APA Wild Forest Roads Policy

[Dave Bourque]

Here we go again.

The APA has to determine:

• How many miles of wild forest roads existed in 1972 and today.
• Whether roads accessible to people with disabilities but not to the general public count in the wild forest roads mileage.
• What constitutes a material increase.

APA closer to wild forest roads policy - Adirondack Explorer

Once again Gwendolyn does a great job.

[VermontDacker]

Realistically, I do not expect any significant increase in new road building in the wild forests of the park. But I do believe there would be a strong backlash at any attempt to close existing roads. Look at what happened when DEC proposed closing a short length of road in Silver Lake Wilderness near Whitehouse, and when DEC tried to physically close the clearly-non-compliant road to Crane Pond in Pharaoh Lake Wilderness.

I believe the final compromise will have to be more or less "no new roads, but no closure of old roads". (Though this wouldn't necessarily apply to new land acquisitions.)