If the state Adirondack Park Agency can no longer afford to run the excellent Visitor Interpretive Centers in Paul Smiths and Newcomb, what about the state Department of Environmental Conservation?

The DEC's budget is tight as well, but there could be a unique opportunity for this department to run the VICs cheaper than the APA has - and in a way that's better for them and Adirondack tourism in general.

In the DEC's hands, the VICs would make excellent gateways to important parts of the state Forest Preserve. The Paul Smiths VIC is located right between the St. Regis Canoe Area and the Debar Mountain Wild Forest, home of the beautiful Osgood River and Meacham Lake. The summer paddling and winter cross-country skiing in these areas are superb, as locals know, but for visitors it's hard to find the state's only designated canoe area or the Osgood access points.

Likewise in Newcomb, the VIC could be a gateway to the southern High Peaks Wilderness as well as a visitor center for the Camp Santanoni Historic Area. This is a part of the Adirondacks where the state has invested in land conservation of late; by drawing visitors here, it might ease hiker traffic at the overused Adirondack Mountain Club trailhead in the northern High Peaks.

If you've ever been to one of the major national parks like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone or Yosemite, you know that there is, at some point, a complex that serves as a hub of visitor activity. At the Grand Canyon, for instance, it's on the south rim. While the more adventurous or knowledgeable visitors go farther afield, those with less time and less foreknowledge can stay near these hubs and walk some shorter trails, see some life-enriching natural things and learn about the importance, wonder, history and ecology of these places.

The Adirondack Park has the VICs for this, but because they are part of the APA, not the DEC, they have felt a bit nonconforming in people's minds - different from the state land. But if people could go there and talk to a forest ranger and be told that the VIC is the main entrance to the Forest Preserve, right out back, they would feel a sense of unity - like the state land reached out to introduce itself to them.

If this increases visitors to Paul Smiths and Newcomb, commercial opportunities could improve as people will want to get supplies, gas and meals.

And this could cost less than the VICs cost now.

The DEC could control costs by using its existing staff and enlisting the VICs' nonprofit support wing, the Adirondack Park Institute. The DEC could have its local forest rangers use the VICs as bases, much as Forest Ranger Jim Giglinto uses the Adirondack Mountain Club's High Peaks Information Center as a base from which to patrol the popular Eastern High Peaks. While Ranger Giglinto spends plenty of time out on the trails, he also lingers at the trailhead hub, talking to people before they go out and informing them of what they need to know.

The DEC could also add one or more of its existing staff members to each location as environmental educators, perhaps picking from among its wildlife biologists, foresters and other environmental experts - whoever would be most suited to public work. The DEC may well find that many of its staff resources are more effective in a public-outreach environment than in the hallways of its Ray Brook headquarters.

More staff would probably be needed, but they might be provided by the Adirondack Park Institute, which already pays at least one VIC naturalist's salary and has been stepping up membership and fundraising efforts. The Institute could also continue to coordinate volunteers and run the VIC's outreach programs, which are beloved by local people from all over the North Country as well as a solid corps of regular visitors.

The APA seems intent on dropping the VICs, but they could be very valuable to the DEC's outreach and education efforts. We think this is an idea DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis and other state leaders should hear and consider seriously.