APA meets on November 12
PLEASE ACT TO SAFEGUARD
ADIRONDACK WILD FOREST LANDS
UNDER THREAT OF INCREASING MOTORIZED USES
BY JOINT APA-DEC SNOWMOBILE PROPOSAL

For nearly 40 years, snowmobiling has been a permitted use on designated trails in Wild Forest sections of the NYS Forest Preserve in the Adirondack and Catskill Parks (no such uses are permitted in Wilderness, Primitive and Canoe Areas of the Preserve). However, that use is closely limited under the State Land Master Plan. Article XIV of the NYS Constitution also applies to Wild Forest areas. New snowmobile trail guidance to carefully design new trails, minimize snowmobile trail impacts, remove trails from the interior of our Wild Forest areas, and relocate them closer to other existing motorized routes was issued in September. It is needed and valuable. We support these aspects of the guidelines. However, the draft Management Guidance may also encourage inappropriate motorized traffic by permitting a class of wider, faster, smoother snowmobile trails to facilitate ever-faster, ever-bigger snowmobiles. These activities raise serious questions and threaten the wild character and ecological health of the Forest Preserve, as well as public health and safety.

Call for Action – Your Email, Letter or Faxes to the APA this week:

• Support provisions which call for removing remote interior snowmobile trails and siting them closer to the Wild Forest boundaries whenever possible.
• Insure that snowmobile trail design, construction and maintenance for “class II community connector” trails will be fully conforming to the State Land Master Plan’s requirement to retain the character of a foot trail. Such trails should NOT be over-built as snowmobile highways, where fast speeds and over-engineering threaten public safety and degrade Wild Forest conditions.
• Remind the APA that protection of natural resources and preservation of Wild Forest character is their overriding responsibility under the master plan, preserving solitude and separation from the sights, sounds and impacts of motorized vehicles – including snowmobiles. The APA should not allow changes in snowmobile technology to drive management on Wild Forest areas.
• Oppose provisions that would permit tracked snowcat groomers and other motorized “landscaping equipment” on Forest Preserve trails in Wild Forest, since these are not authorized by the master plan and run counter to the “Forever Wild” provisions of Article XIV of the NY State Constitution.
• Maintenance work should be done by hand tools, with minimal use of motorized equipment.
• “Community connector” snowmobile trails will greatly increase snowmobile activity and related public health, safety and environmental issues in areas not seeing such use today. Yet, impact assessments and planning are completely inadequate. Support better planning and environmental assessments before actions are taken by the Adirondack Park Agency.

Please act before the next APA meeting on Nov. 12. Feel free to include the above talking points in your own words, and address your written comments to: James Connolly, Deputy Director - Planning Adirondack Park Agency P.O. Box 99 Ray Brook, NY 12977, or Fax your letter to: APA fax number (518) 891-3938. E-mail comments are accepted at:

The draft standards and guidance document is available from the APA website at: http://www.apa.state.ny.us/Mailing/0909/stateLand.htm or by contacting the APA at 518.891.4050.

Please contact/send copy of your comments to: Dan Plumley, Director, Conservation Program, Protect the Adirondacks! at email: , P.O. Box 746, Keene Valley, NY 12943, telephone: (518) 576-4430.

Many thanks to our activists and supporters for, once again, standing up for the wild forest character of the NYS Forest Preserve!