To the editor:

OK, OK in a 4-3 decision the state’s highest court allowed continued (since the 1920s, it said) motor vehicle use of a mile of the Chain Lakes Road in a Wild River area where motorized use is otherwise prohibited by law. In my humble opinion, the extraordinary lengths to which the state Department of Environmental Conservation went to prove historic use says a lot about it. Why? Why? Why is it pimping snowmobile use everywhere on the Forest Preserve?

My fellow greenie colleagues think I’ve taken leave of my senses to be happy about this ruling. Well, no, not as to the outcome but as to what the court said in getting there. Here is the chief judge writing for the majority:

“The Adirondack Park is a world-renowned treasure in our own backyard. Created in 1892, its six million acres include 2.6 million acres owned by New York State and 3.4 million acres which are privately held. Larger than several New England states and incorporating more territory than Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, and Great Smokey Mountain National Parks combined [she underlined that last word], there are 3,000 lakes and ponds and 30,000 miles of rivers and streams in the Adirondack Park. … Our state’s constitutional commitment to conservation for more than a century has ensured the continued protection of the region’s iconic landscapes while providing extraordinary outdoor recreational experiences to citizens of this state and tourists from around the world.”

I don’t know about you, but this gives me hope, hope which, at a time on this small weary planet we are befouling, is in short supply.

Respectfully submitted, as we lawyers say,

Bob Glennon

Ray Brook