APA response to Fred Monroe
State policies actually increase recreational access to Forest PreserveBy Keith P. McKeever, Adirondack Park Agency
The Adirondack State Park Forest Preserve and its 2.5 million acres (43 percent of the Park) is within a day's drive of 83 million people and provides New York state residents and visitors with some of the greatest outdoor recreational opportunities available in the lower 48 states, if not the world. The New York State Constitution, the State Land Master Plan (SLMP) and the unit management planning process ensure the public has numerous and diverse recreational opportunities to pursue on the people's land in the Park.
Recognized worldwide as one of the truly unique and extremely rare wild places, the Adirondack Park offers abundant recreational uses. Businesses, facilities and services in the Park's 103 towns and villages benefit from nature-based tourism and from serving as gateways to the Forest Preserve.
Millions of people snowmobile, ski, paddle, motorboat, camp, fish, hunt, hike and climb throughout the Park's open spaces. Recreational pursuits on state lands help sustain the outdoor recreation and tourism industries, which have been significant components of the Adirondack economy since the 19th century and represent a major economic growth opportunity.
More than 95 percent of the Park's state land today is classified as either wilderness or wild forest; wild forest accounts for 51 percent of these lands. The wilderness classification prohibits the use of motor vehicles while motor vehicle use is allowed as determined by the unit management planning process on wild forest state lands. This balance accommodates the diverse interests of our citizens and visitors while ensuring the preservation of the Adirondack Park's natural resources for present and future generations.
Statements that the state owns or controls 75 percent of ALL the land inside the Park are grossly inaccurate. Over the past decade the state has spent millions of dollars acquiring conservation easement rights to maintain working forests; these easement lands also provide additional recreational opportunities for residents and visitors. According to the Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project, only 338,097 acres (6 percent) are identified under public conservation easements. These private lands were previously off limits to the public for centuries but are or will become accessible for public recreational motorized and non-motorized uses.
Within the mix of wilderness, wild forest and easement lands, wilderness by its very definition is not easily accessible and is intentionally managed to provide important opportunities for solitude and remoteness. Lows Lake is one of these special places.
As a part of the 1985 centennial celebration for Article 14's "forever wild" designation in the New York State Constitution, the SLMP committed the state to the preservation of the wild character of the Hitchins Pond-Lows Lake-Oswegatchie River as a wilderness canoe route without motorboat or floatplane use. Lows Lake is a critical part of this outstanding canoe route - a paddling experience so wild in character that National Geographic Adventure magazine rated it one of the top wilderness canoe routes in the world!
The majority of land surrounding Lows Lake is already part of the Five Ponds Wilderness. There are three private properties on the lake, and "in-holdings" are not banned from wilderness. In fact, private in-holdings exist in many state land wilderness units with no degradation to the general public's wilderness experience.
Lows Lake is also one of only three lakes, including Lake Lila and Little Tupper Lake, greater than 1,000 acres in size where public motorized access is prohibited. Public use of motorboats on Lows Lake was prohibited in 2006, and floatplane use will cease after Dec. 31, 2011.
With hundreds of lakes and ponds open for motorized use and more than half of the Forest Preserve classified as wild forest, there is a commitment at the Adirondack Park Agency to promote the long-standing vision established in the SLMP to preserve Lows Lake as a wilderness paddling experience.
Additional motorized use on wild forest state lands includes snowmobiling. Last year the agency rendered a SLMP interpretation that actually allows for the potential increase of snowmobile trail mileage 15 percent over current levels. In November, the agency may issue additional SLMP interpretations on snowmobile trail guidance that would resolve many important SLMP issues and pave the way for approval of wild forest unit management plans that include snowmobile trails.
The agency is always in the position of considering a range of stakeholder advocacy positions concerning the present and future of the Adirondack Park. There is an ongoing need for accurate representation of the facts, regardless of opinions, to facilitate a positive and constructive dialogue to ensure outcomes that are beneficial to the Adirondack Park's people, communities and environment.
The agency remains open to engaging in dialogue with all stakeholder groups.
---
Keith P. McKeever is the public information officer of the New York State Adirondack Park Agency, based in Ray Brook.
|
MommiePatriot
|
|
|---|---|
|
11-15-09 9:59 PM
|
Sad State we are in. The APA Tells us what they will do with state land & then tells us what we can not do with our own land...And we, The Taxpayer, pay for it All. Wake up People!
|
|
Spooner
|
|
|
11-14-09 7:39 AM
|
Which hamlet in the Adirondacks has room for more development? The hamlet borders are laughable. How one can live within a mile of a hamlet, surrounded by neighbors and not live in a hamlet is not an "awesome" regulation. But, like you say, you do like to whine and complain each time a hamlet tries to get their borders expanded.
|
|
Spooner
|
|
|
11-13-09 5:54 PM
|
What does the building code have to do with zoning? And, the framers of the Adirondack Park zoned us shortly after THEY formed the APA. Where have you been?
|
|
grizzlyadam
|
|
|
11-13-09 3:27 PM
|
Spooner, wow, does that mean in any town with a building code, the town controls everyone's home? Any who is the "They" that zoned it? I assume They are long gone.
|
|
grizzlyadam
|
|
|
11-13-09 3:24 PM
|
jackkk_ do they let you guy use copmuters at Sunmount? Stay away from the kids you pervert.
|
|
Spooner
|
|
|
11-13-09 2:09 PM
|
Absolutely! The state, thru the auspices of the APA control 100% of the land within the park. It's ALL zoned the way THEY want it to be. The people that live here have not ever been able to make a decision as to what becomes of their land without permission of the apa.
|
|
jackkk
|
|
|
11-13-09 11:18 AM
|
Just more propaganda by the mouthpiece for the brownshirts at the APA.
|