A proposal that would designate 12,545 acres of Forest Preserve lands and waters, including Lows Lake, as wilderness is now open for public comment although it has already been the subject of a heated debate for years.
The lands are all in Hamilton and St. Lawrence counties, and the proposal will be subject to three public hearings that have been scheduled for July. The meetings will take place in Albany, Wanakena and Long Lake.
The proposal calls for an estimated 4,384 acres of state land and water that aren't currently classified to be designated as wilderness, including lands on the south shore of Lows Lake and lands north of Bog Lake along with the lake bed and waters of Lows Lake, Hitchins Pond and the Bog River.
In addition, 8,161 acres of state land would be reclassified from primitive to wilderness. The Lows Lake Primitive Area, Hitchens Pond Primitive Area and Tomar Pond Primitive Corridor would change from primitive to wilderness.
Two dams on the Bog River - Upper and Lower Lows dams - and the road to the Sabattis Scout Reservation would be made primitive inholdings within the wilderness boundaries.
The state Adirondack Park Agency first announced the proposal to classify these lands as wilderness in April. This came during the same meeting the APA decided to allow floatplanes to continue using Lows Lake through 2011.
The decision to reclassify these lands and waters as wilderness has been applauded by Adirondack Mountain Club, Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, which have been pushing the state Department of Environmental Conservation to implement a floatplane ban on Lows Lake. The ban was part of the Bog River Complex Unit Management Plan and had been scheduled to start at the beginning of 2008, but the DEC never enforced it.
If the lands and waters of Lows Lake are classified as wilderness, this would permanently ban floatplanes from those waters. In April, Adirondack Mountain Club Executive Director Neil Woodworth said he supported the wilderness designations on Lows Lake and the other lands.
"This resolution that was just adopted agrees to manage Lows Lake after 2011 as a wilderness, and that's very important to that sunset date," Woodworth said after the April APA meeting. "After 2011, we will never again have to deal with the issue of floatplane usage at Lows Lake."
While environmental advocacy organizations have pushed hard for a floatplane ban, others on the opposite side of the issue have also pushed their arguments in this debate.
Long Lake is home to Helms Aero Service, one of two floatplane businesses in the Adirondacks. Last October, Long Lake town Supervisor Greg Wallace told the Enterprise he didn't think floatplanes should be banned.
"I do not think it's a primitive area. I don't think it's a wilderness area," Wallace said. "It's a manmade lake controlled by two dams. There are private holdings that have the right to use motorboats and access by seaplane, and I think by doing this ban it gives the paddling community a false sense of security."
More recently, in mid-June, Warrensburg resident Maynard Baker announced that he was planning to file a lawsuit against the APA and DEC to reopen 40 Adirondack Park lakes that had been closed to floatplanes since the creation of the APA. His list didn't include Lows Lake, but it did include several other wilderness areas. Baker is alleging that banning floatplanes from these wilderness lakes was a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
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Contact Mike Lynch at (518) 891-2600 ext. 28 or mlynch@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
