 photo by Ken Rimany It is March of 1990. Paul asks me, ‘how is the bond act going?’ He referred to the campaign for an environmental bond act of that year. I responded that polls indicated the bond act was going to have a difficult time, politically. Paul said, in turn, that it was very important to pass it because of the benefits conservation easements have in protecting large acreages in the Adirondacks. He proceeded to tell me about what was, to his knowledge, the Park’s first conservation easement. I quickly wrote down the story using as many of Paul’s actual words as I could remember.
It is the early 1960s. Samuel Bloomingdale had just bought Elk Lake and lots of people gathered in Paul’s Adirondack Room, including Bill Petty of the State Conservation Department, Charlie Matteson, the Conservation Department’s chief in charge of land acquisition, and Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks President Richard Pough. All were very pessimistic. Mr. Bloomingdale would likely develop his property, they told themselves, because the building of I-87, the Adirondack Northway, will make it attractive for development. As they were leaving the meeting, Dick Pough said to Charlie Matteson, “would you go down and talk to Bloomingdale, tell him our concerns?” Subsequently, Matteson went down to New York City to see Bloomingdale and his lawyers.
“Level with us,” asked Matteson of Bloomingdale. “People around the State are very concerned about the future of Elk Lake. What are you doing with the property?” Bloomingdale said, “nothing, I love it, I want it to stay the way it is.” Matteson was floored. “You’re not going to develop?” “No.”
“Would there be a possibility of putting an easement on the property to protect it?’ “Sure, great idea,” Bloomingdale responded. “But the State’s broke,” Matteson replied, “we’ve only scraped together $65,000 to protect the lakeshore.”
Bloomingdale broke off the conversation and privately conversed with his lawyer, then came back. “Everything about your plan is great except for one thing, the money.” Matteson agreed that he thought that would be the big problem. “No, I don’t think you should pay us anything. We’ll take $1 for the easement.”
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