Hearing on Silver Lake Wilderness UMP

[redhawk]

Wednesday, September 7th, there will be a public meeting about the Silver Lake Wilderness Proposed Unit Management Plan at 6 pm at the Community Hall here in Wells.

I urge as many people as possible to attend since the proposed plan covers many things, including, but not limited to:

Closing the last .07 miles of West River Road, which is the access road to Whitehouse and the Northville Placid Trail.

Steel Suspension Bridges over the West Brannch of the Sacandaga and Hamilton Lake stream: The department will continue to maintain the bridges but no major rehabilatation. When the bridges need replacement it will be decided what kind of bridge replace them with and the DEC will seek alternate river crossing sites.

Whitehouse Chimneys: Currently, the plan is to revove them.

Northville-Placid trail relocation: Two alternative trails are being considered, basically to extend the trail from Upper Benson to Northville.

Spy Lake Access: Public access is being considered, primaruly for the purpose of fishing.

There are several other issues including Cathead Mountain Access and Godfery Road Extension one of the accesses to the Silver Lake Wilderness.

You can obtain eithe a written or electronic copy of the Draft be emailing the DEC.

Request either a written or electronic copy of the "Silver Lake Wilderness Area Draft Unit Managemant Plan. Make sureyou specify that you want the complete UMP, not the summary and include your name and address.

There are also some very good maps and lots of interesting information about the Silver Lake Wilderness.

So, if you're interested, please attebd and comment.

[DLHiker]

I will try to be there. I've been working my issues with the UMPs for a couple of years now. I'm getting nowhere, and have pretty much given hope that I have any chance of getting through.

Basically, I want special provision to allow certain groups to be 12 people. The provisions would be training and conduct standards on the trail (i.e. standards of impact). The camp I run is built asround groups of 12. We spend three solid weeks training the staff for the trail. Limiting groups to eight not only hinders us, I think it increases our impact b/c the new UMP will force us to send twice the number of groups (albeit smaller groups). This means two vans, two camp sites, two fires, etc...

[Riosacandaga]

Shoot ! I can't believe I missed this ! Is , or was there, any discussion regarding access to the headwaters of Hamilton lake Stream ?
Mike

[redhawk]

Shoot ! I can't believe I missed this ! Is , or was there, any discussion regarding access to the headwaters of Hamilton lake Stream ?
Mike

\

Nope. only real purpose of it was to try once again to close the last two miles of the whitehouse road, knock down the chimneys and let the suspension bridges go.

[Riosacandaga]

why expend the resources to knock down the chimneys and why close the road. the road issue soundds like someones' agenda. ???

[redhawk]

why expend the resources to knock down the chimneys and why close the road. the road issue sounds like someones' agenda. ???

No actually the state wants to close the road so they don't have to pay the town of Wells to maintain it.

Hey, they have to prove they're a bureaucracy don't they?

[rondak100]

close the road....

I unfortunatly agree that the road should be closed; either that or made into a state campground. I camped out there a year ago and ran into some rather unwholesome people who decided to visit our campsite; seems they have problems with colored folks (using different words of course), and were just checking to see if there were any with us. Increasing the distance one would have to walk to get there (I thought it was 1 mile) would reduce the number of lazy, "pull up the trucks and pull out the guns and beer" type of folks. It would still, presumably, be open to campers who carry there stuff in (and presumably out). The way things are, messes are left and touble can ensue.

Regulations (and bureaocracies) are a two-edged sword.

The chimney is just an "attractive nuicance" that will come down on it's own someday, and the state would be liable for injuries.

Mike

[Riosacandaga]

hmmmm, can't say I agree with you on the road closure or the rationale for tearing down the chimney.
It's unfortunate you had contact with unwholesome people but closing the road will not make them anymore wholesome or keep out other unwholesome people. What closing the road will do, is in effect, make the W. Br. Gorge all but inaccessable to whitewater paddlers. For the gorge to be at a runnable level the section below, from Whitehouse to Jimmy Creek , will be too low.
Mike
Hawk , NYS has nothing to prove to me. But they keep trying.

[rondak100]

Closing the river to paddlers would be a VERY unfortunate side affect of closing the road. I do know that I will NEVER camp there again after my last experience, as long as one can drive-up.

[Riosacandaga]

I've been there when I've been less than comfortable leaving an unattended vehicle. It is unfortunate but not a local problem by any sense of the imagination. There are nicer car camping spots in the area as well as other 'party spots'. If you're in the area again I can recommend some other primitive sites where you are less likely to have to share your space with anyone.
Mike

[redhawk]

So, if they close the road and put new campsites in, then the same people will probably be driving to those campsites as well. Personally I have never had a problem like that in Whitehouse. I have had some noisy rowdy's a couple of times but I managed to "convince" them it would be best to behave.

The other problem is that I suspect it might have been some of the local rednecks (what was their ages Mike?) that Mike encountered and they would still have access to Whitehouse with ATVs or snowmobiles depending on the season.

Whitehouse is also a gathering place for hunters during the season and many of the people who have hunted and fished in the Silver Lake since they were kids are now getting older and less able to walk as far as they used to. Closing the road would effectively end the ability to hunt and fish in the Silver Lake Wilderness for a good deal of them. Remember too that the first part of that section of road into Whitehouse has a pretty good grade.

The chimneys? I'm not sure that in what is designated a wilderness that there would be any liability if someone was stupid enough to be injured. After all, if you step into a hole on a designated trail, is the state liable if you break your ankle?

The whole plan is ambiguous at best, saving money and returning to "forever wild" in one section, yet spending money and cutting new trail in another section.

I for one would probably enjoy Whitehouse more if it wasn't accessible to so many "car campers" (I seldom camp at Whitehouse because there are often a lot of people there), but in the longer run I have to consider the whole picture.

[southernadkhiker]

This is why the dec should not close the last .7 miles of the road. This is from the recent Hamilton County News, "WELLS-The Town of Wells is protesting the state Department of Environmental Conservation's proposal to close the last .7 miles of West River Road.

The town road, which the draft Silver Lake Wilderness Area Unit Management Plan would force the town to abandon, leads to 'Whitehouse', a former hunting lodge on the banks of the Sacandaga River which is a popular destination for outdoor lovers including fishermen, hunters and campers.

The Town has maintained and repaired the road for over 100 years and under state Highway Law it is considered a 'Town Road In Use'. Wells has never abandoned the road.

Whitehouse was owned privately until the State of New York bought the land in 1962. The DEC has proposed closing the last .7 miles of West River Road based on guidelines in the Adirondack Park Agency's (APA) Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (SLMP).

The SLMP went into effect in 1972. Under its guidelines, 'roads and state truck trails' are not allowed in areas designated as 'Wilderness'.

TAKING ACTION

Wells Town Board unanimously adopted a resolution Monday, Sept. 12, that 'adamantly opposes any effort by the State of New York to restrict recreational opportunities for disabled Americans' ... 'and closing the last 0.7 miles of the West River Road...'

The resolution points out that the SLMP was adopted in the late 1980s, before the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) became law; and although the SLMP under law is supposed to be reviewed every five years, the last review was in 1987, before the ADA.

The resolution also says '...the members of this body have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and Laws of the State of New York and therefore adamantly oppose any effort ... to supersede Highway Law ... with a policy of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan...'

[redhawk]

That's an expectation that bureaucracies will OBEY laws, not just make law. Asking an awful lot.