For Immediate Release
February 9, 2005
Contact: David Gibson, 518-377-1452
Kevin Prickett, 518-946-2383
Wilderness and Wild Forest Plans Fail Legal Guidelines
Association Asks APA-DEC Staff to Bring Plans into Compliance
The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks today calls upon the Adirondack Park Agency to reject several management proposals that would damage sensitive parts of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and Vanderwhacker Wild Forest, large units of Adirondack Forest Preserve with a combined acreage of 206,000 acres. The Association believes these proposals, if implemented, would be inconsistent with the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan and sound wilderness management principles. Both Unit Management Plans (UMP) come before the APA for review as to their compliance with the Master Plan beginning tomorrow, February 10, at the Agency's monthly meeting in Ray Brook.
One proposal for the Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area would create an Indian Lake Islands Administrative Camping Area for sixteen shoreline camping sites within the Siamese Wilderness but under the management of operations staff at Indian Lake Campground. This shoreline was included within the Wilderness way back in 1987, but has been managed by DEC operations ever since as an intensive use camping area, contrary to law. Administrative Campgrounds on State Land in the Adirondacks should be classified as Intensive Use. They are illegal and inappropriate within Wilderness.
An Association field investigation to this Wilderness shoreline last fall revealed evidence of extreme soil compaction and erosion, illegal tree cutting, and pollution due to pit privies near the lake. All sixteen Wilderness camp sites are accessible by motorboat from the Indian Lake State Boat Launch. DEC is proposing to permit camp sites within 1/8 of a mile from each other to remain in violation of Wilderness guidelines that establish 1/4 mile separation to maintain Wilderness solitude unless severe terrain intervenes, and despite the clear evidence the human carrying capacity has been exceeded.
"This is a Wilderness shoreline. DEC is obligated to begin to immediately manage this entire shoreline, including the camp sites, under Wilderness guidelines established in the Master Plan," says the Association's Executive Director David Gibson. "DEC can accomplish these Wilderness objectives by proposing actions and regulations in the UMP that help to educate visitors about Wilderness guidelines, immediately close more of these campsites, revegetate them, stop motorboat access to these sites, stop illegal tree-cutting, remove picnic tables, and create an enforcement mechanism within the NYS Forest Rangers. The APA should reject the idea of an Administrative Camping Area which has resulted in the plainly visible damage to Wilderness environments."
A second proposal in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness Plan perpetuates the overly-intensive human use at the north end of Thirteenth Lake. While the Association supports DEC's goal of making some of these camp sites accessible to persons with disabilities, it opposes DEC's proposal to wave the Master Plan's minimum 500-foot sight and sound separation distances in order to squeeze four universally accessible camp sites into this small and sensitive area. "The Master Plan requires a minimum 500-foot separation distance between primitive campsites in Wilderness. There are no exceptions, and none should be created here. We ask the APA to work with DEC to create special regulations for this end of Thirteenth Lake as a management tool that protects the Wilderness resource and still permits several universally accessible sites to be developed that comply fully with Master Plan guidelines," Gibson says.
Within the Vanderwhacker Wild Forest, DEC is proposing to allow clusters of roadside "Primitive" group-camping sites that will perpetuate and expand damage to natural resources in the Forest Preserve. "DEC is expanding the legal definition of Primitive Tent Site to include immediately adjacent parked cars, trucks, campers and RVs. This intensity of use stretches the legal definition of Primitive Tent Site beyond recognition," says the Association's Kevin Prickett. "Intensive campgrounds along roadsides in Wild Forest contradict the intent of the Master Plan and "forever wild" Forest Preserve."
The Master Plan definition of Primitive Tent Site reads: "a designated tent site of an undeveloped character providing space for not more than three tents designed to accommodate a maximum of eight people on a temporary or transient basis, and located so as to accommodate the need for shelter in a manner least intrusive on the surrounding environment." By contrast, Campgrounds are "designed to accommodate a significant number of overnight visitors" and further defined as "not meeting the standards for individual, primitive tent sites or lean tos." The Association asks APA and DEC staff to work together to prevent Campground conditions along Wild Forest roadways, separate motor vehicles and actual Primitive Tent Sites, and protect and perpetuate the natural conditions of these areas.
The Association supports many other proposals in these UMPs, including the removal of all cable footbridges over the East Branch of the Sacandaga River. It also supports the retention and rehabilitation of the firetower on Vanderwhacker Mountain, among many other proposals in that Plan that meet Master Plan guidelines for Wild Forest areas.
"As a general statement, we are most concerned that these UMPs are insufficiently attentive to the guidelines for management and use of the Forest Preserve outlined in the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan," says Gibson. "The Master Plan makes it very clear that the protection and preservation of the natural resources on Forest Preserve must be paramount."
The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks is a non-profit, member-supported organization founded in 1901 to protect the Forest Preserve and defend the "forever wild" clause of the NYS Constitution. Its Advocates for Wilderness Stewardship program seeks to raise the standards of excellence for the stewardship of the NYS Forest Preserve. Its Center for the Forest Preserve in Niskayuna serves as a conservation library and learning center.