For Immediate Release, February 1, 2006
Contact: David Gibson or Dan Plumley
518-377-1452, Ext. 301
Vigorous Policy and Planning Response Needed to Address Forest Preserve Tree Cutting along Scenic Highway Corridor
Trees felled along Route 3
Keene, NY -- The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks is calling on Governor Pataki and his state agencies to strongly condemn and remedy the illegal cutting in August, 2005 of approximately 5,000 trees on the public Forest Preserve.
The so-called “hazardous” trees were felled over a two-week period by a logging contractor and heavy machinery under contract with NYS Department of Transportation (DOT) in the High Peaks Wilderness and Saranac Lakes Wild Forest along State Route 3.
Dan Plumley, the Association’s Director of Park Protection based in Keene, NY filed a formal state lands violation report on the tree cutting with the Department of Environmental Conservation in Ray Brook last September. Plumley investigated the felling of the trees along both sides of 11 miles of State Route 3 between Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake – a designated travel corridor in the Park. He had been alerted to the tree-cutting by nearby Park resident Clarence Petty.
“DOT’s objective was to eliminate potential danger to roadway drivers and traffic from falling dead trees,” states Plumley, adding “but things quickly got out of control and thousands of healthy trees of all sizes, species and ages were cut on state lands – some with ‘Forest Preserve’ signs clearly affixed to them. Due to failures in state oversight by the DOT, DEC as well as the Adirondack Park Agency (APA), what resulted is one of the most significant timber trespasses on the Forest Preserve in the Association’s memory, and this by the very state agencies called upon to protect our ‘Forever Wild’ lands.”
“Since last September, we have learned that no formal tree count or determination about the constitutionality of this action was made before the cutting operation was conducted using heavy mechanized equipment under contract with NYS DOT,” Plumley recalled, adding, “nor were basic permits written or clear work orders provided as far as we know.”
Plumley notes, “No private individual could possibly get away with such careless abuse of the Forest Preserve without significant penalties. This double standard in the Park must end. Tree cutting decisions on a designated scenic highway in a world renowned Park on “Forever Wild” state lands were made far too loosely and with lax review and haphazard oversight. We find this wholly unacceptable.”
Since last summer, the Association has urged the responsible state agencies to adopt significant reforms to state policies, procedures and practices that would prevent similar abuses in the future across the Adirondack Park.
“We are pleased to learn that an enforcement proceeding against DOT is in the planning stages,” says the Association’s Executive Director David Gibson. “We are seeking meetings with all three agencies and keeping a close eye on the situation to assure the strongest possible remedies.” The Association is calling on all three agencies to lawfully remediate the damage done along Route 3, account for what happened and why, adopt stronger policies and better training of transportation personnel and increase public involvement with respect to the management of Forest Preserve trees along highway rights of way.
Specifically, the Association calls for no significant cutting of so-called hazard trees on the Forest Preserve abutting a state highway without a permit that is publicly noticed in the weekly Environmental Notice Bulletin, allowing public comment. Furthermore, DOT Guidelines for the Adirondack Park should be rewritten to improve its stewardship of scenic road corridor resources. And the Adirondack Park Agency should be given the staffing and funds to undertake – with DOT’s full cooperation – a comprehensive plan for the management of major travel corridors as “greenways” throughout the Adirondack Park. The State Land Master Plan gives the Agency authority for planning in designated Travel Corridors, such as Route 3, but little travel corridor comprehensive planning has been done since the 1970s.
The Association believes that there are a number of other important “greenway” projects that, taken together, would constitute a truly comprehensive plan for Adirondack Park travel corridors. The Adirondack Highway Council, an interagency and citizen council established in the 1970s, succeeded in establishing special standards for Adirondack highway beautification and management that complemented the long tradition of public-private stewardship for the Park.
“Egregious violations like those along Route 3 clearly suggest that it is time for examine the kind of forums, policies and planning needed to prevent such problems in the future and to benefit Park communities and the traveling public,” Gibson adds. “After all, Adirondack Park road corridors are the windows on the Park for several million visitors to the Adirondacks annually. As such they provide critical environmental and real economic benefits to both Park communities and the state as a whole.”
The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, founded in 1901, is a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining ecological integrity and mutual well being of natural and human communities of the Adirondack Park. The Association has offices at its Center for the Forest Preserve and an Adirondack Research Library located in Niskayuna, New York and has a North Country team of staff in the Adirondack Park.