The stars and stripes fly at the Lake Placid Airport as snow covers the upper realms of Whiteface Mountain on Oct. 8, 2020. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

MOUNTAIN — to teachers of every grade level at the end of Teacher Appreciation Week, which ended Friday. Education is essential, and hard to do well. Thank you, teachers, for all you do. We know there are plenty of times when it seems too hard to go on — teaching remotely during a pandemic has been especially draining — but know that milions of people like us are behind you, appreciating you and cheering you on.

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MOUNTAIN — to nurses of every kind on Nurses Appreciation Week, which began Thursday and ends Wednesday, May 12 — the 201st birthday of Florence Nightingale. None of us should ever take nurses for granted, but now, during a global pandemic, is a time to appreciate them all the more. Nursing is super-hard, but we hope it is also rewarding for nurses to know they are doing good for their fellow humans. We hope their bosses show their support by providing sufficient staffing so these selfless heroes don’t burn out.

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MOUNTAIN — to Huckleberry Mountain and its 1,263 acres of surrounding land in Warren County town of Johnsburg, purchased by the state of New York from the Open Space Institute for $770,000. That is one of the main things the Environmental Protection Fund is there for. The addition of Huckleberry, with its cliffs and cold-water brook, beside its popular neighbor Crane Mountain should be good for hikers, rock climbers and anglers.

But when you buy something, you have to maintain it, and the money to do so will come not from the EPF but rather from the Department of Environmental Conservation. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration has frozen DEC staffing levels, despite adding to the acreage of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and watching hiking’s popularity explode beyond the DEC’s ability to deal with it. More forest rangers, foresters and trail workers, at least, are sorely needed. If the state buys valuable things only to let them take a beating, it will be doing a poor service to nature and the people who care about it.

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MOUNTAIN — to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., joining other lawmakers and North Country business leaders in calling for U.S. and Canadian leaders to at least start working out a plan for how to reopen the countries’ shared border. It’s been closed for almost 14 months now due to the coronavirus pandemic. North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas and North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, have been among the most persistent advocates for developing a reopening plan, and Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, D-N.Y., agreed with Douglas about it in a March forum.

This doesn’t mean the border will be reopened this summer; that’s unlikely since several Canadian provinces are experiencing surges of COVID-19. Alberta, as of Thursday, had more COVID cases daily per capita than any province or U.S. state — 466.4 per million, followed by Michigan at 334.8, according to CTV. Ontario ranked ninth among all the states and provinces, New York 27th, Quebec 44th.

Canada, however, is catching up to the U.S. on vaccination rates, and within a few months both countries’ COVID situations should be much improved. So yes, it is time to start planning what it will take to reopen the border. It’s critically important for us here in the North Country.