‘Leave the fire towers alone’

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PAUL SMITHS - A Saranac Lake artist, an architectural expert, a college student from Mississippi and a sea captain from Lake Ontario were among a diverse group of 18 speakers who showed up at Paul Smith's College Wednesday night to give state the same message: Don't remove the St. Regis Mountain fire tower.

Only one speaker on the night spoke in favor of tearing down the tower: John Davis of the Adirondack Council.

"The people who want to keep this tower on top of the mountain aren't the extremists," said Bill Ulinski, of Rainbow Lake. "No, this is the mainstream, a much bigger group of folks."

The tower is one of two the state Department of Environmental Conservation said needs to be removed in order to comply with the Adirondack State Land Master Plan. The St. Regis Mountain fire tower is located in the St. Regis Canoe Area, which is managed like wilderness. The Hurricane Mountain fire tower is located in the Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area, a classification that is supposed to be headed toward wilderness. A public hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tonight at Keene Central School.

Above all, most speakers talking before an audience of about 75 people Wednesday pointed out that the fire towers have become part of the human heritage in the Park. They are places people visited as children, places where people learned about the Forest Preserve by viewing it from the tower cabins, and places where people go to seek solace during hard times. For most people, the fire towers aren't a symbol of humans' intruding on nature but of humans' positive interaction with nature.

"I think it's an important part of our history here in the Adirondacks," Lake Placid resident Jim McCulley said. "I think it's something that really goes to show man's care for the Forest Preserve. They installed fire towers for the specific reason of protecting the Forest Preserve, and I think it is something that has really become an institution here in the Adirondacks."

Speakers pointed to numerous opportunities that fire towers present for people to work together in a positive manner. Saranac Lake artist Sandra Hildreth is a member of the group that restored the Azure Mountain fire tower north of St. Regis Mountain. Every summer she is one of many stewards who volunteer a few days to stand atop the mountain and educate people about the natural and human history of Azure and its surroundings.

"It seems to me the DEC is throwing away a wonderful educational opportunity to spend a day on the mountain and tell people about managed forestry, about all the stuff that goes on, about what the DEC does, all the positive things," Hildreth said. "And you're just losing that if you take the tower down."

Steven Engelhardt, executive director of Adirondack Architectural Heritage, said the master plan "hasn't kept up with the way we've evolved as a society when looking at these things.

"Progressive wilderness thinkers and academics, people like William Cronon, increasingly are recognizing that cultural and natural resources are equally important to a full understanding of place and that the juxtaposition of a man-made object like a fire tower within a wild landscape may teach us more about the value of this wild place, and about the complex relationship between the wild place and human beings, than just having the wild place by itself," Engelhardt said.

Other speakers talked in harsher terms. Gary Barber called upon the DEC to stop listening to the environmentalists pushing for wilderness. He called them "watermelon Marxists" who are "green on the outside and red on the inside."

"Leave the fire towers alone and cease your incestuous relationship with the watermelon Marxists, and if you decide to side with them, I hope to hell, when you try to remove these towers, you are going to be met with armed resistance," said Gary Barber. "Hitler had a master plan, and the Nazi party had a master plan, and I don't see where this state master plan is written in stone. It's not written in granite, sandstone or any other rock. It can be changed."

A few of the night's speakers questioned whether the decision to remove the fire towers was already made, including Sheila Delarm, of Paul Smiths, and Howard Aubin, of Black Brook.

"What's going to happen here, not only with the APA but with the DEC, the minds are already made up," Aubin said. "The purpose of a public hearing is to satisfy a legal requirement before an action is made. You have to have it before you make the decision to tear the thing down. And that's the reason they are having these public hearings."

A man who referred to himself as T. Harrison said he was a student from Mississippi who is attending Paul Smith's College, where he is a natural resources land policy major.

"At this point what I gather from listening to these fine gentlemen, the only viable option is the removal of this tower," Harrison said with a thick Southern accent. "Now, I am definitely a proponent of keeping it there. Here's why. My father grew up in northern Mississippi. They have prominent pine territory there that fire towers look over. Lot of history there. A lot of history."

Don Metzger, a sea captain who lives on the shore of Lake Ontario, spoke about the profound impact fire towers had on his life. He recalled that as a young child still unable to walk, his parents put him in a pack basket and brought him to a fire tower. Later, when he was a bit older, his parents again took him to a fire tower where he encountered charts of the surrounding area. The charts had a big impact on him as he has spent his adult life using them to navigate as a mariner.

"I heard words tonight here from the well spoken audience," Metzger said. "Words like 'guardian angel,' words like 'sentinel,' 'lookout,' and I think of the fellow in the crow's nest crossing the Atlantic at 3 o'clock in the morning on lookout. He's way up there, all by himself. I think of the officer on the deck, on watch, and then I think back to the old ranger that I met at the top of the mountain.

"And as a little boy, I thought of him as some sort of a god. He just knew all about the mountains, and he knew what we were looking at and where what was what. And if we got in trouble, he would be able to help us. There was so much between when I was a kid on the mountain and the fire tower and where I am today."

Member Comments

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billstarr
03-13-10 4:26 PM »Report Abuse	One important fact not mentioned by DEC, which I brought up at the hearing, is that both the Hurricane & St Regis fire towers are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Although the NYS Office of Parks, Rec & Historic Preservation is saying one thing to the DEC the people at the National Register in Washington, DC have told me that they have an entirely different opinion. The DEC must exhaust every alternative to restore and retain the two fire towers before applying for approve to remove them. So far both the APA and DEC has not demonstrated this.
5genlocal
03-12-10 7:22 PM »Report Abuse	I can't believe people even care about this.
whosaiditwasgood
03-12-10 11:32 AM »Report Abuse	Just think, we are discussing this one tiny issue in amongst all of the things these zealots are trying to do. What scares me is the stuff they are trying to push from "under the radar" while we're busy discussing this........
poolman137
03-12-10 7:11 AM »Report Abuse	This organization that we call APA is nothing more than a puppet committee for people that want nothing more than to evict the residents from there homes and call the Adirondacks "their sanctuary"... Period!
snakepliskin
03-11-10 11:17 PM »Report Abuse	adkDoug, great point about "double standard" stiles. If he is truely unbiased, let him stand up against the almighty adirondack council and side with the 92% majority for once. I bet he won't! I bet he won't even look at revising the slmp either to allow the towers. He will say that it is under consideration in an attempt to appease the vocal majority. In the end, ol "double standard" will go back to his roots and vote the adirondack council position as always. What a loss for us, thanks curt!
AdkDoug
03-11-10 10:15 PM »Report Abuse	Bill Ulinski said it best last night - "The people who want to keep this tower on top of the mountain aren't the extremists. No, this is the mainstream, a much bigger group of folks." While there were extreme views expressed last night and also posted here, the true majority see value in keeping the tower. Commissioner Grannis and Chairman Stiles both need to realize that keeping the towers is vital. Contact them directly, DEC staffers are not the ones making this decision. Grannis wants to be considered a moderate, tell him to reject the advise of his extreme assistants. Ask him to withdraw the amendment from consideration and reclassify the land to historic. Stiles lives amongst us. Tell him that when we see him on the mountains, trails, lakes and ponds that we want to be able to thank him for making the right choice in rejecting this amendment if it comes to him.
TLNative
03-11-10 6:36 PM »Report Abuse	People who come to the Adirondacks come for the history or the over all general feeling of being here...those towers are a part of both those in my opinion...letting one look at those towers and imagine their past, to me is what the Adirondack experience should be. Why are the environmentalists so intent on removing them?
jswhiteface
03-11-10 6:24 PM »Report Abuse	The APA holds the keys to the Master Plan, DEC works under control of APA. Another day inside the blue line run by Curt "Double Standard" Stiles. Wasn't too many weeks ago the folks writing here belittled the people opposing new boathouse restrictions, to which I replied, overly aggressive APA policies over step and are subverting the intent of the original APA act. This is just another case of it here folks, do you see a pattern or am I doing a Rorschach test by myself?
poolman137
03-11-10 5:11 PM »Report Abuse	I totally agree adkpiney..... It's hard to believe that even though these organisations see that the people have lost faith in there original goals, they still fight with the majority and tend to win most times because of the people "in place"..... Tea party anyone????
Adkpiney
03-11-10 5:03 PM »Report Abuse	What a bunch of dopes can't these people come up with a better way to spend taxpayer money. The fire towers should be kept and restored not only are they historic landmarks but they are beneficial as an educational resource for the next generation of hikers...
poolman137
03-11-10 4:46 PM »Report Abuse	I am so sick of this control stuff that it makes me throw up...... If people have nothing better to do than disrupt whole communities , then they are the little ones.... Must have been beat up as children or picked on to have this kind of "control"
native
03-11-10 4:28 PM »Report Abuse	While your at it if you care to educate yourself, look up Parks in Peril, Calamkul. Read the history. The Adirondack Council's Brian Houseal ran that project. In order to establish wilderness areas, they had to remove whole villages, thousands of people.*****here it is just a few towers, for now.
poolman137
03-11-10 4:18 PM »Report Abuse	PUT THIS UP FOR AN ACTUAL VOTE!!!!! OR ARE YOU CHICKEN? CONTROL COMES IN SMALL NUMBERS PEOPLE.....
poolman137
03-11-10 4:16 PM »Report Abuse	Go figure.... The Adirondack Council wants the view to be clearer...... Is that so you don't see it when you canoe or kayak???? I almost wish we had grizzly bears here.......
native
03-11-10 4:16 PM »Report Abuse	Sorry, it should read "going".
native
03-11-10 4:15 PM »Report Abuse	Earth Firster and Adirondack Council representative John Davis was the only voice for the removal of the tower. Look up the Wildlands Project and see John Davis's quote,"Human beings as a species have no more value than slugs." That one quote says a lot about this nut job. His whole concept of Wilderness is what the Adirondack Council has planned for the Adirondacks. Three former members of their board of directors sit on the APA board of commissioners. The decision is made, they are just ging through the motions.
poolman137
03-11-10 4:12 PM »Report Abuse	Keep the towers , keep growth, keep tradition, and live with it if you want to live here.......I never told anyone what to do when I was away visiting other areas so I don't expect to receive that .... Thank you!
snakepliskin
03-11-10 3:56 PM »Report Abuse	Again, the adirondack council is against the people. Not only are they a tiny minority, they are relatively silent. The vocal majority has spoken. Too bad the only group the dec listens to is the adirondack council.
whosaiditwasgood
03-11-10 3:54 PM »Report Abuse	The history and heritage of the Adirondacks is on the chopping block once again because of the extreme "vision" of the Park by a very small minority of people who have some "horsepower" in the discussion because of their connections. Similar to the Tea Party movement, maybe it's time for a similar movement to force the mainstream views into the decision process. This shouldn't even be a topic of discussion. Fire Towers are part of Adirondack history and heritage much the same way the Great Camps, Adirondack RR and all of the traditional activities associated with hunting and fishing clubs that have been past down through the generations of Adirondackers that are native to the area. These so called "experts" and self annointed "spokespersons" have managed to eliminate most of that heritage where they could. Lets not keep repeating the same mistakes.
ADKaway
03-11-10 3:34 PM »Report Abuse	Blackice, those nutjobs spread a lot of money around Albany. Unfortunately, the taxpayers fund the APA and the DEC.. Thank God they're around to save us from ourselves.
Happyfoot1
03-11-10 1:02 PM »Report Abuse	I fail to see the point of removing the towers. Isn't the state trying to save money? Why is tower removal, which the local population and local visitors want to keep, even a consideration? Removal will cost money which the state does not have...or do they? Keep the St. Regis tower. It provides a landmark. It is used for navigation, local rescue, and is a symbol of effort spent in climbing the mountain as a child It was a great day if the tower was open and you could look out over the vastness of the beautiful Adirondacks.
BlackIce
03-11-10 12:09 PM »Report Abuse	They are supposed to be taking public comment to do what the public wants with public land. The public wants the towers to stay. Is the State going to listen to the public or a very small number of environmental nutjobs?
f111crew
03-11-10 12:04 PM »Report Abuse	Once again, they want it both ways. I guess because they are "historical" they should stay? Rubbish! Leave the emotion out of this equation and tear them down.
Spooner
03-11-10 11:50 AM »Report Abuse	18 to 1...that's about the odds for all things the greenies wish to do, but the weak politicians cave more often than not.
Walker
03-11-10 11:31 AM »Report Abuse	Speaking as a pinko/greenie, let me say that I support the keeping of the fire towers. The SLMP should be revised to allow the preservation of historic structures, even when they are in wilderness areas. Anyone who has seen Santanoni, and is familiar with the difficulties preservationists went through to keep it from being destroyed by the state would understand the problem. The Enterprise article a few days back on the British approach to preserving nature and history together perfectly addresses this issue.

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