A report released this week concludes that New York’s Adirondack Park faces serious threats
A report issued this week by Adirondack Wild: Friend of the Forest Preserve concludes that the Adirondack Park faces serious threats due to state failures in recent years to protect and preserve the Park’s wild forest character and natural resources.
The report, titled “The Adirondack Park at a Crossroad: A Road Map for Action,” says the APA and DEC are failing to fulfill their legal obligations to protect and preserve sensitive Park wildlife, wilderness, open space, and water resources.
“The Adirondack Park is a unique combination of public and private wildlands that are protected by State law. However, those protections are meaningless when NYS APA and DEC fail to do their job,” said Adirondack Wild’s Acting Chair Christopher Amato.
“The Adirondack Park is supposed to receive the highest level of protection, but our report shows that development projects in the Park are now receiving less environmental review than similar projects in other parts of the state,” Amato said.
Recreational uses have also gone overboard, according to Amato.
“Equally disturbing is the report’s finding that ecologically sensitive public lands are being opened to motorized uses that are inconsistent with resource protection and the wild forest character of the Park,” he said.
Adirondack Wild says its report shows a pattern of state agencies straying from their historical mission of science-based conservation and resource protection.
“Our critique also demonstrates that these agencies are allowing increasingly destructive development to proceed with little or no environmental baseline data, only cursory environmental review, and little in the way of avoidance or mitigation of negative impacts,” Amato said.
Report co-author David Gibson says that “given the history of public concern and legal protection of the Adirondack Park, most people assume the Park is extremely well protected.”
But this assumption is no longer valid, he said.
“[Our report] closely examines how both agencies have departed from past precedent and are sacrificing protection of Adirondack Park resources for other considerations,” Gibson said.
Adirondack Wild’s co-author Dan Plumley agrees that state agencies are failing.
“They have a paramount duty of protection and stewardship, which are also critical to healthy local communities and economies. We illustrate how this significant shift in priorities is having negative impacts on what makes the Adirondack Park unique, including its unbroken forest canopy, its wildlife, and large expanses of road-less wilderness,” Plumley said.
The report is more than a critique; it contains specific recommendations in more than a dozen areas of needed legislative, regulatory and policy reform to help the APA and DEC return to performing their statutory missions, Plumley added.
Former DEC General Counsel and Professor of Law (Pace Law School) Nicholas A. Robinson supports Adirondack Wild’s findings.
“Adirondack Wild’s report thoughtfully beckons New York government back to its constitutional duty to protect fully the wilderness of the Adirondacks… It charts pathways of reform that deserve implementation by New York’s Legislature and Governor,” he said.
The APA, however stronglydisagreed with Adirondack Wild’s assessment, issuing the following statement:
“The APA’s commitment to the Adirondack Park remains as strong today as it was at our inception.
“Staff fully understands the magnitude of their work and professionally reviews all land use projects.
“We believe vibrant communities are essential for Park sustainability.
“But make no mistake about it, this Agency in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Conservation, diligently executes its authority and the Adirondack Park is stronger and better protected for it.”
