Home About PROTECT News Releases DEC releases Fire Tower study; Calls for removal of fire tower in primitive and canoe area
DEC releases Fire Tower study; Calls for removal of fire tower in primitive and canoe area
After the release of the fire tower study from DEC, management plans call for removal of fire tower in Primitive and Canoe area, consistent with State Land Master plan.
Background: NYS DEC is recommending the removal of just two fire towers: on St. Regis Mountain and Hurricane Mountain as part of the State Land Unit Management Plans for the St. Regis Canoe Area and Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area. These two fire towers are no longer serving their intended purpose of fire detection and communications; and therefore the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan requires their removal because their presence and maintenance violates management guidelines for Wilderness, Primitive and Canoe Areas. These two towers are also unsafe, and pose a serious public health hazard.
There are eighteen other fire towers on Wild Forest portions of the Adirondack Forest Preserve which are not impacted by these recommendations; many of these have benefited from restoration, maintenance and educational efforts. There are 14 fire towers on private or municipal lands in the Adirondacks.
Your comments on these recommendations, and on the Jay Mountain Wilderness Area are needed by March 26, 2010. Suggested writing points and Email/Mail addresses follow.
Recommended Writing Points during Public Comment Period Ending March26
State your name, identify where you are from, highlight your involvement with PROTECT if you like and briefly note your own personal history with the unit(s) in question. Thank the DEC for the public opportunity to review and comment on these important unit plans.
Highlight that from PROTECT’s viewpoint and state law, the Department’s first priority in these unit plans are to truly preserve and protect the natural resources, ecosystem integrity and the constitutionally mandated “forever wild” conditions of these state land units.
Enhancing the long-term ecological integrity and resilience of these wild lands; fostering their native plant wildlife habitat values and beneficial watershed, clean air and biological functions – as well as the interior sense of remoteness – should take precedent over recreational interest values alone.
Re. Hurricane Mountain Primitive Area:
Congratulate the Department staff for producing Jay and Hurricane Mountain UMP documents that far more deeply explore ecological, wildlife, amphibian, bird life and threatened species inventories and wild land management principles than past unit plans.
PROTECT, our board, staff and members, look forward to collaborating with the Department on moving forward wilderness management and ecological integrity within and beyond the unit.
Support “Alternative # 6” - the needed removal of the dangerously deteriorated fire tower consistent with the draft UMP, the results of DEC’s fire tower study and the requirements under the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (APSLMP).
The fire tower is not needed to provide spectacular views. The summit itself already provides nearly 360 degree views and its rocky pinnacle itself is the most visible marker at the core of these unique state wild highlands. Removal of the tower will justly move this wild land unit towards wilderness designation eventually, which we support.
Preservation of the fire tower at this point would be best as a tourist focal point by appropriate relocation and refurbishment directly in the hamlets of Keene or Keene Valley – just as the fire tower at the History Museum in Elizabethtown has performed and been a draw.
PROTECT encourages an honest stakeholder involved evaluation of alternatives for sound relocation of the Gulf Brook lean-to. Relocation or removal is required by both the APSLMP and the actual impact conditions present. We would hope that a suitable relocation site could be established, but if not, we all will have to back the DEC’s determination that removal may be the only, best option to protect the resources.
PROTECT strongly supports the needed limitations on group size for day use and overnight camping – and, further, we urge against the use of temporary revocable permits to enable mass recreation activities which should not be allowed in wilderness, primitive and canoe area settings.
In this regard, we encourage the Department to reach out Detour Nature and other Canadian and US tour bus businesses and establish clear protocols and collaborative planning for managed group use consistent with the new policies.
We agree that the unit faces several needed trail and herd path relocations to eliminate the erosion and soil damage from steep trail sections and the increasing use of the Hurricane Crag rock climbing areas. We support the UMP’s call for action here in as much a proactive manner as possible – not to wait for areas to become overly impacted before redesign, restoration or trail closings are needed.
PROTECT appreciates the UMP’s efforts at backgrounding the public on wild land planning methodologies of “carrying capacity, limits of acceptable change (LAC), and the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) Models. Typically, however, we do not see the Department actually implementing stakeholder involvement in these decision-making procedures in any meaningful way. While we recognize their limitations, we encourage the Department to work harder towards promoting collaborative wilderness management that benefits resource protection wherever possible.
Re. Jay Mountain Wilderness Area:
Strongly support the UMP emphasis on maintaining this small wilderness unit as largely undeveloped with recreational facilities – keep the Jay Mountain Wilderness as truly wild as possible.
Congratulate the Department staff for producing Jay and Hurricane Mountain UMP documents that far more deeply explore ecological, wildlife, amphibian, bird life and threatened species inventories and wild land management principles than past unit plans.
PROTECT, our board, staff and members, look forward to collaborating with the Department on moving forward wilderness management and ecological integrity within and beyond the unit.
Support relocation and proper, minimal trail design for the Jay Mountain herd path to eliminate steep, eroded and threatened sections, as long as the trail is designed and maintained as a very narrow, wild foot path in character with the relatively low use that the Jay Range enjoys. Closure of the herd path or portions that show significant deterioration should be considered.
The DEC should seek to avoid management actions that detract from the wild character of the entirety of the Jay Range which is small enough and wild enough to truly encourage minimal use, minimal trail development and an onus towards individual or small group route finding absent of developed, managed trail systems. Question the need and/or oppose outright the building of rock cairns along the Jay Range summits and ridges as of questionable value in a small wilderness, linear range where promoting self-reliance and route finding are part of the benefit of a truly undeveloped wilderness resource and experience.
Support the boundary line surveys and encourage assessment and evaluation of the impacts of adjacent land use, mineral mining, timber management, and agricultural uses on wildlife, water quality and the introduction of invasive species to the unit.
Evaluate all options to complement the boundary and size of the Jay Mountain Wilderness with willing-seller, willing buyer land acquisitions that can, over time, create a larger wilderness tract. Encourage the Region 5 Open Space Committee and other stakeholders to explore how to enhance the ecological integrity and movement potential for species on East – West, South – North wildlife corridor options in the Jay and adjacent state units and private lands.
Re. St. Regis Canoe Area UMP Amendment:
Strongly support “Alternative # 2” - the selected DEC proposed action calling for the removal of the fire tower from the summit of St. Regis Mountain as long-needed, and fully consistent with the provisions of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan for the canoe area – which is to be managed in accord with designated wilderness where such non-conforming uses and structures should be prohibited.
The fire tower is not needed to provide views. The mountain summit already provides spectacular views of the lakes in the canoe area.
Urge that summit and trail management to St. Regis Mountain be maintained or redesigned as necessary to enhance wilderness conditions and character in the unit.
PROTECT, our board, staff and members, look forward to collaborating with the Department on moving forward wilderness management and ecological integrity within and beyond the unit
Public Comments Due March, 26, 2010
Hurricane Primitive and Jay Wilderness Comments to:
Robert Daley
NYS DEC
P.O. Box 296
Ray Brook, NY 12977-0296
EMAIL ADDRESS:
Cc:
St. Regis Canoe Comments to:
Steve Guglielmi
NYS DEC
P.O. Box 296
Ray Brook, NY 12977-0296
EMAIL ADDRESS:
Cc:
Thank you so very much for standing up for wilderness management and values in NYS Forest Preserve!
Dan Plumley
Director, Conservation Programs
Protect the Adirondacks!
P.O. Box 746
Keene Valley, New York 12943 USA
(518) 576-9277
(518) 637-2385 (cell)
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