“My father was the first commander of the Helderberg Post,” said James Gaige. “I will be the commander on our 100th anniversary next year.”

 The commission has applied prescribed fire to more than 3,407 acres with 2,251 acres burned since 2010 and has learned much in the process, the report says.

GUILDERLAND — When Scott Abraham read about farmers committing suicide, he decided to do something about it.

He read about families that had owned their farms for generations but couldn’t carry on. “It was just too tough … They can’t find help,” he says in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

Asked how she comes up with these untold stories and makes them into compelling narratives, Mary Ellen Johnson said, “I’m like a little beagle following a bunny ….”

ALBANY COUNTY — The Albany area on Thursday, June 15, along with part of the Adirondacks had “moderate” as opposed to “good” air quality, according to AirNow.gov, a website run in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We want to keep this free for kids, keep them off their screens and getting fresh air,” said Salvatore Sciangula.

“There’s going to be what’s called a citizen-requests tracker,” Supervisor Peter Barber told the town board at its June 6 meeting, “where citizen issues come up and then there’ll be a response and then you’ll be able to track it as it goes through.”

ALBANY COUNTY — While over 100 wildfires are still burning in Quebec, shifting winds have freed Albany County residents of the three days of “unhealthy” air that plagued the Upper Hudson Valley and most of the state on June 6, 7, and 8.

Those few hazy, hard-to-breathe days should inform us of the horrors that lie ahead if we don’t end our dependence on fossil fuels.

Using data reported for “respiratory symptoms” on June 8 from Emergency Medical Services response data, which is a timely early-warning source, the health department observed a statewide increase of 17.8 percent in the rates per 100,000 on Wednesday, June 7, as compared to the average of the five-day period of June 1 through 5. At the same time, for the metropolitan New York City region, the increase was 28.4 percent and for the Capital Region, it was 12.4 percent.