TWO VITAL CONSERVATION
AREAS OMITTED FROM OPEN SPACE PLAN
ADIRONDACK COUNCIL CALLS FOR THEIR REINSTATEMENT
Bob Marshall Great Wilderness, Rare Low-Elevation Boreal Forest
Removed from Description of State's Long Term Goals
For more information:
John F. Sheehan
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (home)
Released: Tuessday, November 29, 2005
ALBANY, NY - The Adirondack Council
called on citizens across New York State to file objections with
the state Department of Environmental Conservation for its decision
to eliminate two major Adirondack conservation priorities from
the state's Draft Open Space Conservation Plan.
The draft Open Space plan will be the subject of statewide public
hearings from today until Thursday (December 1). The formal public
comment period extends until January 18. The Council is calling
on its 18,000 members - and anyone else who cares about the Adirondack
Park - to write letters to state officials demanding that the
projects be reinstated.
"The 2002 version of the Open Space plan, and all previous
versions, contained sections describing the importance of the
Low-Elevation Boreal Forest on the St. Lawrence/Hamilton County
border, and the Oswegatchie/Bob Marshall Great Wilderness in
the west-central Adirondacks," said Adirondack Council Executive
Director Brian L. Houseal. "These are two of the most remote,
sensitive and rare forests in the Adirondack Park. They contain
habitat for wildlife that has lost, or is losing, its range in
the Northeast, including several rare, threatened and endangered
species, such as the moose, Canada lynx and the spruce grouse.
"We can't imagine why DEC would eliminate any mention of
these forests from the plan. At first we thought it was an oversight,"
Houseal said. "But this wasn't a mistake. It was explained
away in the plan using vague terms, referring to an unrelated
request by the Regional Open Space Advisory Committees to make
the language of the plan easier to understand.
"There is also a reference in the plan to DEC wanting to
omit anything that is not actively being pursued for state purchase
in the near-term," Houseal said. "But that would mark
a major shift in how the Open Space Conservation Plan is used.
It has never been just the state's real estate shopping list.
DEC is supposed to be setting and following long term goals for
the protection of the state's most precious resources. It doesn't
matter if they are on the market today or not. The long term
goal is to protect them. They deserve to be part of the plan.
If not, the Governor and Legislature can simply decide which
projects to pursue when the Environmental Protection Fund is
negotiated as part of the budget process each year."
Houseal noted that some of the most remarkable progress in conservation
of lands in these two areas has come as a result of negotiation
with landowners who don't have any plans to sell the land, but
are willing to extinguish development rights.
For example, of the 408,000 acres within the proposed Bob Marshall
Great Wilderness, less than 60 percent is owned by the state.
But nearly 85 percent of the landscape is permanently protected
from development through conservation agreements between the
current private owners and the State, or non-profit land protection
organizations.
In other areas of the draft
NYS Open Space Conservation Plan, the Council:
- Noted the importance of dedicated
funding for completion of state open space projects and requested
that for the purpose of implementing the Plan, the State increase
the annual appropriation for the Environmental Protection Fund
to $300 million.
- Commended the DEC for proposing
an expansion of the state's timberland property tax abatement
program to include lands that will not be harvested for timber.
Such abatements help keep large private forests intact by reducing
the costs of private ownership.
- Commended the DEC for including
Lake George and Lake Champlain shoreline areas in the priority
projects lists.
- Objected to a proposed revision
that would encourage (or even require) the DEC to retain private
hunting and fishing cabins on lands where the state purchases
all other development rights, but not the land (i.e., conservation
easements).
For more information on the proposed
Bob Marshall Great Wilderness and the Low Elevation Boreal Biome,
click here. Both are described
in detail in 2020 VISION, Volumes I and II.
For a full list of the hearings on the NYS Open Space Conservation
Plan, go to http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dlf/opensp/.
Written comments concerning the Plan or the Draft Generic Environmental
Impact Statement may be addressed to Francis Sheehan, NYS DEC,
625 Broadway, 5th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-4250.
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 in all 50 United States. The Council carries
out its missions through research, education, advocacy and legal
action.
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