Source: Adirondack Daily Enterprise [1]
By MIKE LYNCH - Outdoors Writer, Adirondack Daily Enterprise
With the busy summer hiking season approaching, the state Department of Environmental Conservation recently announced that it will have backcountry stewards and assistant forest rangers patrolling the Adirondack waters and forests.
The backcountry stewards will be interns from the Student Conservation Association while the assistant forest rangers are employees of the DEC.
This is the second year for the SCA's backcountry steward program, although the SCA and DEC have a long-running relationship.
The assistant forest ranger program has been around since the 1970s but had a one-year hiatus two years ago when DEC's budget was severely cut.
There will be about 25 backcountry stewards and 19 assistant forest rangers statewide. Of those, 12 stewards and 12 assistant forest rangers will be based in the Adirondacks, according to DEC spokeswoman Lori Severino. ...continue reading [1]