The 10-year-long lawsuit brought by Protect the Adirondacks against the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Adirondack Park Agency alleging planned “Class II Community Connector” snowmobile trails violated the “Forever Wild” clause of the New York state Constitution officially ended last month, with the DEC and APA ordered to pay the nonprofit environmental advocacy group $32,000.

In a judgement signed by Acting Supreme Court Justice Gerald W. Connolly on Sept. 29, the New York state Supreme Court affirmed a May 2021 decision by the New York state Court of Appeals ruling the planned Class II trails unconstitutional. This reverses the Supreme Court’s initial 2017 decision that sided with the DEC and APA.

Following the judgment, the DEC amended its tree-cutting policy, with the new guidelines being released last month. But the snowmobile trails have remained open. Protect the Adirondacks asked the court to close the trails and also requested that the DEC and APA provide an accounting of the total mileage of Class II trails in the Forest Preserve. The group entered into a negotiation about the trails that was “ultimately unsuccessful,” according to Executive Director Peter Bauer.

Connolly, in his September judgment, wrote that the construction of the trails “violates NY Constitution, article XIV” and ordered the DEC and the APA to pay Protect the Adirondacks $32,000 in costs and disbursements.

Bauer said that the end of the decade-long lawsuit was “necessary.” Depending on what happens to the Class II trails, Protect the Adirondacks may bring further legal action concerning the ongoing operation of trails that have been deemed unconstitutional.

“We knew we needed a judgment,” he said. “We needed to wrap up this lawsuit in the event we see it’s necessary (to) pursue further legal action.”

Bauer said that Protect the Adirondacks does not know if the trails will be used this winter, whether they’ll be narrowed or if they will continue to be groomed by motorized groomers. Right now, the group is in the process of requesting information about the trails’ management under the Freedom of Information Law and plan to conduct some site visits.

“If it’s business as usual (at the trails), we’ll probably be compelled to change that,” Bauer said.

The APA declined to comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling. The DEC did not respond to a request for comment before deadline Thursday.

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Decade-long debate

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The APA updated its snowmobile trail guidelines in 2009 to include two classes of trails: Class I and Class II. According to the guidelines, Class II trails are meant primarily to connect rural Adirondack communities and “provide the main travel routes for snowmobiles,” and measure between nine and 12 feet in width, while Class I trails are all other snowmobile trails and measure eight feet or less in width.

In April 2010, the Adirondack Council, another environmental advocacy organization, sued the APA over these guidelines, alleging that the plan to widen some trails to fit the Class II designation and to use motorized groomers to maintain them violated the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. The case was also heard by Connolly and was dismissed in August 2010.

Following project approval from the APA, the DEC began construction on Class II trails from the Limekiln Lake-Cedar River Road to the Sagamore Road in Raquette Lake. Protect the Adirondacks filed a lawsuit in February 2013 that alleged the first 27 miles of the trails violated Article 14 due to the extensive cutting of timber that would need to take place to build the trails. Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that the motorized groomers that would maintain the trails violated both the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan and New York Codes, Rules and Regulations 196, which regulates the operation of motorized vehicles and equipment in the Forest Preserve.

The group’s actions concerning the motorized groomers were dismissed in December 2014. The first cause of action — the allegation that the trails violated Article 14 — went to trial in March 2017 and was dismissed by Connolly in December 2017. Protect the Adirondacks turned to the appellate division of the state Supreme Court, which reversed the decision in July 2019. The case then went to the New York state Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court whose main duty is to interpret the state Constitution.

The Court of Appeals ruled 4-2 in favor of Protect the Adirondacks in May 2021, deciding that the Class II trails were unconstitutional. The court stated in its ruling that “the planned 27 miles of snowmobile trails may not be built without constitutional amendment,” citing a 1930 ruling that declared the construction of a bobsleigh run for the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in violation of Article 14. The case was then remitted back to the Supreme Court to resolve the judgement.