes overhead You will grant my one wish I’m not asking for fancy sleigh bells or jingles I don’t want clothes or toys Save...

Congratulations! And welcome. You have now hereby officially entered my completely unauthorized Adirondack Outlaw writer’s social experiment. As you will quite soon discover, this story has absolutely nothing to do with barenaked ladies, bananas, or ice cream. No, this story instead actually chronicles my ongoing efforts to bolster the...

Living the Wildlife ********** The prologue to this story is actually the epilogue to another. It was fall 2024, mid-October. I had just returned home from my annual Southern Tier crossbow deer hunting trip with my son. I’d expended all of my time, money & energy through 2024’s spring...

MIDDLE SARANAC LAKE EDITION It was an early Saturday morning in the middle of July. My brother Ray & I were camped in our usual Middle Saranac Lake Bull Rush Bay lean-to spot. I arose from lean-to embraced slumber, stretched, and went down to the lake to inhale the...

A Tale of Nature & Life & the Fight for Survival The pair of Canada geese we’ve nicknamed “Flo & Moe” returned to our Monroe Wildlife Area in late March, shortly after our main pond ice let out. This would mark approximately the 12th consecutive year that “Flo &...