Current Issues Facing the Adirondacks

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This section is a modification of the old News page. I am hoping to go into detail about many issues, both positive and negative, currently facing the Adirondack region. I have left some of the old news items here for you to read through. I will hopefully be expanding many of them into their own pages in the future. So check back soon, hopefully I'll have some new information up.

• Are the efforts of the Department of Environmental Conservation to reclaim waters for native fish species compatible with "Forever Wild"?
  
  
• The February, 1997 case Douglaston Manor v. Bahrakis upheld that landowners retain exclusive fishing rights on waterways passing through their property.
  
  
• Conversely, paddlers are victorious in the December, 1998 landmark decision Adirondack League Club v. Sierra Club, which upheld the public's right to river access.
  
  
• As of April 1, 2000, the High Peaks Unit Management Plan is in effect, with a number of new regulations in place.
  
  

  This sign, warning of avalanche dangers as well as listing necessary items for a backcountry trip, can be found at many trailheads in the High Peaks. This particular photograph was taken January 8, 2000, at Adirondack Loj.

• In a very well-publicized avalanche on Wright Peak in mid-February 2000, one skier was killed and several others were wounded, one critically. The slide the skiers were attempting to telemark on was unstable due to Hurricane Floyd; there was no vegetation or soil of any kind to hold the snowpack in place. The skiers, reportedly very experienced, were warned both verbally and by signs posted at numerous trailheads. As a side note, many trails affected by Floyd have been cleared due to massive efforts by volunteers, the DEC, and the professional trail crew of the Adirondack Mountain Club. However, there are still miles of trail covered in blowdown that will not be cleared out until spring at the absolute earliest. Look for signs posted at trailheads for more information.
  
  
• The Whitney tract, recently acquired by the State for inclusion in the Forest Preserve, was designated a Wilderness area in mid-January 2000. This means the exclusion of motor vehicles from the large tract surrounding Little Tupper Lake, what was previously the largest completely privately-owned lake in the Adirondacks. Not only will motorized vehicles such as ATV's, snowmobiles, and 4-wheel drive vehicles be forbidden from the area, powerboats, personal watercraft, and airplanes will also be prohibited. With this restriction in place, the 4-mile-long pristine lake will remain a haven for loons and paddlers alike. On a kayaking day trip to the lake in August 1999, I counted nearly a dozen loons in several hours, attesting to the cleanliness of the waters. With the current designation of a Wilderness area, hopefully the area will remain this way.
  
  
• It was recently announced (3/2/99) at a meeting of my local chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club that N.L. Industries, the owners of the McIntyre Mine north of Newcomb, may be interested in selling the mine property. The mine ceased operations in 1982, and the land has been largely unused since then. The holding of 11,000 acres of prime Adirondack real estate includes Lake Henderson, the Preston Ponds, several miles of the upper Hudson River, some of the Opalescent River, and several other smaller ponds, streams, and hills. Several major trailheads into the High Peaks lie in this parcel, including the Upper Works trailhead into Indian Pass, Lake Colden, and Mt. Marcy, the trailhead for the Santanoni Range, and a trailhead frequently used by those climbing Allen and also those looking for an alternate route into Flowed Land. Hikers currently have the right to pass through the N.L. Industries' lands, but cannot camp, build fires, canoe, or bushwhack on the property. This would be a prime addition to the Forest Preserve, especially considering that one of the primary reasons for the initial conservation effort in the Adirondacks was to save the sources of the Hudson River.
  
  
• In one more of a string of conservation victories, Albany is closing up a deal that will preserve all 139,000 acres of Champion Paper land within the Blue Line. The State will pay $30 million for a conservation easement on 110,000 acres of the property and outright ownership (and inclusion into the Forest Preserve) of the remaining 29,000. The entire property is divided into three tracts: one just west of Stillwater Reservoir, one northwest of Cranberry Lake along the South Branch of the Grass River, and the other along the St. Regis River, just north of the St. Regis Canoe Area. According to the periodical Adirondack Explorer, with the completion of this land deal, 250,000 acres have been preserved at a price of $200 million since George Pataki became Governor in 1995. The historic Whitney acquisition, in which the State preserved 51,000 acres of prime real estate surrounding Little Tupper Lake for $17 million, was also made under the reigns of Pataki. Regarding the Whitney property: against the wishes of many ATV'ers, Jet-Skiers, and snowmobilers, all the land that New York acquired outright was declared a wilderness, meaning that the usage of any motorized vehicle is prohibited.

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