Please
Note: Comment Period is Over
DEC
Proposes to Illegally Repair and Expand Communication and
Transportation Equipment in Primitive Area
Please Send Your Letter Before Friday, February 24, 2006
The Department
of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released its Draft Unit
Management Plan (UMP) on the Blue Ridge Wilderness and the Wakely
Mountain Primitive Area. UMPs outline management strategies and
recreational opportunities for areas of state land within the
Adirondack Park. The Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (SLMP)
requires the completion of the UMPs and describes what activities
are allowed in these areas of the Forest Preserve. The SLMP has
the power and force of law.
The
Draft Plan – the Good and the Bad
The Good
DEC is proposing in the Draft UMP to set limits of 8 people per
campsite for overnight camping and group size of 15 people for
day use in the Blue Ridge Wilderness Area. This is consistent
with the group size limitation in the High Peaks Wilderness Area.
These limitations will protect the natural resources of the Wilderness
from overuse. DEC should be commended for proposing to keep the
Blue Ridge Wilderness a wild and remote place where solitude
may still be found.
The Bad
1. Retaining
the Wakely Mountain fire tower, rebuilding a helipad, and mounting
communications equipment on the tower.
The Draft UMP proposes to retain the Wakely Mountain Fire Tower,
add an emergency communications station and rebuild a helipad
on the mountaintop. According to the Primitive Guidelines in
the SLMP, when fire towers become obsolete, they are non-conforming
uses and should be removed. DEC now has an aerial surveillance
system for spotting wildfires and the Wakely Mt. fire tower is
no longer used for wildfire detection purposes. The SLMP requires
DEC to remove the obsolete fire tower and to start managing Wakely
Mountain as Wilderness. That means the tower, the cabin, and
the helipad are non-conforming structures and should not be allowed.
These structures are preventing the Primitive Area (“Wilderness
in waiting”) from being classified Wilderness.
2. Cutting trees and brush on Sawyer Mountain.
The Draft UMP proposes to allow DEC to cut vegetation on the
summit of Sawyer Mountain to provide hikers with a view. Cutting
trees on the Forest Preserve is a violation of the “Forever
Wild Clause” (Article XIV) of the New York State Constitution
and must not occur. Also, the SLMP does not contain the words
“vista clearing” or speak to the removal of vegetation
for scenic vistas anywhere in the document. In fact, the SLMP
dictates that Wilderness and Primitive Areas should be, “…
protected and managed so as to preserve, enhance and restore,
where necessary, its natural conditions…” Cutting mountaintop
vegetation on the Forest Preserve for purposes of providing hikers
with a view violates this mandate and compromises the overall
ecosystem health and the natural character of the mountain. This
could set a dangerous precedent for future cutting by DEC on
the Forest Preserve.
DEC has proposed this type of cutting in other UMPs and Adirondack
Council activists have rallied to urge them to remove such provisions.
DEC is heading in the wrong direction with regard to mountaintop
forest ecosystem management by including this provision in another
UMP.
You
Have an Opportunity to Help Shape the Future of the Blue Ridge
Wilderness and the Wakely Mountain Primitive Area
Please send
a letter to DEC and tell them:
- They must
follow the mandate of the State Land Master Plan and remove the
Wakely Mountain fire tower and abandon their plan to build an
emergency communications station and a helipad on the mountaintop.
DEC should remove the fire tower and make the Wakely Primitive
Area part of the Blue Ridge Wilderness.
- They must
not cut vegetation on the summit of Sawyer Mountain. Cutting
trees on the Forest Preserve violates the Forever Wild Clause
of the NYS Constitution and the SLMP. Cutting vegetation for
purposes of providing hikers with a view is irresponsible and
should not be a goal of natural resources management.
- You support
the proposals to limit group sizes for day use and overnight
camping outlined in the draft UMP.
Public comments will be accepted until the close of business
on
Friday, February 24, 2006
Please
send comments to:
Richard
Fenton, Supervising Forester
NYSDEC
701 South Main Street
P. O. Box 1316
Northville, NY 12134
e-mail: r5ump@gw.dec.state.ny.us
A summary
of the draft UMP is available on DEC’s Unit Management Plan
website at:
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dlf/publands/ump/reg5/blueridge.html.
It is also available for public review at DEC headquarters in
Albany and
DEC regional offices.
Please write
a letter to DEC today. Thank you so much for your help.
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