West Adirondack Land

[montcalm]

In the case of what NY State gains when logging is allowed but public access is not permitted- further development of the property is typically prohibited, plus the state usually gets oversight of the specifics of the silvicultural plan as well as the harvesting practices to ensure that it is done sustainably.

I thought that *might* have been the case, but I wasn't sure.

[montcalm]

It is immediately adjacent to private extensive holdings of the Adirondack League Club property. i don't know if they are looking for new land to close to public access, hopfully not.

I think we can ease our worries there unless a vote comes.

[DSettahr]

It's possible that a clause could've been written into the easement stating that if the property gets sold, the easement is voided. But I doubt the state would've agreed to it, and even if the state did agree to it, I'd question whether it would hold up to legal scrutiny. It's also possible that the public access is not part of the easement but rather a "good faith" allowance by the property owner that is independent of the easement deal, in which case any future owner would not necessarily have to provide the same- but I suspect that this is also not likely.

No two easements are alike, and the legalese involved gets incredibly complex. Modern easement agreements in the ADKs tend to run into the hundreds of pages of language specifying who gets exactly what rights, between the property owner and the state. (Contrast that with the first easement, the AMR, the agreement for which is 5 pages long IIRC.)

To be able to comment on the specifics of this case with 100% certainty would require a law degree plus access to the language of the easement in question. (It probably can be FOIL'ed if anyone is really that interested.)

But in general terms: as I understand it, if public access is part of the existing easement than yes, the new property owner must also allow that same level of public access.

[montcalm]

Sounds good DS. I knew you were waiting to pounce on this one

I was thinking of a few instances of lessees of easements and what they have told me. I was also thinking that they didn't allow public access with leases, but I'm looking at maps now and there is (this the Big Moose Tract owned by Lyme).

[RipVanWinkle]

I spend a decent amount of time on the JP Lewis aka North Lake tract and it is a cool area and would be devastating if the public access was cut off.
I'm pretty sure it used to be owned by the ADK League Club so I doubt they'd buy it back.
I had a feeling this day would come, the place does seem mostly logged-out except for the ridges and tough to access areas.
Having read a lot about the history of the area and local figures I always get a spooky eerie feeling back in there like their ghosts are out there with me.

[montcalm]

Hard to believe these areas have anything of value at all anyway. McKeever was an active logging station until 1961, although the latter years may have been pretty low production.

That actually makes me a bit curious. Does anyone know a good reference which would tell the years in which those lands were acquired by the state? By "those lands" I mean mainly what we call Black River Wild Forest today.

[DSettahr]

You can view a map of all parcels within Herkimer County here: https://sdg.giscloud.com/map/225030/herkimer

If you click on any parcel, you can scroll down through the displayed information to a link at the bottom that will provide more information about each parcel, including the current owner. There is also sales information, but a quick perusal of the available info appears to indicate that only sales within the past 15-20 years or so are included (once the county switched to a digital database of sales they probably did not bother to back-digitize previous sale info).

There's probably ways of getting sale information for any parcel that was last sold prior to the use of the GIS database but I imagine it involves filing a special request for someone at the tax assessor's office to go look up the information in an old filing cabinet somewhere.

[montcalm]

This might have even been a different outfit, now that I'm thinking about it. I should look up the North Lake history - I recall a little but it's misty and I don't recall how that would have played with the logging from Mckeever/Forestport side.

Thanks for the map links DS - I've used these before. Wish they had more info. Does the APA keep a record of land purchases? Seems crazy the only record would be town assessors.

[timberghost]

a record of land purchases? Seems crazy the only record would be town assessors.

FWIW, in NYS, it's the county clerks who record deeds and thus keep a comprehensive real estate transaction history...
Assessors only keep a tax roll tally.

[montcalm]

Ok thanks.

I don’t really need the data but it might be cool to see on a GIS map to get an idea of time in the preserve.

[DuctTape]

Whenever I hear the term "tax assessor", my mind immediately goes to "The Blues Brothers".
/ThreadDrift

[montcalm]

I had a feeling this day would come, the place does seem mostly logged-out except for the ridges and tough to access areas.
Having read a lot about the history of the area and local figures I always get a spooky eerie feeling back in there like their ghosts are out there with me.

This is relatively recent logging as well. Just out of curiosity I looked at the historic images and it appears to be untouched in 1999. 2015 seems to be the best full image I can get, but it's quite the difference, and it's a bit tough to see some of the selective cuts that were done.

[ndoggac]

Says "sold" now. Any ideas on who purchased?

[Tug Hill]

Says "sold" now. Any ideas on who purchased?

Yep, I know who purchased it. Same outfit that purchased , the John Browns Tract/Mckeever, 3 lakes, and Corrigan Tract on Tug Hill.
Plenty of Timber value on the North Lake/JP Lewis Tract and Corrigan Tract.
Forest management will continue on these forestlands.

[montcalm]

Forest management will continue on these forestlands.