Paul Smiths College

(01/25/12) It's shaping up to be another tough week weather-wise for the North Country. Rain and temperatures in the forties forced volunteer crews in Saranac Lake to suspend work on the Winter Carnival ice palace.

The Mt. Van Hoevenberg cross country ski center in Lake Placid closed because of the drizzly weather.

The forecast at Whiteface Mountain this morning includes a chance for rain. And the Ski Bowl in North Creek is closed, with just 60% of Gore Mountain's trails open.

One bright spot this winter has been the VIC at Paul Smiths. The facility was threatened with closure in 2010 when the Adirondack Park Agency decided that it was too expensive to operate.

But Paul Smiths College and a group of local residents have worked to keep the VIC open. Brian Mann checked out the trails last week and has our story.

(09/27/11) In our occasional series, Moving the World, we meet North Country people who take their skills, expertise and resources to share with communities around the globe. Paul Smiths College hosts the founder of the Atlas Cultural Foundation, which helps Moroccans in one of the poorest regions of North Africa. Atlas is affiliated with Adirondack Sustainable Communities, which promotes healthy development in our region. Todd Moe talks with Chloe Erickson about her group's efforts to help improve community health, cultural preservation, education and literacy. She'll give a lecture tonight (7 pm) in the Freer Hall Auditorium at Paul Smiths College.

(08/23/11) The Adirondack woodsman is a North Country archetype - brawny, independent, deeply versed in the ways of the North Woods. There are still loggers working in the forests of the Adirondacks and Tug Hill Plateau, though most are aided by chain saws and huge machinery today.

At Paul Smiths College, a summer school program is keeping the skills and ethos of the Adirondack woodsman alive. David Sommerstein reports. more

(08/10/11) All kinds of creatures make their home in the North Country, including a number of native butterflies. Sarah Harris visited the butterfly house at the Paul Smith's Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) on a rainy Friday afternoon, talked to educator Sue Grimm, and has today's Heard Up North.

(07/25/11) Our Farmers Under 40 series continues throughout the summer. Today we have a profile of Joe Orefice, an assistant professor of forestry at Paul Smith's College.

Orefice taught the school's first sustainable community agriculture course this past year. He also owns and operates a small farm, which he uses as a teaching tool.

This summer Paul Smith's culinary students visited Joe's farm for a lesson in local meats. Sarah Harris joined them and has our story. more

(06/07/11) Our guest is Dr. Curt Stager of the Paul Smith's College faculty, co-host of NCPR's Natural Selections, and author of Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth. Drawing upon the latest works of a handful of climate visionaries, the book explores the possibilities for next hundred millennia of life on Earth. Ellen Rocco and Chris Robinson host.

(06/03/11) Ornithology, the study of birds, is entering a new "golden age" with tens of millions of participants, according to award-winning nature writer and bird expert Scott Weidensaul.

He's the featured speaker at the 9th Annual Great Adirondack Birding Celebration at the Paul Smiths College VIC on Saturday night. Weidensaul lives in Pennsylvania and has written more than two dozen books on natural history.

Todd Moe spoke with him about about how bird watching grew out of a "gentlemen's hobby" in the 18th century to become a professional and popular pastime. more

(05/30/11) Early last year after state budget cuts, the Adirondack Park Agency announced it couldn't afford to keep running the visitor interpretive center at Paul Smiths.

It seemed natural the school would take over the much-loved interpretive center. But nothing is simple. It ended up working out, and Paul Smiths VIC reopened this weekend. Nora Flaherty has the story of how the college is making the VIC its own.
(Tomorrow, Brian Mann reports on the rebirth of the Newcomb VIC.) more

(05/27/11) Those who love edible wild mushrooms, cousins of the grocery store variety, also enjoy the annual spring hunt for one of the most elusive -- the morel. May is morel month in the North Country.

Todd Moe joined an outing of mushroom collectors at Paul Smiths College earlier this month. The group held a friendly contest to see who could find and pick the largest quantity of morels. By the end of the hunt it was clear you don't have to have to go out looking for morels with a meal in mind. Just learning to identify each mycological species is a challenge.

A reminder about looking for edible mushrooms: even distinctive yellow morels have look-a-likes that are poisonous. The slightest doubt about a mushroom is warning enough not to eat it.

(05/16/11) Former New York Gov. David Paterson was in the Adirondacks over the weekend, where he addressed graduates of Paul Smith's College. Paterson, who inherited a massive budget crisis, urged students to reverse the "poor judgments" that led New York state into a deep recession. Martha Foley reports.

(Chris Morris provided reporting for this story.)