Governor Paterson declares war on ENCON...

Starting with Governor Paterson forcing the Department of Environmental Conservation (aka. DEC or ENCON) to illegally scrap the float plane ban on Low's Lake, followed by Paterson leaving The Nature Conservancy with 81,000 acres of land the state agreed to buy and incorporate into the forest preserve, and now Paterson outright decimating the DEC's budget to the point it compromises the ability to carry out it's duties is absolutely shameful.

New York has been graced by many governors whom have taken great pride in preserving and enhancing New York's environment, park system, and forest preserve. RecentlyMario Coumo, George Pataki, and Elliot Spitzer (primarily as attorney general) have been praised highly for their work. On the other hand, David Paterson appears to have the opposite goal, to leave a legacy as New York's least environmentally friendly governor.

A lot of people are unaware how much the DEC does within the state. While the Forest Rangers and ECOs (environmental conservation officers) are a big part of the DEC, it is far more than that.

The DECs mission:



"To conserve, improve and protect New York's natural resources and environment and to prevent, abate and control water, land and air pollution, in order to enhance the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state and their overall economic and social well-being."

DEC is responsible for administration and enforcement of the Environmental Conservation Law. The Department's major responsibilities as assigned in Environmental Conservation Law are:

• Regulate the disposal, transport and treatment of hazardous and toxic wastes in an environmentally sound manner;
• Manage the state program for oil and chemical spills;
• Provide for the abatement of water, land and air pollution, including pesticides;
• Monitor environmental conditions and test for contaminants;
• Encourage recycling, recovery and reuse of all solid waste to conserve resources and reduce waste;
• Administer fish and wildlife laws, carry out sound fish and wildlife management practices, and conduct fish and wildlife research;
• Manage New York's marine and coastal resources;
• Conduct sound forestry management practices on state lands, provide assistance to private forest landowners and manage fire prevention and control efforts;
• Manage the Adirondack and Catskill forest preserves and recreational facilities, including campsites and the Belleayre Mountain ski center;
• Protect tidal and freshwater wetlands and flood plains;
• Promote the wise use of water resources;
• Administer the wild, scenic and recreational rivers program;
• Regulate mining, including reclamation of mined lands, extraction of oil and gas, and underground storage of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas;
• Inform the public about environmental conservation principles and encourage their participation in environmental affairs.

Worst of all, of the $1 billion dollars Paterson is slashing from the state agency budget over50% of it comes from the DEC. How is this equitable? And does it put everyone at risk? Remember the DEC doesn't just steward your state wild lands, it is also the protector of your backyard environment, the water your drink and the air your breathe.

Governor Paterson hasn't stopped there, he is proposing to wipe out New York's state park system. The oldest park system in the US, and a system that didn't even close a single park during the Great Depression, in fact a great deal of New York's state park system was created during the Great Depression.

Ironically, in a time of economic crisis New York State parks reached record attendance last year, and like the Forest Preserve are a major tourist attraction for New Yorker's and those from other states and regions.

"State lawmakers said they would fight to restore funding for parks, which reached record attendance levels last year at nearly 56 million visitors, up by 1.9 million from 2008. The parks represent a major tourism draw across the state, said Assembly Tourism and Parks Committee Chairman Steve Englebright, D-Suffolk County."
--Politics On The Hudson

It could be fairly argued that the Forest Preserve and park system are two of the least economically prejudiced outlets for entertainment, exercise and recreation the state offers it's residents. Park fees while increasing are generally modest, and the forest preserve is free (well fee free, we all pay for it in our taxes) to the people of New York. That is to say, all New Yorker's regardless of income, education, sex, or race can enjoy recreating in the park and forest system without undue restrictions. Where else can a family of 5 spend a week during the summer camping and recreating for a few hundred dollars including transportation, camping and food cost?

Ironically, Governor Paterson is also proposing a soda tax to reduce obesity in the state. If I understand this correctly he is closing places for people to recreate (aka. exercise and become fit), , while at the same time penalizing them for being (possibly) unhealthy. Honestly the only thing left to tax after this is the air we breathe, which unfortunately might not be worth much when Paterson is done hacking the Department of Environmental Conservation budget.

Sadly, New York has no ability to recall a governor, and although it's possible Paterson will eventually have to resign or be impeached for the mounting list of improprieties he appears to be so fond of, it is evident we are more then likely stuck with the pinnacle of incompetence at the helm for the duration of his term.

The state legislature, while equally spineless, incompetent and corrupt, is our last resort. However, unlike Paterson, they do actually have to answer to the people at some point if they want to continue in politics. The only thing we can do is contact our state representatives and tell them to take a stand against Paterson. Those elected officials certainly don't want to be associated with anything that is the spawn of Paterson's incompetence.


From the Adirondack Councils website:

How Would Your Office Operate With A 70% Budget Cut?

This is the crisis the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is facing. In FY 2009-2010, DEC received a 30% cut to their nonpersonal service (NPS) budget. The Governor’s 2010-2011 budget proposal recommends and additional 40% reduction, putting a severe strain on out of office meetings, field visits and other travel and related expenses for DEC staff.

Severe Cuts To The DEC Budget

DEC is being disproportionately cut. Out of the $1 billion in agency cuts proposed by Governor Paterson, over $500 million comes from DEC, which is already hamstrung by staff reductions. Over 135 DEC employees recently accepted the early retirement package, representing over 13% of all workers who took the buyout and whose positions have now been eliminated.

The popular and successful Assistant Ranger program at DEC is in jeopardy due to the proposed
nonpersonal service cuts. Despite a sufficient level of staff for this program, it may end without sufficient funding to provide uniforms and other necessary supplies and travel expenses.

What You Can Do

Restore the cuts to DEC and ensure that all New Yorkers will enjoy a healthy environment that is properly managed. You must adequately fund DEC’s staffing and NPS budgets.


www.adirondackcouncil.org

The Adirondack Council is a member based not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving the ecological integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. The Adirondack Council does not take government funding or make endorsements.

Information on Governor Paterson's planned park closures can be found HERE.

Finch-Pruyn Purchase 161,000 acres of Adirondack Biodiversity

I believe back in June 2007, the Nature Conservancy aqcuired the rights to the Finch Lands. The deal allows Finch Pruyn to use the land as a working forest for an additional 20 years which will hopefully keep a lot of people at the paper mill in Glens Falls happy.

This is both sadly and happily one of the last, and perhaps largest, contiguous parcels of private land in the forest preserve.

But as you can read below, 161,000 acres of biodiversity doesn't come without a cost. Lots of hungry mouths to feed including the tax man, the conservationist, the hunter, hiker, snowmobiler and the developer.

Nevertheless, having the Nature Conservancy try to figure out this mess puts me more at ease. Like ANWR, even if I never get to set foot on most of this land, it makes me all warm and fuzzy to know it's there and never going to have a Walmart, strip mall, or some over sized seasonal house built on it.

Well, I can wish though...how about renewing the leases to the hunting clubs for 20 more years, then slowly bringing most the land into the forest preserve.


Conservancy weighs fate of 161,000 acres in Adirondacks
By FRED LeBRUN
First published: Sunday, December 2, 2007
Albany Times Union


After driving endless numbers of internal roads and an hourlong fly-over in Tommy Helms's 30-year-old Cessna sea plane, what's most striking about the 161,000 acre Finch, Pruyn & Co. property in the Adirondacks is its vastness and continuity.

Or as biologist Michelle Brown of the Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy put it, the property's "intactness." Viewed in a global context, which we seldom think of for the Adirondacks, Brown says the Finch, Pruyn & Co. lands represent one of the last, best places on earth to conserve, protect and keep whole a significant temperate deciduous forest system.

What a stunning acquisition this is by the Nature Conservancy, still breathtaking to contemplate six months after it happened.

A meticulously maintained working forest in the pumping heart of the Adirondacks kept very private for 146 years, with 144 miles of river, 70 lakes and ponds, 80 mountains and and a ton of natural wonders only a few eyes have seen.

On very short notice, timber products giant Finch, Pruyn & Co. came calling and Adirondack Chapter executive director Mike Carr and his staff dropped an already full plate of land stewardship issues in the North Country to accommodate. They scrambled, borrowing $110 million from John Hancock Insurance and the Open Space Institute to seal the deal.

But now the madness begins. While an expensive clock driven by the interest on those loans is ticking, Carr has given himself a year to put together a complicated plan for the future of the property that takes into account myriad demands and desires from a broad range of stakeholders, and the Nature Conservancy's own mission statement.

"I'm not going to please everybody, probably nobody completely," the affable Carr said, as we were driving down a private road to a trail head that would take us in under a half-hour to a postcard view of Ok-Slip Falls.

In future generations, this little trail to the highest waterfall in the Adirondacks, and one of the tallest in the state, will become as popular as the trek from Adirondack Loj to Marcy dam -- if it becomes part of the Adirondack forest preserve, or becomes public through an easement. It probably will, because it is very high on the wish list of environmental groups looking to steer about half of the 161,000 acres into the Forever Wild forest preserve.

That means the state will have to make a significant purchase here. But at the same time, local governments, which have a veto if Environmental Protection Fund money is used, will have their demands, primarily centering on economic development opportunities. A snowmobile trail linking the towns from Long Lake to Schroon Lake is a high priority for them. The hunting and fishing clubs with a combined membership of 3,500 that lease 131,000 of the acres now would like a voice in the future as well, even though they may have to settle for smaller leases than they have now, and then there is Michelle Brown's voice, most compelling of all.

The Nature Conservancy, after all, is about protecting nature, biological diversity. Not about guaranteeing public access, or honoring hunting leases, or developing recreational opportunities. Mike Carr is certainly aware of all these other hands out, and wants to satisfy as many as he can, but not at the expense of the fragile ecosystems, the unusual, threatened and endangered.

The Adirondack Chapter has launched a hurry-up $35 million fundraising effort over this property, which tells me in the end they hope to keep a hunk of it. Interestingly, in short order they've raised more than $5 million, most of it coming in far from Long Lake. There are those in distant places who may never see the Adirondacks who understand the global importance of this piece of property.

So Mike and his staff and board will get a chance to decide how best to divvy it up to give it the wisest protection and use, while getting out from under a groaning debt load and a $1 million a year in taxes.

I do not pretend to have an inside track on Mike's thinking. Besides, I think his evolving plan is very fluid at the moment. But here are my impressions of where we'll be when the dust settles on this phenomenal legacy for our grandchildren.

Much of the Finch, Pruyn & Co. property will continue as a working forest. Done right, it works.

Mike Carr is a big believer in the dynamic that currently exists, that's kept the Finch, Pruyn & Co. properties beautifully maintained and conserved. In all likelihood, sexy items like the Essex Chain lakes, the Hudson Gorge, OK-Slip Falls, and maybe even Boreas Ponds will go into the forest preserve, as environmentalists wish. But there will be a place for the hunting and fishing clubs, which have proved to be excellent stewards and represent a strong Adirondack tradition.

There will be a connected snowmobile trail along existing logging roads, and probably named lakes and ponds that Tommy Helms and the other seaplaners can fly into, to keep that old tradition alive too.

Through the manipulation of transferable development rights, struggling towns and hamlets surrounded by forest preserve will get buildable property for growth.

In other words, my hunch is Mike Carr will come up with a complex mish-mash of public and private interests interlocked through easements, leases and fee purchases. A new paradigm for land acquisition in the Adirondacks.

This arrangement will require unprecedented cooperation and respect among parties, and pose a huge challenge for enforcement and all new headaches for the DEC.

But you can be sure the delicate ferns and mosses growing around rare limestone outcroppings, around Pickwacket Pond and up in the higher elevations, around Squaw Brook valley, and elsewhere, will never be safer.

Albany, N.Y.: Timesunion.com - Print Story

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