Executive Director's Report 2018-4 This R

TO: Board of Directors FROM: Peter Bauer, Executive Director DATE: July 16, 2018 RE: Executive Director’s Report 2018-4 This report covers activities from mid-May to mid-July 2018. The last report was provided to the Board in May 2018 (Executive Director’s report 2018-3). All ED Reports are posted on the Director’s page. Please note that we have a new direct phone line 518-251-2700 and our mailing address is PO Box 48, North Creek, NY 12853. PROTECT Programs Conservation & Advocacy High Peaks Wilderness and Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest UMP Amendments: Without much fanfare or even discussion about conformance with the APSLMP, the APA acted on July 12-13 to approve the UMP amendments to the High Peaks Wilderness and Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest areas. The CAC and Board had discussed these amendments. We encouraged members to submit letters during the public hearing, which 106 did, and we submitted our comments (posted on the website) on June 27th. The APA-DEC moved fast to get their paperwork done and handled the review in one meeting, not the two meetings, as required under the APA-DEC MOU. They also cut corners on the APSLMP and CP-3 policy. The only bright spot here is that DEC staff worked with Cad Dawson on an actual “carrying capacity” analysis that they plan to implement. Though vague and heavily subjective, and with out a schedule for implementation, or any financial support from DEC, it’s something. We need this type of analysis in the Forest Preserve to do basic things like size parking lots as well as to do more ambitious things like look at use restrictions/trail permits. Saranac Lake Wild Forest UMP: The APA closed its public hearing on the Saranac Lake Wild Forest UMP on July 13th, Over 60 PROTECT members submitted comments and we filed our comments on the 13th and they are posted on the website. This is a complicated UMP and one that has been in development for years. The challenge is that many of the campsites do not comply with the APSLMP with regards to separation Protect the Adirondacks! PO Box 48 North Creek NY 12853 [email protected] www.protectadks.org Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter (@ProtectAdkPark) distances from campsite to campsite and campsite to water. In the DEC draft UMP in 2017 they said that they would bring all campsites into compliance, but in the final UMP they are punting. DEC made the argument that the trampled and degraded areas are only those at campsites and a few trails, while the rest of the 79,000-acre unit is fine, and what they need is a formal carrying capacity analysis. Buildings on the Forest Preserve/Gooley Club: I sent in a letter and issued a press release on the failure of the DEC to state publicly that it will take down the Gooley Club buildings on Third Lake of the Essex Chain Lakes. In response, DEC issued this: The Lori Severino Public Information Officer, Office of Media Relations New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233-1016 P: (518) 402-8000 | F: (518) 408-5071 | [email protected] www.dec.ny.gov | | | “DEC will continue to work with the New York State Historic Preservation Office regarding this nomination, and ensure the rich Adirondack history of the Essex Chain Lakes area is preserved as we implement our ongoing actions identified in our Unit Management Plan.” -- Lori Severino, June 11, 2018, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation on decision to remove the Gooley Club buldings on Third Lake, Essex Chain Lake Background: Below is direct language from the UMP on this property: D. State Historic Preservation Act of 1980 As required by the Section 14.09 of the New York State Historic Preservation Act of 1980, the Department consulted with the of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) regarding the treatment of the Outer Gooley Club Farmhouse and the Inner Gooley Club buildings. OPRHP requested that the Department enter into ongoing consultation with that Office regarding the re-purposing of the Outer Gooley Club Farmhouse. The Department agrees to this and will continue to consult with OPRHP as detailed plans for the adaptation and use Outer Gooley Club Farmhouse are developed and implemented. In regard to the removal of the Inner Gooley Club buildings, OPRHP requested that the Department record these buildings prior to demolition and consider relocating one or more of the structures to the site of the Outer Gooley Club in order to ensure long term preservation. Further discussion of compliance with the New York State Historic Preservation Act of 1980 can be found in section IV. HISTORICAL RESOURCES. This followed letters and columns that outlined all the legal issues with buildings on the Forest Preserve. Canoe-in for Motorless Weller Pond on Saturday August 18th: As part of the effort to commemorate the Canoe-In for Wilderness at Little Tupper Lake on August 15, 1998 2 we’ve organized a week of fundraising paddling events August 13-17th (watch your mailboxes) that culminates with another canoe-in at Weller Pond on Saturday August 18th. Our goal is to get at least 100 canoe and kayaks in a protest flotilla calling for Weller Pond and Little Weller Ponds to be managed as motorless waterbodies. The DEC has refused to do this as part of the SLWFUMP, so this is an effort to renew pressure on the state. There will be a lot of logistics work, but we have good internal plans for how to stage the event at South Creek, but park people at another location. There will be a party afterwards and we’re working on the details. Forest Preserve Monitoring/Rutted and Ruined Redux: We received a Patagonia grant in May to help fund fieldwork to document ATV damage in the Forest Preserve in 2018. We have hired two interns, one a recent college grad who can work into the fall, another undergrad who is done in late August. I worked out a field protocol with Steve Signell that will coordinate with the Adirondack Atlas App and trained them with hikes up Ampersand Mountain and Coney Mountain. They are doing two things: 1) conduct trail inventories to assess conditions and document overuse; 2) document illegal ATV and motor vehicle use. On the trail inventory side, this will help us with work on cataloguing overuse issues. There will be a focus on the High Peaks. The interns use their smartphone with a downloaded Fulcrum App that we have written that contains trail inventory and facilities information. As information is collected, a GPS point is automatically recorded. We’re in the process of trying to enlist a team of volunteers to help with this project as well. In the long-run, it could be a big group of volunteers who really help to maximize the importance of this work. In the short-run, we hope to have good trail use data that helps with overuse planning at the DEC and documents motor vehicle trespass. On the ATV side, depending on what we find me may have material to release an update of Rutted and Ruined: ATV Damage on the Adirondack Forest Preserve published in 2003. That report catalyzed a series of events that shut down ATV use on the Forest Preserve, closing over 90 roads. We have received a $15,000 grant from Patagonia and we’re working on lining up other money as well for activities in the fall and spring and analysis. ORDA UMPS: Gore and Whiteface UMPs were approved by the APA. A new draft is out now for Mount Van Hoevenberg. High Peaks Trail Crew: The second High Peaks Trail Crew was only able to hire two people this summer. Similarly AFR and Backcountry Stewards positions were unfilled. DEC Land Acquisition: TNC continues to own Follensby Pond. OSI is working on inholdings in the southern Five Ponds Wilderness Area. High Peaks Management and Overuse: DEC is continuing to convene a stakeholders group on High Peaks issues. The reroute of Cascade is their first major undertaking. 3 Legislation The Legislative this year ended in a trainwreck. Betty Little said she would not take any action on conservation design and the Assembly held up other Adirondack legislation. APA Reform/Conservation Subdivision Design Bill: As previously reported a number of us have been working through a forum convened by the Common Ground Alliance on revision of A5451, legislation to reform the APA Act to ensure conservation development standards for all major subdivisions in the Adirondacks. This was a tortured and frustrating effort. Bob Glennon, Marilyn DuBois, and Barb Rottier deserves medals for going to these meetings and trying to work out an agreement with local government reps and others. In the end, I thought we had a workable product where local government leaders expressed support to Betty Little and Steve Englebright, but Betty Little killed it. Empire Forests of the Future: This bill failed during the budget session and again at the end of the session to create the long mythologized “480b” to modernize the NYS preferential forest tax law programs 480/480a. It largely failed because the groups backing it went their different ways and failed to remain unified. Article XIV Amendments Camp Gabriels: Caught up in the A5451 fiasco was a proposal for first passage of an Article XIV amendment for to clear the sale of buildings at Camp Gabriels. There was discussion about how to improve this amendment, but they did not get very far given the strained relations between Senate and Assembly.

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