News From the Editor, February 2022

Susan W. Smith -

Somehow, mid-February is both a happy time and a sad one.   First, the sad part – our Ian Coristine died on February 15, 2000, the River lost a great champion, we miss him very much, but luckily his photographs will live on.  

The happy news is we are more than halfway through the winter and honestly, the days are getting a wee bit longer!

Winter in the Thousand Islands

The start of winter on the St. Lawrence! [Note this photo was credited to the wrong photographer, it is by Kate Breheny, Clayton, NY.]
L: Chris Maloney's early Ice photograph from Cape Vincent, NY.; M: Karen Millspaugh captured winter ice fog in front of Boldt Castle; R: James R. Miller captures a winter sunset.

Save the River Awards!

For those of us not on the River right now, we had the pleasure of attending the Save the River Winter weekends. Two Saturday mornings were filled with speakers talking about our River’s environment. I think we’re in good hands. Some of the top minds are studying our River and their research will make a positive difference.

There are two awards given each year and the first was the 2022 “Friend of the River Award”, which this year was presented to James McGarry.

Jim McGarry looking up while doing his "job" of managing one of two navigational cells near Crossover Island. 

The second award given during the conference was for the Annual Dan Tack Muskie Catch & Release Tournament with the winner being Johnathon Pensyl.

Johnathon Pensyl winner of the Dan Tack 
Presented by Jeff Garnsey to Johnathon Pensyl 

Congratulations to both winners and to Save the River for another successful winter conference.

A perfect winter view of Clayton, NY's waterfront and the US span of the Thousand Islands Bridge captured by Ken Carlson. (Ken, we want some duplicates once the ice goes out!, please.)
Ken Carlson gives us a unique view of the St. Lawrence River in the heart of the Thousand Islands. 

Past and Present!

Tom King reviewed his catalogue of The J. W. King photographic collection. Tom's father captured so much history and we are grateful to share this Gananoque photograph from the 1970s.

J. W. King Photography Collection ca. 1070s.
Snowmobile voyage on Carleton Island, 2022. Photo by Vicki Roes. Pictured are are, Colette Roes, 13 years old, Carleton Island summer resident, winter weekender, and Kynlee Roes, 8 years old visiting cousin.

TI Life EVENTS

The newest member of the TI Life Team will start this month. Meet John Swift. John grew up about ten miles from Potsdam, NY. At this moment, he is wintering in Arizona, but spends his summers in Wisconsin. John is helping with our Events section.

If you have an event that is happening on the River, in the US or in Canada, just send the material to: info@thousandislandslife.com and we’ll post it on our events page and/or social media.

2022 looks like it will be a busy summer and we all look forward to supporting many community activities.

We still have winter swimmers! Photo by Lynn Greenia Schneider

Conclusion

February brought three new authors to our pages – Teri Bruno, Roger Boston, and Marc Benoit. No matter where you’re spending this winter, we hope you stay well and by all means, write to us with questions or suggestions. Please leave comments on articles or send them to me to post (there is a little glitch using some web browsers.)

By Susan W. Smith, Editor, info@thousandislandslife.com

And the TI Life Team:

Elspeth Naismith, "Real Editor"; Georgia Barker, Dane Zabriski, and Rick Taylor are our proofreaders. Jennifer Caddick has taken over our Social media; Beth Lavos is posting books; John Swift is posting Events; Marie-Anne Erki is our illustrator; and last but not least is Mike Cox, our IT Magician. Once again, thanks  to all!
Glennis Trainor Newton captures some of the windmills on Wolfe Island.