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December 14th, 2012 by Dave Mance III Notes from the Editor

WILDERNESS! (After, we’ll talk religion and politics.)

In August, New York State officials announced that the state will purchase 69,000 acres of former Finch-Pruyn lands in the Adirondacks. Those lands must be classified under the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation Unit Management Plans, and various special interest groups are in the process of trying to influence the classification process. Northeast Public Radio does a nice job conveying three different perspectives on the matter in this radio piece.

While I’m not familiar enough with this area to have an opinion on how this particular baby should be split, having grown up in southwestern Vermont, I’m very familiar with heated arguments over wilderness designations in the Green Mountain National Forest. And based on my experiences, I can tell you first hand that all three perspectives in this case have merit.

On the one hand you have the Property Rights Foundation people giving voice to the camp owners and the motorized recreationalists in the area, pointing out that there’s something very distasteful about the term “wilderness” when it’s slapped onto a parcel that’s been working timberland for years, where people have grown up riding four-wheelers and going to camps on land that, with the stroke of a pen in Albany, is suddenly primeval. And while they’re not going to get very far at this stage of the game advocating for no government ownership of the land, it is fair to point out that a wilderness designation is one more small cut inflicted on the working landscape. One more nudge away from an economy that’s based on something real (logs) towards an economy based on the abstract concept of “recreation.”

At the same time, it’s hard to argue with the idea that society needs public forestland holdings and wild areas where nature can be left to its own devices. We should have places where people can go and not hear two-stroke engines – places that are open to the public but inaccessible to those who don’t want to strap on a backpack and a pair of hiking boots. And if we’re going to have any of this type of land, somebody’s traditional way of life is going to get infringed upon. Government bureaucrats are an easy target, but in this case Finch-Pruyn is looking to unload and the state’s trying to, above all else, keep a large parcel of forestland intact and open to the public. That’s a laudable goal.

So, you can see that I’m with the guy in the news story who wants to see compromise, but it’s easy to straddle the fence when you don’t have a horse in the race. What do you folks in the Adirondacks think? What should happen to the 69,000 acres? What’s the right ratio of wilderness to working forestland?

by Dave Mance III

© by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.

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Discussion *

“
Dec 20, 2012

Dave:  You were looking for comments about the 69,000 acre Nature Conservancy deal in the Adirondacks.  Except for environmentalist activists and backpackers, this deal with NYS is not at all popular in the North Country.

    This transaction is one more blow to the forest industry in the Adirondacks as well as the many hunting and fishing clubs that will be displaced.  Among those clubs to be evicted is the famous 12,000 acre Gooley Club out of Indian Lake.  Gov. Cuomo says this deal will make jobs but the few guiding jobs created will in no way make up for the hundreds of lost forest industry jobs.  Of course, as usual, there was the threat of endangered species.

    Some were concerned that the Conservancy was put in a financial bind with this purchase.  That’s not likely!  The most recent issue of Forbes 400 magazine reported that in 2010 TNC took in $527 million in private donations.  This deal hardly dented their checkbook.  With a cash hoard like that they can make deals they shouldn’t be making and that is what happened in the ADKS.  New England states beware.

    Environmentalists and backpackers complained about limited access involving sporting camp leases. (Despite the 2.6 million acres currently in state lands.)  So what happens when the state takes over?  Gates go up and land is classified as wilderness - we have a million acres already - largely limiting access to youthful backpackers.  It is the height of hypocrisy.  Senior citizens are gradually being run out of the Adirondacks - and not so gradually in this instance.

                            Don Wharton

Don Wharton
“
Dec 14, 2012

Often, splitting the difference for the sake of peace is badly flawed strategy, but in this case, it would make sensible policy. Depending on the split. The one I like would allow paddlers to drive to an existing (but currently private) takeout/putin just upriver of the Hudson gorge.  This would permit use of a long, wild stretch of the river with benign water conditions below Newcomb and provide canoe access—but no more—to the area’s ponds.  More difficult to figure is access to OK Slip Falls, deep in the gorge, likely to be very popular and thus in danger of being destroyed because of its beauty.

John Sullivan
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Dec 14, 2012

First, let me say I’m in the timber business and I own a camp in the Adirondacks.

Can we please have some wilderness areas left in the world? Why do we feel we have the right to imprint the human population on every square inch of land.

It seems to me the people who are doing all the crying about NY State buying this land are the ones who have had access for the past century and who have worked very hard to keep the rest of us out. I applaud the State and look forward to seeing this wonderful wilderness area. The Property Rights Foundation, how can this be, they never owned the land, how can they have property rights. The State didn’t take away anybody’s property rights. Finch Pruyn did what was best for them, as the rightful property owner they are the one’s with the property rights. Lucky for the rest of us the Nature Conservancy and the State of NY were there to ensure the property would become available to all of us.

Randy Burkard

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