The public is slowly becoming aware of the impact the state budget crisis is having on the programs, operations and staffing of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, particularly in the Adirondacks.
Last month, DEC officials in Albany announced that seven campgrounds and two day-use areas the agency manages in the Adirondacks and Catskills would not open this summer because of budget constraints.
On Thursday, DEC's Region 5 headquarters in Ray Brook said a half-dozen Forest Preserve roads and road systems in the Adirondacks will not open to motor vehicle access for the season. Parking lot, trailhead, road and other public facility projects on easement lands have also been suspended due to state budget cuts.
DEC is also cutting its assistant forest ranger program this year, as the Enterprise reported Friday, and will shorten the season at its four youth environmental-education camps, including Camp Colby in Saranac Lake, by two weeks.
But those cuts make up just a small amount of the $32 million reduction that the state Division of Budget has asked DEC to absorb this year in its non-personal services budget, which covers everything from travel, vehicle mileage and equipment to oil spill cleanups and pesticide testing.
The cut, if it's achieved, would reduce the agency's non-personal services budget to $63 million, or roughly half of where it stood in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
But funding cuts are only half of the story. DEC has also shed more than 310 staff positions over the last two years through attrition and an early severance program. Paterson's budget calls for another 54 agency staff to be lost through attrition in 2010-11, which would bring DEC staffing to its lowest level since the early 1980s.
The scale of the reductions the agency is facing worries observers in the Park, including environmentalists, sportsmen and even some local government leaders. Some fear that DEC's core mission is in jeopardy.
"I'm concerned about their ability to accomplish their fundamental mission, which is to protect the air, water and land resources of the state of New York," said Joe Martens, president of the Open Space Institute. "They've been cut over a number of years - all the agencies have - and at some point it's going to cut into the heart of their program."
It's been difficult to gauge the impact the proposed reductions could have on DEC, largely because the agency hasn't spelled out in detail how it plans to absorb the cuts, except for the campground closures and other reductions mentioned earlier.
Martens said he and other stakeholders met with DEC officials a week prior to the state's budget deadline to try to learn more about how the $32 million cut would be handled.
"At that point they still couldn't tell us what the plan was," Martens said. "I was astounded that a week before the budget was supposed to be enacted, the agency couldn't tell us what it planned to do."
More than a month later, Martens said he still hasn't learned any more.
"What we have learned is kind of creeping out, and it seems to me like the public at large and the Legislature that's supposed to act on a budget one of these days would be interested in what the implications are and what the alternatives might be," Martens said.
Rob Moore, executive director of EPL / Environmental Advocates, said he hasn't seen specifics either but expects the cuts are "going to affect every program under the sun."
Before the latest round of proposed cuts, Moore said DEC was already feeling the impact of previous reductions. He said the department has failed to properly document pollution discharges and has only been able to inspect 30 percent of the 125,000 bulk fuel and chemical storage tanks in the state, which it's supposed to inspect each year.
"We've seen problems around the state with spills of toxic chemicals and oil that aren't getting properly addressed in a timely fashion," Moore said. "The budget cuts the governor proposes are not going to make the situation any better."
DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren said the need to cut $32 million in operating expenses statewide "will mean difficult choices that affect all of our divisions and each DEC region.
"Simply put, we have less money and that will result in cuts to services and amenities to the public," Wren wrote in an e-mail.
Wren referred questions about the specific cuts DEC is planning or has already made to the state Division of Budget, which couldn't be reached for comment Friday. Wren also directed the Enterprise to comments DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis delivered to a Senate committee in late January.
Over the past 18 months, Grannis said his agency has "considered every cost-cutting measure and efficiency available to try to limit the impact of reduced funding and staffing."
Grannis said DEC has already reduced its printing costs, cut vehicle use, eliminated statewide staff and program meetings, and "set a high bar for any travel and equipment replacement and upgrades." His remarks did not address how DEC will absorb the reductions proposed by the governor.
Town of Wells Supervisor Brian Towers, president of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, said he's talked with DEC Region 6 Director Judy Drabicki about the agency's budget situation and said money saved from cuts to the agency's programs is being "used in other places, and in some cases it's literally being used to put gas in the tank for the truck.
"It's that bad," Towers said. "I think the public is going to be feeling it; there's no two ways around it."
Hunters, anglers and other sportsmen may have a better indication of what's at stake for DEC in this year's budget process.
Patricia Riexinger, director of the DEC Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources, sent a letter to sportsmen's groups across the state last month outlining how the state's fiscal situation will affect its services.
The $32 million cut to the agency's operational funding coupled with a reduction in revenues "will impose substantial constraint on the delivery of program as we move forward," Riexinger wrote.
The Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources is not planning to cut back production and distribution of fish from the agency's hatchery system or pheasants from DEC's game farm, but it will be "prioritizing" the fish stocking it does in the Adirondacks using aircraft to the "most desirable ponds."
The production of hunting, trapping and fishing guides is being scaled back, along with habitat and access projects. Riexinger said travel and mileage allocations used by wildlife staff are being cut by 75 percent. Training will be reduced or eliminated, and DEC response to nuisance wildlife complaints will be "drastically limited." Funding for various sporting advisory boards is also being reduced or cut entirely.
Bob Brown of Saranac Lake, program director for the state Conservation Council, said he's pleased the pheasant and fish stocking programs are not going to be affected by the cuts. But he's upset that funding for advisory boards, which he said bring together various sporting interests with DEC officials and legislators, is being targeted.
The ongoing reduction of DEC staffing is also a concern, Brown said. He said DEC's Region 5 fisheries unit is down to six staff from 17 to 18 about 10 years ago.
"There's a lot of stuff that's not getting done," Brown said. "The current staff is doing everything they can do. You may see less services, but the people that are doing it are working three times as hard - they're out straight."
It's now up to the state Legislature to decide how much funding, if any, it will restore to DEC's budget. Towers said that isn't an easy or popular task.
"People are not going to push back as much when there's a cut to DEC funding as when there are cuts to school districts, social service programs and other things," he noted.
Towers said he supports restoring some money to DEC's budget, namely for parks and campgrounds, but doesn't want the land acquisition funding put back into the state Environmental Protection Fund. Paterson has proposed a moratorium on state land purchases and has called for a $69 million cut in EPF funding.
"We think continuing to invest money in drinking water upgrades or sewer plant upgrades is good," Towers said. "But the line in the EPF we're concerned about is land acquisition money. Let's take that and pump it back into DEC across the state of New York."
Martens said he's pressing legislators for at least a partial restoration of EPF funding and wants to see money allocated for the "backlog" of land acquisition projects the state has committed to.
"I'm hoping there is a land acquisition component to the EPF, and they try to address the backlog and not necessarily initiate new land acquisition, which is a tough sell in a fiscal crisis," Martens said.
EPL/Environmental Advocates, the League of Conservation Voters and other statewide environmental groups announced this week that they're coordinating efforts to "hold individual legislators accountable" for their efforts for or against restoring environmental funding in the state budget.
"We'll look at voting records and other actions state officials have taken," Moore said. "Did they sign letters to leadership asking for funding to be restored? Did they make public comments about the fact that we need to support these programs?"
Moore said both the Senate and Assembly have agreed to restore some funding to the EPF, plus money to keep state parks open.
"Both houses had some measure of restoration of funds," he said. "But the one area where it's not clear what the Legislature is going to do or even can do is in staffing and resources for DEC."
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Contact Chris Knight at (518) 891-2600 ext. 24 or cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
