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War over the wilderness: Development vs. preserve in the Adirondacks
By CHRISTINE MARGIOTTA, JOHNSBURG -- Earl Allen keeps the location of his hunting camp a heavily guarded secret.
Nestled somewhere deep in the woods, the camp sits on a 2 1/2-acre patch of forest, completely surrounded by land owned by New York state.
The state fought hard to acquire Allen's camp land for preservation in the early 1970s, bombarding Allen and his wife, Daisy, with repeated letters and phone calls to his Edwards Hill Road home, he said. Allen refused to sell.
He placed all the letters the state ever sent him about the property in his stove and set fire to them.
He still sometimes goes to the camp, accessible only by foot or four-wheeler, to hunt with his grandson.
Though the ordeal is long over, Allen still won't reveal the camp's location, seemingly worried about jogging someone's memory at the state.
"I wouldn't give the state nothing," he said sharply during an interview earlier this month, his 80-year-old hand balling into a fist on his dining room table.
Allen's frustrations with the state's land acquisition practices in the Adirondack Park run deep and resonate with municipal leaders in Johnsburg and other Warren County towns that have significant percentages of state-owned land.
For decades, what one environmentalist called the "great Adirondack debate" has raged between local municipalities and environmental groups. Town leaders say state regulations have needlessly destroyed historic structures and squelched their ability to widen their tax bases.
One Johnsburg town official, who requested his name be withheld for fear of retribution, likened state land to cancer.
Environmentalists and the state, however, tout the forest preserve as the driving force behind the Adirondack economy.
But this month, the towns began channeling their frustrations toward an unprecedented attempt at compromise.
The 110 or so members of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages are pooling money from the association's members -- about $250 to $500 each -- to pay the application fee for a grant that would fund a study of how state land affects their economies. The goal is to raise $20,000.
The grant the AATV is seeking comes from the state Quality Communities Program.
If the AATV does not receive the grant, it will use the money to pay a consultant.
The study will be used to make the case for creating a proposed 5,000-acre "land bank" within the Adirondack Park -- a mechanism that would allow towns constrained by state land to "withdraw" acreage for development.
It's an idea hatched by the planning board in the town of Arietta, Hamilton County, more than 90 percent of which is state land.
A land bank, however, would require a state constitutional amendment that would need to pass in two consecutive state legislatures before going to the public for a vote, according to Robert K. Davies, director of the Department of Environmental Conservation's division of lands and forests.
Fred Monroe, town supervisor of Chester and an active association representative, is willing to forge ahead -- especially with the study.
A constitutional amendment "wouldn't have much of a chance of passing unless it could be documented that towns are having problems with state land," he said.
"The state and environmental groups spend a great deal of time looking at how human activity impacts the environment," Monroe said. "But no one looks at the reverse -- how state land policies impact humans."
Houses vs. trees: the final count
The question of how all that forest affects local towns and villages is an age-old debate.
A 2003 study conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society titled "Do Public Lands Constrain Economic Development in the Adirondack Park?" found no clear ties between a town's economic state and the amount of state land it harbored.
"We didn't find anything that statistically significantly said yes, this puts a strain on the economy," said Andrew Keal, geographic information systems coordinator for the society who co-authored the study.
Keal said the study came about after long-standing rifts between town leaders and environmentalists hit a fever pitch.
But this time around, the push to create a land bank could bury one of the largest bones of contention between town leaders and environmentalists: the amount of land the state owns.
The state owns 46 percent of the Adirondack Park in the form of forest preserve. Conservation easements take up another 4.6 percent. The remaining land is privately owned.
That's all well and good, Monroe said, but the state has never told Adirondack communities how much land it ultimately wants -- a detail that would make it much easier for towns to plan their growth.
"There's never been a stated plan for the percentage between state and private land," Monroe said. "We know every time the state purchases private land, the development rights are just blanked out. When you restrict the supply, demand goes up, then prices go up."
Uncertainty over how much land the state will want in the future has prompted the town of Johnsburg to begin the process of expanding its hamlets so more land is available for possible development in the future, Johnsburg Town Supervisor William Thomas said.
But Peter Bauer, executive director of the Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, said uncertainty exists on the other side of the coin, too.
"Local governments always ask, and rightfully so, how much land the state will own ultimately," he said. "But how many houses will be built in each town, ultimately? That's what we ask."
About 1,000 new houses are built across the Adirondack Park each year, Bauer said. In the past 25 years, the state has purchased 850,000 acres of forest preserve and conservation easements, he said.
Yet no one can come up with a definitive end total for either.
The question of how much land the state should own is "a valid question the state should answer," Bauer said. "On the flip side, how many houses will be built in the park?"
'The hand of man'
Earl Allen remembers finding frogs in the toilets he unplugged during the 10 years he worked as a maintenance man at Fox Lair, a 1,200-acre boys' camp in the Siamese Pond Wilderness.
Before it became the summer home for hundreds of boys, Fox Lair was the series of grand mansions owned by perfume manufacturer Richard Hudnut.
Famed silent movie actor Rudy Valentino used to stay at Fox Lair when he wanted to get away.
But Fox Lair burned to the ground in the 1970s after the state bought the land and torched the buildings because they did not comply with forest preserve guidelines that aim to erase evidence of "the hand of man" in designated wilderness areas.
Allen is still bitter about the burning.
The AATV study will likely explore how the loss of historic structures like those at Fox Lair has affected the area, if at all.
Johnsburg Town Supervisor Thomas, who remembers visiting Fox Lair as a child with his father, lamented the lost historic site that could have generated tourism dollars.
"Imagine how we could have promoted that today," Thomas said.
The practice of burning structures to re-create a forest setting infuriates town leaders in Warren County, who say the presence of those structures proves the Adirondack Park offers towns a bit more room to grow.
"A lot of what they classify as wilderness is not really wilderness," Monroe said. "It's like they're trying to manufacture wilderness. How can you say the hand of man hasn't touched it when there's a 200-year-old road?"
J.R. Risley, the town supervisor of Inlet, Hamilton County, and president of the AATV, said the survival of history within Adirondack communities could hinge upon the study.
"You can drive anywhere in the state, anywhere in the park and not have any recollection of what was there 100 years ago in some places," Risley said. "We've lost things already. We've got to do the study and identify them and find the things to curb it."
Green feedback
The frustrations expressed by town supervisors in Warren County and across the Adirondack Park are nothing new to David Gibson, executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks.
"It's a very old conversation that's always new," Gibson said. "We have to explain why we have wilderness in the Adirondacks. It will always be a point of contention."
The wilderness, according to environmentalists, is the driving force behind the tourist economy in the Adirondacks. Visitors don't just hike, fish, ski and hunt, but eat in restaurants, buy gas, stay in hotels and pay taxes on summer homes.
Gibson said the association's study is evidence the argument is now going in a more constructive direction. He's interested to see if the association will allow organizations like his to contribute.
"I hope I'm not called back in a year or two and they say, 'Here's the work.' I hope I'm involved in it," he said.
John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said the environmental group is leery about the land bank proposal because it's similar to the state Department of Transporation's land bank, which Sheehan says holds little regard for the forest preserves.
"Our experience has been abuse of the privilege," he said. "We don't want to rule it out, but I think they're expressing a real need here that has to be solved in some way. And if their answer isn't the solution, then it's up to us to come up with a better solution."
Risley said he understands the need to preserve forest land, but the study must go forward for the sake of towns like his that have little to no room for growth because of state land.
"The Adirondack communities are what make the Adirondacks," he said. "The people who come here to enjoy this park aren't going to be able to if we don't do this."
By CHRISTINE MARGIOTTA, JOHNSBURG -- Earl Allen keeps the location of his hunting camp a heavily guarded secret.
Nestled somewhere deep in the woods, the camp sits on a 2 1/2-acre patch of forest, completely surrounded by land owned by New York state.
The state fought hard to acquire Allen's camp land for preservation in the early 1970s, bombarding Allen and his wife, Daisy, with repeated letters and phone calls to his Edwards Hill Road home, he said. Allen refused to sell.
He placed all the letters the state ever sent him about the property in his stove and set fire to them.
He still sometimes goes to the camp, accessible only by foot or four-wheeler, to hunt with his grandson.
Though the ordeal is long over, Allen still won't reveal the camp's location, seemingly worried about jogging someone's memory at the state.
"I wouldn't give the state nothing," he said sharply during an interview earlier this month, his 80-year-old hand balling into a fist on his dining room table.
Allen's frustrations with the state's land acquisition practices in the Adirondack Park run deep and resonate with municipal leaders in Johnsburg and other Warren County towns that have significant percentages of state-owned land.
For decades, what one environmentalist called the "great Adirondack debate" has raged between local municipalities and environmental groups. Town leaders say state regulations have needlessly destroyed historic structures and squelched their ability to widen their tax bases.
One Johnsburg town official, who requested his name be withheld for fear of retribution, likened state land to cancer.
Environmentalists and the state, however, tout the forest preserve as the driving force behind the Adirondack economy.
But this month, the towns began channeling their frustrations toward an unprecedented attempt at compromise.
The 110 or so members of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages are pooling money from the association's members -- about $250 to $500 each -- to pay the application fee for a grant that would fund a study of how state land affects their economies. The goal is to raise $20,000.
The grant the AATV is seeking comes from the state Quality Communities Program.
If the AATV does not receive the grant, it will use the money to pay a consultant.
The study will be used to make the case for creating a proposed 5,000-acre "land bank" within the Adirondack Park -- a mechanism that would allow towns constrained by state land to "withdraw" acreage for development.
It's an idea hatched by the planning board in the town of Arietta, Hamilton County, more than 90 percent of which is state land.
A land bank, however, would require a state constitutional amendment that would need to pass in two consecutive state legislatures before going to the public for a vote, according to Robert K. Davies, director of the Department of Environmental Conservation's division of lands and forests.
Fred Monroe, town supervisor of Chester and an active association representative, is willing to forge ahead -- especially with the study.
A constitutional amendment "wouldn't have much of a chance of passing unless it could be documented that towns are having problems with state land," he said.
"The state and environmental groups spend a great deal of time looking at how human activity impacts the environment," Monroe said. "But no one looks at the reverse -- how state land policies impact humans."
Houses vs. trees: the final count
The question of how all that forest affects local towns and villages is an age-old debate.
A 2003 study conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society titled "Do Public Lands Constrain Economic Development in the Adirondack Park?" found no clear ties between a town's economic state and the amount of state land it harbored.
"We didn't find anything that statistically significantly said yes, this puts a strain on the economy," said Andrew Keal, geographic information systems coordinator for the society who co-authored the study.
Keal said the study came about after long-standing rifts between town leaders and environmentalists hit a fever pitch.
But this time around, the push to create a land bank could bury one of the largest bones of contention between town leaders and environmentalists: the amount of land the state owns.
The state owns 46 percent of the Adirondack Park in the form of forest preserve. Conservation easements take up another 4.6 percent. The remaining land is privately owned.
That's all well and good, Monroe said, but the state has never told Adirondack communities how much land it ultimately wants -- a detail that would make it much easier for towns to plan their growth.
"There's never been a stated plan for the percentage between state and private land," Monroe said. "We know every time the state purchases private land, the development rights are just blanked out. When you restrict the supply, demand goes up, then prices go up."
Uncertainty over how much land the state will want in the future has prompted the town of Johnsburg to begin the process of expanding its hamlets so more land is available for possible development in the future, Johnsburg Town Supervisor William Thomas said.
But Peter Bauer, executive director of the Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, said uncertainty exists on the other side of the coin, too.
"Local governments always ask, and rightfully so, how much land the state will own ultimately," he said. "But how many houses will be built in each town, ultimately? That's what we ask."
About 1,000 new houses are built across the Adirondack Park each year, Bauer said. In the past 25 years, the state has purchased 850,000 acres of forest preserve and conservation easements, he said.
Yet no one can come up with a definitive end total for either.
The question of how much land the state should own is "a valid question the state should answer," Bauer said. "On the flip side, how many houses will be built in the park?"
'The hand of man'
Earl Allen remembers finding frogs in the toilets he unplugged during the 10 years he worked as a maintenance man at Fox Lair, a 1,200-acre boys' camp in the Siamese Pond Wilderness.
Before it became the summer home for hundreds of boys, Fox Lair was the series of grand mansions owned by perfume manufacturer Richard Hudnut.
Famed silent movie actor Rudy Valentino used to stay at Fox Lair when he wanted to get away.
But Fox Lair burned to the ground in the 1970s after the state bought the land and torched the buildings because they did not comply with forest preserve guidelines that aim to erase evidence of "the hand of man" in designated wilderness areas.
Allen is still bitter about the burning.
The AATV study will likely explore how the loss of historic structures like those at Fox Lair has affected the area, if at all.
Johnsburg Town Supervisor Thomas, who remembers visiting Fox Lair as a child with his father, lamented the lost historic site that could have generated tourism dollars.
"Imagine how we could have promoted that today," Thomas said.
The practice of burning structures to re-create a forest setting infuriates town leaders in Warren County, who say the presence of those structures proves the Adirondack Park offers towns a bit more room to grow.
"A lot of what they classify as wilderness is not really wilderness," Monroe said. "It's like they're trying to manufacture wilderness. How can you say the hand of man hasn't touched it when there's a 200-year-old road?"
J.R. Risley, the town supervisor of Inlet, Hamilton County, and president of the AATV, said the survival of history within Adirondack communities could hinge upon the study.
"You can drive anywhere in the state, anywhere in the park and not have any recollection of what was there 100 years ago in some places," Risley said. "We've lost things already. We've got to do the study and identify them and find the things to curb it."
Green feedback
The frustrations expressed by town supervisors in Warren County and across the Adirondack Park are nothing new to David Gibson, executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks.
"It's a very old conversation that's always new," Gibson said. "We have to explain why we have wilderness in the Adirondacks. It will always be a point of contention."
The wilderness, according to environmentalists, is the driving force behind the tourist economy in the Adirondacks. Visitors don't just hike, fish, ski and hunt, but eat in restaurants, buy gas, stay in hotels and pay taxes on summer homes.
Gibson said the association's study is evidence the argument is now going in a more constructive direction. He's interested to see if the association will allow organizations like his to contribute.
"I hope I'm not called back in a year or two and they say, 'Here's the work.' I hope I'm involved in it," he said.
John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said the environmental group is leery about the land bank proposal because it's similar to the state Department of Transporation's land bank, which Sheehan says holds little regard for the forest preserves.
"Our experience has been abuse of the privilege," he said. "We don't want to rule it out, but I think they're expressing a real need here that has to be solved in some way. And if their answer isn't the solution, then it's up to us to come up with a better solution."
Risley said he understands the need to preserve forest land, but the study must go forward for the sake of towns like his that have little to no room for growth because of state land.
"The Adirondack communities are what make the Adirondacks," he said. "The people who come here to enjoy this park aren't going to be able to if we don't do this."
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