ADIRONDACK COUNCIL
PRAISES DEC POLICY BANNING ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLES FROM STATE FOREST
PRESERVE LANDS
For more information:
John F. Sheehan, Communications Director
518-432-1770 (w)
518-441-1340 (cell)
Released, Wednesday, March 16,
2005
ALBANY, NY - The Adirondack Park's
largest environmental advocacy organization today praised NYS
Environmental Conservation Commissioner
Denise Sheehan for issuing a new policy banning all-terrain vehicles
from the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves.
"This is an outstanding and courageous decision by DEC's
new acting commissioner," said Adirondack Council Executive
Director Brian L. Houseal. "Over the past few years, ATV-rider
organizations and manufacturers have put a great deal of pressure
on state officials to open more Forest Preserve to this destructive
pastime. Both the Adirondack and Catskill parks have already
paid too heavy a price in terms of soil erosion, water pollution,
wildlife habitat destruction, noise, traffic and conflicts with
quiet, non-motorized uses of the Forest Preserve."
Hearings on the proposed policy will be held statewide between
April 4 and early May. Houseal said the Adirondack Council would
encourage its 18,000 members to attend the hearings and submit
comments in favor of the draft policy.
"The research done by the Adirondack Council and the Residents'
Committee to Protect the Adirondacks has documented the heavy
damage and vandalism that ATV riders inflicted in the western
Adirondacks, between 1998 and 2004," Houseal said. "The
evidence for banning ATVs from Constitutionally protected public
forests was overwhelming and undeniable. Forever Wild means forever
wild."
Houseal noted that ATV rider will be allowed to use certain roads
on private timberlands where the state owns a recreational easement,
and where the terrain is capable of sustaining ATV traffic without
additional harm. Timberland roads already host truck traffic
and snowmobiles.
"All of the state's recent purchases in the Adirondacks
have included large sections of conservation easement lands,"
Houseal said. "There are more than 400,000 acres of easement
lands in the Adirondacks alone, where ATV riders can be accommodated."
Houseal noted that the Adirondack Council and others fell short
of gaining Legislative approval for a state law banning ATV's
from the Forest Preserve in 2004, mainly due to opposition from
hiking groups interested in protecting non-Adirondack and non-Catskill
lands. The Council will continue to push for such a law, since
policies can change with gubernatorial administrations.
The Adirondack Council's mission is to ensure the ecological
integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded
in 1975, the Council is a privately funded not-for-profit organization
with 18,000 members. The Council carries out its missions through
research, education, advocacy and legal action.
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