RAY BROOK - For the past 18 months, Mike Carr, the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy's executive director, has not only been trying to sell the former Finch, Pruyn and Co. lands; he's also been trying to convince town leaders that it's a worthwhile transaction.
Carr is trying to foster good public relations with towns, but also, towns have veto powers over state land purchases made with Environmental Protection Fund money.
In order to appease the towns and public, Carr and his staff have engaged in hundreds of meetings with officials and sometimes the public around the Adirondack Park, traveling to 27 towns in six counties, Carr said at a presentation to the state Adirondack Park Agency Thursday.
"At the core, many of those communities didn't know The Nature Conservancy," Carr told the Enterprise. "We didn't own any land in their town. They didn't understand what we were about and that was really where we started: Introducing ourselves personally and professionally, and talking very honestly about our goals for the project and then listening intently to what their dreams were and how we might accommodate them."
The Nature Conservancy bought the 161,000 acres for $110 million a year-and-a-half ago. The plan is to sell about 93,500 of those acres to a timber company - a deal that is expected to close soon - and put most or all of that land into working forest conservation easements, have 57,700 acres sold to the state for Forest Preserve and have 1,100 acres sold to towns for community enhancement projects.
In many ways, Carr has been successful in his dealings with the towns. Evidence of that is that all 27 towns either approved or filed no opposition to the state's planned expenditure of the EFP funds to buy the Finch lands.
A big part of their success so far has been trying to meet the needs of the towns they are dealing with, and Carr has been a big part of that.
"I honestly think, if it wasn't for Mike Carr and his ability to communicate, this probably would have been a very, very difficult sell," North Hudson Supervisor Robert Dobie said. "But he tried to be helpful. He tried to be very forthright with everything, and I do commend him for doing an excellent job."
A big incentive for the towns is that they have been offered lands for "community enhancements." The deal will include the creation of a snowmobile corridor trail that will connect Newcomb, Long Lake, Minerva, Indian Lake and North Hudson, a potential economic boost to the affected areas.
"I do believe it will reinvigorate snowmobiling in the Adirondacks and this area," Dobie said.
Newcomb Supervisor George Canon also said the snowmobile trails could be a big help winter tourism in his area.
"The snowmobile connection is huge," Canon said. "We've got snow when almost no one else does. It's got huge economic potential."
But while both supervisors complimented The Nature Conservancy regarding their dealings with them, they still have some reservations.
"We're concerned about the loss of hunting and fish clubs and the way of life they supported for the last 100 years," Canon said. "We're concerned about the potential loss of the economics of the wood fiber industry."
Perhaps the biggest concern now is that state lands may not bring in as much revenue to municipalities if they are sold to the state because of Gov. David Paterson's proposal to cap state tax payments to municipalities and school districts on Forest Preserve lands.
Prior to this proposal, some towns stood to gain tax revenue from the sale to the state because many of the lands have timberland tax exemptions on them. But if Paterson's proposal for the Forest Preserve tax cap stands, towns won't benefit in that way.
"At one point, the thought was we might actually increase the tax base, but with Paterson's proposal I'm not so sure about that anymore," Canon said.
This tax cap would be a game changer for Dobie regarding the sale of the lands in his towns.
"Now with the state talking about capping their land values, I'm not sure that we did the right thing," Dobie said. "We did it in part because we felt that the land would be in good hands. At this point, our town will be close to 80 percent state land. If they cap the value of state land, it's just going to devastate our town."
Canon echoed those thoughts.
"We're not as thrilled with it as we once were," Canon said.
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Contact Mike Lynch at 891-2600 ext. 28 or mlynch@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
