A group of disabled men are suing the state Adirondack Park Agency and Department of Environmental Conservation, claiming they've been denied access to remote lakes in the Adirondack Park because of state restrictions on floatplane use in wilderness areas.
Maynard Baker and Mark Schumaker, both of Warrensburg, Douglas Irish of Queensbury, Ronald Dixon Sr. of Hudson Falls and Richard Kenny of Lake George filed a federal lawsuit Monday in U.S. Northern District Court in Albany. They claim state officials violated their rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act by prohibiting floatplanes from accessing lakes and ponds in the Park's wilderness, primitive and canoe areas. Joseph Franklin of Schenectady, who is not disabled but is a licensed helicopter pilot, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Baker, a licensed pilot and former Warrensburg town supervisor, said 40 remote lakes in the Park were open to floatplane access until 1972, when the State Land Master Plan was adopted. The SLMP prohibits motorized use in wilderness, primitive and canoe areas.
"The able-bodied can still walk in and enjoy those lakes, but the only means the disabled had, they took it away from them," Baker told the Enterprise. "That's discrimination. That isn't right."
The lawsuit, filed by Lake Placid attorney Matthew Norfolk, seeks to open the lakes to floatplane access. The plaintiffs are also seeking an award of attorney fees and costs incurred in bringing the complaint.
The suit says all of the men "are classified as qualified disabled persons under the ADA and seek to enjoy the pleasures of New York State Adirondack Park as do those without disabilities."
"Plaintiffs and other disabled persons are prohibited by defendants and their laws, rules, regulations and policies from accessing lakes in the areas of the Adirondack Park classified as Wilderness, Primitive, or Canoe ... by way of aircraft or other motorized vehicles," the lawsuit reads.
The complaint claims that APA and DEC, by denying the disabled floatplane access, "are effectively giving priority to one group of users of the Adirondack Park, consisting of the able-bodied, over plaintiffs and other disabled persons."
The lawsuit says aircraft have no significant impact on the environment, but it notes that the state has allowed tens of thousands of hikers and campers to access wilderness, primitive and canoe lands each year, "thereby causing intense overuse, pollution and devastating erosion, and otherwise fundamentally altering and destroying, directly and indirectly, the Wilderness, Primitive and Canoe characteristics of those parts of the Adirondack Park."
All the plaintiffs in the case have served in the military.
"We're at war, and we have veterans coming back right now," Baker said. "They should get the chance to enjoy these areas, too. They've earned a right to this land."
In addition to the DEC and APA, the lawsuit also names the state, Gov. David Paterson, APA Chairman Curt Stiles and DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis as defendants.
DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren declined to comment. APA spokesman Keith McKeever also declined to comment, saying agency staff are still reviewing the lawsuit.
While the lawsuit makes no mention of it, the issue of floatplane access on the Park's lakes came to a head last year when DEC adopted regulations that will end commercial floatplane access to Lows Lake by early 2012. The controversial decision was reached after years of debate between DEC and APA officials, environmental groups, floatplane operators and local government officials in the Park.
This isn't the first lawsuit the state has faced over disabled access in the Park. In 1998, disability rights advocates Ted Galusha, Teena Willard and William Searles sued the state, claiming they were discriminated against, and sought motor vehicle access to several areas of the Park.
The case was settled in 2001 when the state agreed to open up more than 100 miles of roads in the Adirondacks to motorized use by people with disabilities. The state also agreed to spend $4.7 million to improve handicapped accessibility at 150 sites over three years by modifying boat launches, campsites, parking areas and fishing piers.
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Contact Chris Knight at 518-891-2600 ext. 24 or cknight@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
