E-News from the
Center for the Forest Preserve
Volume 3, No. 3
April 21, 2005
Work at the Center:
Lovely spring weather has enabled restoration work at the Center's Paul Schaefer homestead to accelerate. Under the careful supervision of Ken Rimany and Jim Blendell, work crews have capped and cleaned the Adirondack Room fireplace, modernized the electrical system throughout the house and sheet-rocked the Schaefer rooms, hallway and living room. The original wainscoting in the living area will be put back in place, as will the Schaefer stairway. Outside, our building contractor is finishing the grading and seeding of the grounds. Soon, the Explorer Garden Club will begin to work with us to implement the first phase of a master gardening plan for the Center. In the adjoining woods and Reist Wildlife Sanctuary, the cottonwoods are in flower, wood frogs have already bred in the vernal pools and now toads can be heard trilling as the urgent breeding season takes its inexorable course in our more than human world.
Open Houses in May:
In our world at the Center for the Forest Preserve, we are looking forward to hosting the public at four open houses in May. Each Thursday in May from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm (May 5, 12, 19 and 26) the public is welcomed to tour the Center, invited to learn about our activities, and join the Association in its work. Trustees, Advisors and Special Friends of the Association are encouraged to bring their friends and neighbors. Parking is limited, so please encourage carpooling or, if you are from the immediate area of St. Davids Lane, Niskayuna, walking. For further information, please call us at 518-377-1452.
Our Work in the Adirondack Park:
The Association has led all other organizations in announcing its opposition this past week to a proposal to build ten very tall wind turbines and blades on private land on the summit of Pete Gay Mountain near Gore Mountain in the Adirondack Park. Please see our press release on this subject at www.protectadks.org.
The Association's Board of Trustees deliberated extensively about the costs and benefits of this proposal from the Barton Group and Reunion Power and concluded that the visual impacts of the proposed Adirondack Wind Energy Park are inconsistent with Article 14, Section 4 of the NYS Constitution (as distinguished from Article 14, Section 1, which pertains strictly to the lands of the State known as the Forest Preserve, Section 4 pertains to concern for and protection of scenic and aesthetic resources throughout the state) and that, while increased renewable energy is a goal that the Association strongly espouses, all proposals for such must be fully consistent with the Constitution and with the laws of the State of New York, in particular those of the Adirondack Park Agency and the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The Association was particularly concerned with the precedent such tall towers on a prominent ridgeline would create for the permitting within the Adirondack Park of mountaintop towers for any and all purposes, such as for wireless communications.
To quote from our release:
"Our Board of Trustees strongly believes that the aesthetic and scenic impacts of the proposal threaten the fundamental principles of the Adirondack Park and Forest Preserve as places set apart and not dominated by human impacts or technologies," stated Peter Brinkley, Board President who resides within the Blue Line in Jay, New York. "It is that wild legacy which supports and nourishes our recreational and tourist economy in the Adirondacks."
"We also recognize the fact that the Adirondack Park already contributes substantial renewable hydro and biomass energy to the state's renewable portfolio. We are working in Park communities and with the Governor's office to promote greater energy conservation that can better our contributions towards a more sustainable energy future," stated Conservation Committee Co-Chairman Dan Plumley of Keene, New York.
The Association calls for the state to play a leadership role in energy use reduction and conservation in the Adirondack Park by incorporating the latest energy conservation techniques in all state facilities and by encouraging the utilities and authorities like the New York Power Authority to provide financial incentives for "green" new construction and for energy retrofits to existing homes and businesses.
"While the ten wind towers likely would send their maximum of 25 megawatts of electricity into the regional grid for use outside of the Adirondack Park, coordinated state and private home energy conservation could dramatically reduce energy consumption directly in the Adirondack Park without compromising any of the Park's laws and policies," continued Plumley.
"If we value the very foundation of the protections afforded the mountains of the Adirondack Park and the reasons why people choose to live and visit there, then we must seek the highest standard of energy sustainability, a standard as high and as grand as our protected mountains," Plumley concluded. We received press coverage of our announcement at WAMC-FM Public Radio, North Country Public Radio, WNBZ-FM in Saranac Lake and in many newspapers around the state.
Our 2005 Annual Meeting: Please mark your calendars for the Association's 104th Annual Meeting on Friday, July 1st beginning at 10 AM at Union College's Inn at College Park (the former Ramada Hotel) in downtown Schenectady, New York. We plan our business meeting for our members and guests, a special speaker, lunch, award ceremonies and a quarterly Board meeting.
That's all for now,
David Gibson, Executive Director
Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks