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Classification decision will affect more than access to Boreas Ponds

On Nov. 9, the Adirondack Park Agency began a series of public hearings on the proposed classification for 54,418 acres of Forest Preserve, much of it recently acquired from Finch, Pruyn (courtesy of The Nature Conservancy). The one parcel that has gotten the most attention is the Boreas Ponds tract, a sprawling forest at the foot of Mount Marcy. It alone accounts for 38 percent of the overall land package.

The APA has presented the public with four potential classification maps for Boreas Ponds, none identified as the preferred alternative. We the people are expected to mull the choices and “vote” on the one we like most.

However, in my opinion, all four alternatives are unacceptable. All allow road access to Boreas Ponds, and some might also allow snowmobiles. Any of these choices would destroy the sense of remoteness currently found there and, as I’ll explain in a moment, might threaten the very resource we want to protect. APA’s guiding document, the State Land Master Plan, clearly identifies wilderness preservation as our primary goal, and therefore the agency is obligated to consider additional proposals that recognize the property as the wild resource it really is.

The discussion about the management of Boreas has so far been pigeonholed into an unhelpful debate about access and recreation. More than a few aging conservationists — openly motivated by a personal desire for easy canoe access — have tilted the discussion in favor of opening a road that has always been closed to the public.

But let’s not discount the fact that many people have already been to Boreas Ponds in its first months of “forever wildness,” despite the closure of the gates that supposedly render the property inaccessible. I have been to the ponds three times myself: In July, the outer parking lot was filled to capacity, and in October, I had just missed a wave of explorers who had come the day before, timing their visit perfectly with peak foliage. Wheeling a canoe along the gated road was a real treat because it enabled me to tote more goodies than I would normally fit in a backpack. Getting to Boreas Ponds hardly qualified as a triathlon. It was really a fun adventure!

Let’s also consider the relationship of the Boreas Ponds tract to the adjacent High Peaks Wilderness. Decades of experience inform us that enabling easy access to the tallest mountains in the Adirondacks leads to costly problems because the sensitive trails can only withstand so many feet. Heavy visitation requires a constant management presence, taxing a ranger service that has been increasingly called upon to save the inexperienced from their own poor decisions.

Boreas Ponds and LaBier Flow — the proposed sites of trailhead parking areas — lie within an 8-mile radius of Mount Marcy, the highest summit in the state and one of its most heavily visited. Within this same circle you will find the popular trailheads at Heart Lake, the Garden, St. Huberts, Elk Lake and Upper Works — all of which are routinely filled beyond their capacity on summer weekends.

It just so happens there is an existing trail on the new property connecting Boreas Ponds with the foot of Mount Marcy, of comparable length and quality with the trail from Elk Lake. Therefore, any “compromise” placing a trailhead near LaBier or Boreas — even if it’s just a mere mile — will result in this becoming the next Marcy Dam, a site infamous among backpackers for its history of concentrated human use, frequent bear encounters and strict regulations.

It’s only a matter of time until the peak-bagging public discovers the existence of this route. The closer the trailhead is to Boreas, the easier the access to the High Peaks, increasing the likelihood it will result in an adverse environmental impact on the adjacent wilderness — up to and including the threat of a new herd path to the summit of Allen Mountain from the shores of White Lily Pond, already being contemplated in online forums.

As a tract of private land, Boreas Ponds was a 20,000-acre buffer against the southern foothills of the High Peaks — a buffer that will be eliminated if the road is opened any further than it already is. Therefore, the classification of this tract goes far beyond the question of “reasonable access” to a potential paddling destination. The decision made by the APA will have a direct impact on adjacent state lands that have been a remote part of the Forest Preserve since the 1920s. Road access to Boreas Ponds — unnecessary to accommodate an adventurous public, which has already accepted the challenge presented by the closed gates — will come at the expense of the remote quality of the adjacent High Peaks Wilderness.

Taking such an action, knowing the problems it would create, would be nothing short of irresponsible for an agency established for the primary reason of preserving wilderness.

Bill Ingersoll lives in Barneveld and is the publisher of the “Discover the Adirondacks” guidebooks and co-founder of Adirondack Wilderness Advocates.

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