This week has been mostly catch up. Paying bills, sending invoices, updating workshop materials, writing reports and generally spending way too much time in front of the computer.

We’ve hopefully nailed down the dates for our fall trip to Beirut, Lebanon as we continue to work with International College there. The recent Lebanese elections hopefully bode well for our Lebanese colleagues. The past week had us nailing down the logistics for a number of our summer commitments as well.

I had the fortune of meeting with a group of wildlife managers visiting the Adirondack Park as guests of the Wildlife Conservations Society’s Adirondack Communities and Conservation Program. I chatted with them about the Adirondack Park and some of the various initiatives I’ve been working on. Here’s an article with more details.

One of the most exciting recent professional development is our continued work with the Adirondack Forest Preserve Education Partnership. As I mentioned previously we have partnered with the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, the only daily newspaper in the Adirondack Park, to publish and promote our educational message. They recently published an editorial about the partnership which you can read here. Today members of our group looked at the layout and made recommendations. Publication date is July 1 so we are looking forward to celebrating its publication very soon.

I met with the daughter of some friends who just finished her freshman year in college to discuss whether she should change her major to recreation. She has grown up in the outdoors and works for her dad’s outdoor business. I shared my belief that having a good background in recreation philosophy and history is of great value although I also acknowledged that it is not a prerequisite for being successful in an outdoor career. I remember a friend saying, “I wanted to become a river guide so I went down and hung out at the river.” Good advice. After a while it was clear she wanted to stay at the school she was attending but didn’t like her major. I suggested a “design your own major” approach or perhaps, heaven forbid, a liberal arts major. Some of the best-rounded smartest people I know have liberal arts degrees. Many people discount liberal arts degrees but I think they have great value. It was a fun discussion and hopefully of value to her.

On the personal front my niece, her husband and her two boys visited for four night and we had a wonderful time with them. They are traveling from Tennessee to their new home in California. During their stay we kayaked up the lake and saw loons and two bald eagles among other things. Not bad for a fifteen minute paddle from the house. They left this morning heading through central New York on their way west. Summer is here as friends and relatives and streaming in. Another niece arrives tomorrow for a one night stay. Phyliss’ niece also arrives tomorrow. Next week a former student and his family arrive from Oregon for a visit. No complaints here though. I’m lucky to have a wife that is such a wonderful hostess and we enjoy having guests.

Last week Bruce and I visited Keene Valley Central School and chatted with Superintendent Cynthia Ford-Johnston and fourth grade teacher Joanne Whitney. It is a pleasure to visit schools with such enthusiastic teachers and such a clear vision and interest in an interdisciplinary approach that capitalizes on their local environment.

We also got to visit with Jim Donnelly Superintendent of Lake Placid Central School. I met Jim when he attended Richard Louv’s presentation (Louv is the author of the bestselling “Last Child in the Woods”) in Lake Placid in May. Jim addressed the issue schools have getting children outdoors and still meeting NYS Learning Standards. We had a fascinating chat and we were impressed with his vision for LPCS.

Over the weekend I went to Burlington to visit my daughter in law who had back surgery. Fortunately the surgery went well so I was able to get right back up to speed by Monday. Monday was a bit crazy as I had a Village/Town Comprehensive Planning meeting in the morning, traveled to Newcomb Central School and helped teachers brainstorm ideas for their Adirondack Event this coming fall in the afternoon, traveled back to Saranac Lake to testify at a village zoning hearing and after the hearing drove down to Albany in preparation for my work with Parent To Parent of NYS Tuesday.  Tuesday I assisted the strategic planning committee of Parent To Parent as they continue to work on creating their strategic plan.

 Most of Wednesday was spent working on a pet project of mine. I have been working with colleagues from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Communities & Conservation Program, The Adirondack Mountain Club, The Nature Conservancy’s Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program and the Adirondack Regional Tourism Council in the development of what is called the Adirondack Forest Preserve Education Partnership. We have been working since 2000 to develop an educational program focusing on three features; knowing about the Park, protecting the Park, and protecting the visitor of the Forest Preserve. We received a $10,000 grant from Tourism Cares for Tomorrow in 2007 to produce a tabloid format information piece. Most of the money was spent writing the content of the document with little money left for printing. We recently partnered with the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and their new publication Embark to produce a joint publication using much of our material. We are hopeful that this turns into a long term relationship to help get information into the public’s hand about using the Forest Preserve. July 1^st is the expected date of publication. If you are interested in getting a copy let me know and I’ll make sure you do.

One of my many volunteer efforts is serving on the Saranac Lake/Harrietstown Comprehensive Planning Committee. We are updating the Village and Town’s Comprehensive Plan. It has been a long process (2 ½ years) but it is nearing completion. It hit a stumbling block this past week as the Village Board made a zoning change without any heads up to the committee. It caused a lot of ruffled feathers including mine since the change was not entirely consistent with our plan. I think we have worked through the issue and I have to say I am extremely excited about the prospect of their being new commercial development in Saranac Lake. I can only assume that the Village wanted to rezone the land, which they own, so that they can sell it. If I had to put money on it I would guess that we’ll either see a department store or grocery store coming to Saranac Lake in the coming months.

This afternoon I had a nice trip down memory lane as I went out to the LaVida Camp just outside of town to visit a former student of mine Dave Meade. Dave graduated from North Country Community College in 1984, eventually got a degree from Wanakena Ranger School and has been a Forest Ranger in the Catskills for many years. He also teaches Wilderness First Responder Courses for Wilderness Medical Associates which is what brought him up to this area. When I heard the ages of his children I knew I was getting old.

One final note, you will notice a number of new links at the top of our page. They are mostly connected to Antioch New England University and our colleagues at the Center for School Renewal. I particularly liked this link. If you’ve got a few minutes and want to be impressed by what students can do with minimal practice take a click.

One thing I like about long distance travel is a chance to catch up on some reading. My son, Dustin, gave me a Kindle 2 E-book reader for my birthday and my recent trip to Texas was the first time I have really had a chance to give it a good test. I love it! I love the fact that I can now take one item lighter than a paperback book and have a years worth of reading material on it. Its screen is really eye friendly and I find it easy to use.

Other features include the ability to:

It will be amazing to see how this technology evolves. My biggest gripe is that it is now much harder to share books with my friends. On the other hand when enough of my friends get a Kindle we will be able to just exchange them.

 I didn’t start this entry to be a review of the Kindle, I wanted to share some thoughts about the books I read during my recent travels. A few weeks back I commented on hearing author James Kunstler talk about the future. He is not an optimist and isn’t for the faint of heart but I really like what he had to say so the first book I read on my Kindle was his World Made By Hand. It is a fictional account of a small town north of Albany and how it deals with the collapse of our society as we know it. One of the interesting aspects is that the collapse takes place only about twenty years from now. I found the book entertaining and an interesting follow up to his presentation. I don’t think the collapse, whenever it happens, (although it is bound to happen because nothing lasts forever) will be as complete as the book makes it. Will we run out of power everywhere overnight? Will phone service disappear overnight? Will our ability to communicate and travel long distances disappear overnight? I don’t think so. I think these types of things, if they disappear at all, will happen gradually. None the less I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will try to read more of his work.

I spent the weekend working with my colleagues at Experiential Adventures training the student orientation staff at
Texas Tech University’s Center for Campus Life in
Lubbock, Texas. It is always enjoyable to work with fellow professionals that have a slightly different skill set than you do and see how they bring their strengths to the task at hand. We had worked with these student leaders for three days in March helping them to create a tight knit community and teaching them about leadership, customer service, and mentorship.

This past weekend our challenge was to help them develop the knowledge and skills to be able to facilitate community building activities and initiative games that would assist orientation students learn about university life at Texas Tech, build a sense of community, and have fun. In addition we helped them develop a full-value contract for their work together. That’s a lot to accomplish in fourteen hours.