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Cuomo: State will seek ‘balance’ on snowmobile trail development

Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at a press conference at the Hotel Saranac in Saranac Lake in February 2020. (Enterprise photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

SARANAC LAKE — Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday the state will seek a balance between trail development and land preservation.

Cuomo, asked at a press conference Sunday whether the state would continue to fight lawsuits brought forward by Adirondack green groups seeking to curb tree cutting for snowmobile and recreational trail development in Forest Preserve lands, said the state will attempt to achieve a balance between trail development and land preservation.

He said the state’s more than 10,000 miles of snowmobile trails are “a big economic generator.”

“We have to maintain the trails. We also have to do it in a way that preserves the asset,” Cuomo told the Enterprise. “You can’t be unreasonable in either direction. We’re committed to finding that balance.”

The governor was in Saranac Lake on Sunday to promote snowmobiling and tout tourism growth in the Adirondacks.

At a press conference at the Hotel Saranac, Cuomo spoke about his love of the Adirondacks and promoted a new state marketing effort designed to entice out-of-state snowmobilers to try out New York’s snowmobile trail networks. On March 14 and 15, the state will waive the snowmobile registration fee for out of state riders. The free snowmobiling weekend dovetails with a $4 million I Love NY winter marketing campaign designed to further promote winter sports and recreation in this region.

His comments come as the state Department of Environmental Conservation prepares to appeal an Appellate court ruling that deemed the amount of state tree cutting in the Forest Preserve to construct snowmobile connector trails unconstitutional. North Creek-based environmental group Protect the Adirondacks is also preparing to cross-appeal a portion of that same ruling, in part because the court also decided that while the level of tree cutting was not constitutional, the state’s tree cutting method is.

The court’s decision this past summer, according to the Albany Times Union, is being interpreted by DEC officials as putting limits on the cutting of saplings that grow along the trails. The ruling has prompted the DEC to temporarily halt maintenance on some foot trails and snowmobile trails.

The DEC and Protect the Adirondacks have since each taken steps to make an appeal of that decision to the state’s highest court. The state is expected to file its initial brief with the state Court of Appeals this summer, and according to Protect the Adirondacks Executive Director Peter Bauer, the green group will file its response and cross-appeal brief afterward.

“We think that the best trails in the Park have already been developed, we already have many communities that are linked together,” Bauer said.

He added that the group believes further trail development would be “redundant” and would only “further injure” the Forest Preserve.

“Unfortunately, we’ve gotten to a point where the courts will determine the answer,” he said.

Bauer said if there’s no extensions granted to either side, he expects a decision from the Court of Appeals by the end of the year.

Ongoing legal battle

Protect the Adirondacks leveled a lawsuit against the DEC and the Adirondack Park Agency in 2013, arguing that the state’s tree-cutting to make way for Class II trails was unconstitutional.

The lawsuit was already underway when 11 trails totaling 27 miles long were approved by the DEC and APA in 2014. Protect the Adirondacks challenged the constitutionality of the project, saying it would cut more than 25,000 trees. The state plans had described the cutting of 6,184 trees that measured at least 3 inches in diameter at breast height.

Injunctions against further tree cutting were ordered in 2016, and a bench trial was held at state Supreme Court in 2017. The lower court originally ruled in the APA and DEC’s favor, but the Appellate Division, Third Department made a different determination.

The court was asked to determine if the construction of these snowmobile trails violated the state constitution in either of two ways: not keeping the land “forever wild” or destroying timber in the Forest Preserve.

On the first issue, the court agreed with the former conclusion that construction of the Class II trails did not violate the “forever wild” clause, saying that Protect “failed to demonstrate how the construction of Class II trails, which have similar aspects to foot trails and ski trails and have less impact than roads or parking lots, impairs the wild forest qualities of the Forest Preserve.” On the second issue, the court disagreed with the former conclusion and alternatively concluded that “the construction constitutes an unconstitutional destruction of timber.”

In response to the governor’s comments Sunday, Bauer said Protect the Adirondacks largely agrees with “his sentiment.”

“There always needs to be a balance between conservation and development,” he said.

But according to Bauer, they also believe that snowmobiling has a “very heavy footprint on the Forest Preserve,” and that developing trails for snowmobiling is “far more intrusive” than those developed for things like hiking and cross-country skiing.

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