Reading assignments and some thoughts on Adk environmental groups

Apparently it came out last week and I missed it, but take a look at Brian Mann’s piece in the Adirondack Explorer.

Today, Explorer Editor Phil Brown blogged about the story on the Adirondack Almanack (which by the way just merged with the Explorer).

And finally today, Brian Mann blogged about the Explorer piece at the NCPR blog the In Box.

On the blog post, Mann clarified a little about where he was going with the piece. He sees the environmental community now as weaker and more fractured than it was when he first got to the Adirondacks, and the conversation has successfully shifted more toward including a pro-development point of view.

He keeps characterizing the Adirondack Council’s support for the ACR at the end of the process as breaking ranks with the rest of the environmental community, which is interesting.

I always saw it in a different way. The council is the more moderate of the environmental groups and the other two (first the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks and the Association for the Protection for the Adirondacks, then Protect the Adirondacks and Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve) were the more radical. I think that’s how it was explained to me when I started at the Enterprise, and that’s how it has seemed to continue since I’ve been here. I think it’s important to have both those factions involved if you want to make sure you’re keeping ideals in mind, but also being realistic about what can actually be accomplished while also making sure people can live here.

All throughout the ACR debate, since I started covering it three years ago and from the many clips I’ve read that were written before I started, the more radical groups took a more radical stance, saying the resort needed a complete design makeover before it could even be considered. The council took a more moderate stance, having problems with very specific things but always emphasizing that they stand by some form of the project being approved. That might not have been the case right at the beginning, but it had been veering that way for years.

Given the fact that developers made some concessions, like getting rid of the shooting school, canoe launch, ridgeline developments, and finally promised to preserve much of the resort's existing open space through deed restrictions, it didn’t surprise me at all that the council ended up coming through with full support for the APA’s decision.

I don’t see that as breaking ranks, though. I see it as the council playing the role it exists to play in the struggle between environmental and economic concerns in the Park.

But if Brian's right and the more radical factions are having trouble, while the pro-development groups are getting stronger and more PR-savvy, should people start getting concerned that the Park isn't getting the proper protection that it should?

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