RAY BROOK – Green groups universally derided three options the state Adirondack Park Agency released last week for the 20,000-acre Boreas Ponds tract, but at least one town supervisor is happy with the plan.

The APA will begin the classification process this week at agency headquarters in Ray Brook.

Ron Moore, supervisor of the town of North Hudson in which most of the tract lies, said he is pleased with Alternative 1. The Five Towns, which consists of North Hudson, Minerva, Newcomb, Indian Lake and Long Lake, had created their own proposal called Access the Adirondacks.

“I have reviewed the three APA alternatives related to the Boreas Pond tract,” Moore wrote in an email Tuesday evening. “I was very pleased, as the first alternative seems to be very close to that of the 5 Towns plan.”

The Access the Adirondacks plan was the most liberal, in terms of human access and impact, put forth in what will likely be a passionate debate over how the lands should be classified.

Alternative 1 would add both wilderness and wild forest acreage, but would potentially allow motorized access to Boreas Pond. In all three proposals the APA put forward, Gulf Brook Road would be classified as wild forest, allowing at least the state to drive motorized vehicles to the pond.

The state has also granted easements for the towns of North Hudson and Newcomb for gravel pits. The gravel can only be used by the towns for construction and maintenance within the Boreas tract. The tract is mostly in the town of North Hudson and partly in Newcomb.

At least five green groups have come forward against the APA proposals.

A coalition consisting of the Adirondack Council, the Adirondack Mountain Club, Adirondack Wild, the New York League of Conservation Voters and Citizens Campaign for the Environment had put forth the “Be Wild NY” plan. It would have both a wild forest and wilderness component, but it called for road access that stops short of the pond.

“Motorized access on the shorelines of Boreas Ponds should be rejected,” Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, wrote in a statement. “There should only be motorized access for state officials during emergencies, otherwise the Boreas Ponds should be managed as Wilderness. The Boreas Ponds are a fragile, special ecological area and deserve the highest levels of protection by the State of New York.

“These three options are mystifyingly reckless. We simply do not understand why the Cuomo Administration decided to play so fast and loose with one of the most beautiful and precious spots in New York.”

Another group, Adirondack Wilderness Advocates, was formed recently to lobby on behalf of a plan that would have created a larger wilderness by closing Gulf Brook Road. It also called on the state to reject the APA’s three proposals, saying they didn’t take into account alternatives and environmental impacts.

“Boreas is one of the few tracts left in the Northeast that would be more than three miles from a road, but only if Gulf Brook Road is closed to motorized traffic,” co-founder Pete Nelson said. “True remote Wilderness is a precious asset and a draw to thousands of hikers that seek it to the point of overuse elsewhere in the High Peaks. It’s myopic to ignore how rare this opportunity is.”

AWA officials speculated in their release that the gravel pit easement to the towns, “which was put in place just before the sale of the tract to the State, may be the primary reason for the limited alternatives.”

The APA has already planned public hearings throughout the state in November and December, and there will be a public comment period for written comments as well.

To read the APA plans, visit www.apa.ny.gov/Mailing/2016/10/StateLand/SLMP-FinalDSEISDraft.pdf.