To the editor:

When the New York state Senate and Assembly have meetings on the state budget, I would like to ask them please work very hard to add a great deal of funding to the budget to hire more forest rangers. They tried to get help for many years, and all they got was ignored and left out. The solution to fix environmental and overcrowding issues at many undeveloped state Department of Environmental Conservation land is to put more funding in the 2022 budget to hire more forest rangers. Right now throughout the Adirondacks there are vacancies the DEC can fill to add more forest rangers.

Every time Gov. Hochul and the DEC send the forest rangers out of the state of New York, trailheads in New York state are unchecked for weeks up to a month. Nobody is monitoring these lands while the forest rangers are out of state. Then when vandals figure out that the forest rangers are out of state, they know they can easily damage the trailhead because nobody will stop them. When there are fewer forest rangers, and they get called out for a wildfire out of the state, the environment and biodiversity of the forest are in jeopardy because there are no forest rangers there patrolling and giving out tickets.

James Sullivan

Walden