The students of College 220, "The Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondacks," took a field trip into the area they are studying on October 6-7. After stopping for a hike into the mountains just north of Keene Valley, the group traveled to John Brown's farm at North Elba, where they heard something of Brown's history from the caretaker, who also happened to be a distant descendant.
They continued on through Lake Placid for an overnight at the camp of Jim Schoff '68, an alumnus who has offered his place for this course for several years. Unable to host the event himself, Schoff arranged to have longtime friend Dennis Phillips and his wife serve as host and hostess. Phillips introduced a presentation on the recent sale of 116,000 acres of timberland by Finch-Pryun Paper to the Nature Conservancy. Finch Paper woodlands manager Roger Dziengeleski, who also currently manages the forest for the Nature Conservancy, provided a lively and informative question and answer session.
This was followed by a legal overview of the process by Melissa Lescault, who helped shepherd the sale announced just last spring. The educational part of the evening concluded with a talk by Hilary Oles '98 about her work for The Nature Conservancy on invasive species in the Adirondacks. The group also spent several hours at the new Wild Museum in Tupper Lake. The weekend concluded with a visit to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake.
They continued on through Lake Placid for an overnight at the camp of Jim Schoff '68, an alumnus who has offered his place for this course for several years. Unable to host the event himself, Schoff arranged to have longtime friend Dennis Phillips and his wife serve as host and hostess. Phillips introduced a presentation on the recent sale of 116,000 acres of timberland by Finch-Pryun Paper to the Nature Conservancy. Finch Paper woodlands manager Roger Dziengeleski, who also currently manages the forest for the Nature Conservancy, provided a lively and informative question and answer session.
This was followed by a legal overview of the process by Melissa Lescault, who helped shepherd the sale announced just last spring. The educational part of the evening concluded with a talk by Hilary Oles '98 about her work for The Nature Conservancy on invasive species in the Adirondacks. The group also spent several hours at the new Wild Museum in Tupper Lake. The weekend concluded with a visit to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake.
