The New York budget includes $500,000 for a new survey of Adirondack lakes. Survey of Climate Change and Adirondack Lake Ecosystems, known as SCALE, will focus on the threat of climate change and build on a 1980s survey of over 1,000 Adirondack lakes, a landmark study of the effects of acid rain.
Syracuse University Professor of Environmental Systems Charles Driscoll Jr. is one of the few researchers from that survey who continues to actively study Adirondack lakes. He told the Adirondack Explorer about his plans in this interview edited for clarity and length.
Q: What was the 1980s Adirondack Lakes Survey?
It was an unprecedented survey, a huge number of lakes, about half the number of lakes in the Adirondacks. It was a great project to characterize the resource, and particularly to look at the impacts of acid rain. Resulting from that, the Adirondacks became the poster child for acid rain impacts in North America, be cause of the severity,
