Login Friday Feb 03, 2012
New York State has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer’s dollars to acquire millions of acres of forestland in the Adirondack Park then added that land into the Forest Preserve. Under state law, once land is included in the Forest Preserve, forest management is prohibited; environmental stewardship declines, and very valuable revenue streams are eliminated forever. Communities whose economies depend upon the forest products industries lose jobs and revenues, and the State incurs tremendous expenses to maintain the land and has to pay property taxes indefinitely. The state now owns close to three million acres of Forest Preserve land.
The Department of Environmental Conservation claims that every acre of productive private forestland in the state generates over $450.00 annually for New York’s Gross Domestic Product. So why has DEC purchased all of this land, and eliminated such an important economic resource for the state?
DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis intends to spend another $100 million of taxpayers’ money soon to purchase even more land, land that is owned by The Nature Conservancy, who purchased it only two years ago from a well-known New York paper manufacturer, Finch Pruyn & Company, based in Glens Falls. This land is some of the most productive forestland in the Adirondacks and The Nature Conservancy has been logging it very intensively for income since it made its purchase.
Why does Commissioner Grannis want to spend our money like this? Supporters of Grannis’ plan claim that the land needs to be protected and that this is an unprecedented opportunity to protect sensitive eco-systems. I ask, protect it from what? Development in these wilderness areas is nearly impossible and highly regulated by The Adirondack Park Agency. DEC’s documents show that is has tremendous difficulty in maintaining these properties once they’re acquired, and that in many instances, the Forest Preserve land is abused by the public, with garbage piling up at trail heads and campsites, and users placing intense pressure on the sensitive eco-systems. It looks more like the land needs to be protected from DEC!
Recreational Family Club Leases, hundreds of them, have traditionally leased hundreds of thousands of acres from the forest products companies, sometimes for several generations. These clubs have been exemplary environmental stewards, and by any number of estimates, bring tens of millions of desperately needed dollars to North Country Communities annually. The clubs are an important part of the social and cultural fabric of the region, and offer tremendous recreational opportunities to the public. Frequent references to the clubs appear in most historical accounts of the Adirondacks. However, state law prohibits the leasing of Forest Preserve Lands, forcing these family recreational clubs out of existence.
Opponents of Mr. Grannis’ intentions support a proposed moratorium of Forest Preserve Land Acquisition and point to the economic hardship that DEC’s policies have caused. There’s a direct correlation that the gradual elimination of forest related jobs in the region has caused the demographics to become tremendously skewed. Young people have moved out in droves to find work, and their aged parents remain behind for their love of the area. The Adirondacks now have nearly the highest percentage of retirees in the country, unemployment is high, and tax burdens on the remaining residents make affordable living in the park nearly impossible.
Advocates of the Forest Preserve Acquisition Moratorium make some excellent points. For instance, unmanaged Forest Preserve lands absorb only a fraction of the greenhouse gasses that privately managed forests absorb. Forest Preserve lands may not participate in the newly emerging Carbon Markets. Forests play a very important role in the alternative energy markets, generating millions of tons of biomass for heating and power generation, but Forest Preserve lands are prohibited from participating in all these arenas.
What is the state doing to our own residents, with our own tax dollars, and why is the State using taxpayer dollars to eliminate private sector jobs and revenues? Why is the state intent upon ruining these economies and changing the cultural fabric of the area?
If DEC insists upon spending your money, why don’t they do it on programs that will help restore and support these communities, and create a level of sustainable economics? Many Adirondack Residents would like to see farming restored to their region. Couldn’t DEC help fund family farm policies, and bring back forest related jobs, and adopt restorative economic policies instead of buying forestland it can’t afford?
What is the best use of New York State Taxpayer’s dollars? Forest Preserve Acquisition eliminates revenue generation capacity, causes unemployment, reduces environmental stewardship levels, and reduces chances of sustainability for local economies. Please support a Moratorium on Forest Preserve Acquisitions.
Peter Heckman is owner of H&S Farm LLC in Cortland, New York. He can be reached by email at peterh@comcast.net.
March 2nd, 2010 at 09:03 AM I agree with the basic premise of this article. However, I would offer one twist for consideration. The funds which have been typically appropriated for land acquisition are basically "Adirondack Park funds". What I am suggesting is that this $100 million should be kept in the Park but redirected to the communities. Could you imagine the impact of having $100 million dedicated to hamlet revitalization and community development in the Park's 103 towns and villages? This would begin to turn these communities around. Infrastructure improvements (including broadband and wireless communication facilities), housing rehabilitation, business recruitment and expansion, etc. And the best part is I think the state would begin to see a return on these investments from increased wages and property values from within these areas. Revenue from Park communities could actually rise while standards of living for the residents improve as well.
March 7th, 2010 at 02:52 PM This would be an excellent step towards restorative economics. Now, if we could figure out how to get the big non-profits to work within your suggested model, everything would be great.
March 15th, 2010 at 04:01 PM I have never met Mr. Heckman, but his perspective on the Adirondacks is not accurate. In fact, there are so many inaccurate statements in this editorial, I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps farmers from Cortland are not the best sources of information on the Adirondacks. The purchase of public lands and conservation easments has saved the economy of the Adirondacks, not harmed it. I will explain in due course. First inaccuracy: the open space account of the Environmental Protection Fund is about $60 million, not $100 million. That is the highest level it has reached since the EPF was created in 1993. Second, harvesting trees from Adirondack timberland returns about $20 per acre to the owner, not $450. The only way to reach $450 is to lease it to people who can afford to pay for their hunting and fishing by reserving private grounds for the privilege -- and let them put roads and buildings all over it. Water quality and wildlife habitat suffer immediately. In reality, DEC hasn't only been buying public Forest Preserve with the open space account. It has been buying development and recreational rights to private timber lands. Easements have saved the Adirondack timber industry at a time when every major timber company and papermaker has fled to the Third World. Most of the Finch deal, as well as 85 percent of all lands ever protected by the EPF, is slated for protection with such conservation easements. The land remains in timber production and private ownership, but the public gets access. More than 600,000 acres of the Adirondack Park's back country has been protected this way since 1983, when easements were first used in the Park. Third, Finch is no longer a well-known New York paper maker. The Finch mill was sold at the same time the lands were sold. Only its 161,000 acres of forest is owned by a New York company -- the Nature Conservancy's Adirondack Chapter. The only paper mills still operating inside the Adirondack Park are in Ticonderoga (International Paper), Newton Falls and a tiny mill in Lyonsdale. Third, the area of the former Finch lands to be purchased by the state for inclusion into the Forest Preserve is not productive timberland. It is the most remote and inaccessible of all of the Finch properties across 32 different towns. No one wants to log the Hudson River Gorge, Blue Ledges, OK Slip Falls, the Essex Chain of Lakes, the Cedar River shoreline, the tops of several mountains or the wetlands of Boreas Ponds. These amazing places have been locked up for 125 years, available only to those who could afford to join one of the hunt clubs leasing it. They make up less than one-third of the Finch holdings. The other two-thirds, more than 100,000 acres, would remain in private timber harvesting, under state supervision, with new public access across the entire vast area. Plus, most of the plans for new snowmobile trails in the Park rely on the Finch deal. As for stewardship, it ought to come as no surprise that DEC has trouble keeping pace with the wear and tear of everyday public use. Its budget has been slashed repeatedly by people who assume its only job is to pick up garbage and groom trails. It has fewer people in the woods than when DEC was founded in 1970. That is a reflection of poor spending priorities, not DEC ineptitude or any lack of interest by the public. It is interesting that Heckman uses the phrase "family leases" to describe the hunting camp lease program on Adirondack timberlands. There are no such things. The leases offered by timber companies to hunting and fishing clubs are supposed to be for seasonal use only, and only for hunting and fishing by members. But many leaseholders have turned them into family vacation homes on lands they don't own. They use them year-round and bring lots of other folks with them. Suddenly, instead of a hunting club, you have a vacation villages -- without the benefit of an environmental review or payment of taxes on the structures. Nice for the leaseholder, but bad for everyone else. Heckman says such clubs are exemplary stewards of the environment, yet the 300-plus leaseholders on Champion International's lands committed more than 1,000 land-use violations that had to be remedied before the state could take possession of those lands in 1999. It cost nearly $1 million to tear out illegal structures alone. The writer's estimate that these clubs bring in tens of millions of dollars annually is baseless. No such study has been published in the Adirondacks or anywhere else. He claims these clubs are in danger of going out of existence, yet the Finch deal includes allowing many of them to remain on conservation easement lands -- with leases three times as long as Finch ever offered. Many of Champion's clubs negotiated new leases as well with Lyme Timber, the new owner. Heckman's most shrill and ridiculous comment is that the state is ruining the Adirondack economy. The Adirondack economy is nor ruined. It is the only rural economy in New York that is actually growing. The recent Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Program (APRAP, May 2009) showed that median family income is up 28 percent above the rate of inflation over the past 20 years. Double-digit seasonal unemployment -- a fact of life in the 1970s -- had disappeared by 1990. Park residents are more likely to own their own homes, own their own businesses and have a higher educational level than their rural counterparts outside of the Park. That's a ruined economy? About 1,000 new homes are built in the Adirondack Park every year, regardless of the state of the national economy. The park's population continues to grow, as almost all of the rest of New York State's population fades. Not surprisingly, the one area where Heckman is correct has to do with farming. The state could do some things to encourage the expansion of small farm economy in New York. The Adirondack Park hosts more than 600 farms. In fact, farming employs more than three times as many Adirondack residents as logging and mining combined. Direct sales to the public -- mostly via farmers markets -- is increasing farm viability. A more aggressive program of purchasing easements on farms, especially in very scenic areas, would help farmers remain in business while protecting and enhancing tourism in the Adirondacks. Farming is the number one industry in New York. It always has been. But tourism is number two. In the Adirondacks, it is the other way around. Tourism is king. And tourism depends on the protection of wild lands, a healthy Forest Preserve and the will to continue protecting the environment even when the economy is slow. If you want to help the Adirondacks, let's put a moratorium on over-simplified solutions to complicated problems. The Adirondacks need the EPF and its open space account. Finally, keep in mind that the EPF doesn't take a penny away from other areas of state spending. It is funded by a special tax on real estate sales. Even in tough budget years, that tax collects more than twice the money needed to fully fund the Environmental Protection Fund and its open space account.
March 29th, 2010 at 05:53 PM John, You are mistaken on all accounts and I would like to invite you in to my club to see how valuable the club is to the social fabric of the Adirondacks, and so you can see the extent of the logging operation. I grew up in Glens Falls and went to Paul Smith's College for forestry. I lived in Saranac Lake in 1980 and worked in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. My phone number is 410-974-0124. I will be in your area May 12th - 15 if you would like a tour of the area. What is wrong with a shared-use plan, instead of a forest preserve plan? Peter