Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan
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State of New York Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan August 2019 STATE OF NEW YORK ADIRONDACK PARK STATE LAND MASTER PLAN August 2019 STATE OF NEW YORK Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY Terry Martino, Executive Director DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION Basil Seggos, Commissioner ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY P.O. BOX 99, RAY BROOK, NEW YORK 12977 518-891-4050 www.apa.ny.gov MEMBERS OF THE ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY As of August 2019 Arthur Lussi, Essex County William H. Thomas, Warren County Daniel Wilt, Hamilton County John L. Ernst, New York County Chad P. Dawson, Onondaga County EX-OFFICIO Basil Seggos, Commissioner Department of Environmental Conservation Robert Stegemann, Designee Rossana Rosado Howard A. Zemsky, Commissioner Secretary of State Department of Economic Development Lynne Mahoney, Designee Bradley Austin, Designee Executive Director Terry Martino CONTENTS I. Introduction ...............................................................................................1 Legislative Mandate ....................................................................................1 State Ownerships .......................................................................................1 Private Ownerships ....................................................................................2 Public Concern for the Adirondack Park ...................................................................... 4 Acquisition Policy Recommendations .........................................................6 Land Exchange ...........................................................................................8 Plan Revision and Review ..........................................................................8 Unit Management Plan Development ....................................................... 10 Invasive Species ....................................................................................... 12 Special Historic Area Unit Management Plans ......................................... 12 Interpretation and Application of the Master Plan ..................................... 13 II. Classification System and Guidelines .................................................. 14 Basis and Purpose of the Classification ................................................... 14 Definitions ................................................................................................. 17 Wilderness ................................................................................................ 22 Primitive .................................................................................................... 28 Canoe ....................................................................................................... 32 Wild Forest ............................................................................................... 34 Intensive Use ............................................................................................ 41 Historic ..................................................................................................... 45 State Administrative .................................................................................. 46 Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers ....................................................... 47 Travel Corridors ........................................................................................ 50 Special Management Guidelines .............................................................. 57 II. Area Descriptions and Delineations ..................................................... 58 Wilderness Areas ..................................................................................... 58 Primitive Areas ......................................................................................... 84 Canoe Area ............................................................................................ 102 Wild Forest Areas ................................................................................... 104 Intensive Use Areas ............................................................................... 119 Historic Areas ......................................................................................... 121 State Administrative Areas ..................................................................... 123 Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System ........................................ 125 Travel Corridors ...................................................................................... 127 Scenic Vistas .......................................................................................... 129 Special Management Areas.................................................................... 131 APPENDIX I: Section 816 Master Plan for Management of State Lands ..................... 133 APPENDIX II: State-held Conservation Easements within the Adirondack Park ........... 135 “As a man tramps the woods to the lake he knows he will find pines and lilies, blue herons and golden shiners, shadows on the rocks and the glint of light on the wavelets, just as they were in the summer of 1354, as they will be in 2054 and beyond. He can stand on a rock by the shore and be in a past he could not have known, in a future he will never see. He can be a part of time that was and time yet to come.” from Adirondack Country by William Chapman White I. INTRODUCTION Park Agency Act (Article 27 of the Executive Law - "The Act") and its THIS DOCUMENT SETS FORTH legislative history, but also from a the master plan for all state lands within century of the public's demonstrated the Adirondack Park. The classification attitude toward the forest preserve and system and guidelines set forth in the Adirondack Park. Fortunately the Chapter II and the attached map are amount and variety of land and water designed to guide the preservation, within the Adirondack Park provide management and use of these lands by today and will provide in the future, with all interested state agencies in the careful planning and management, a future. Insofar as forest preserve lands wide spectrum of outdoor recreational protected by the "forever wild" and educational pursuits in a wild forest provisions of Article XIV, §l of the setting unparalleled in the eastern half Constitution are concerned, the of this country. provisions of the master plan are intended to be constitutionally neutral. While obviously no structure, im- LEGISLATIVE MANDATE provement or use held to be unconstitutional is permitted by this The legislative mandate of the Master Plan, no inference as to the Agency regarding this master plan for constitutional appropriateness or state lands was originally contained in inappropriateness of any given then Section 807 of the Act which is set structure, improvement or use should be forth in Appendix I. drawn from whether it is allowed or prohibited in a particular land classifica- In June 1972, following the statutory tion. This master plan is not intended to procedures and after extensive public make constitutional determinations hearings around the state, the Agency regarding unresolved issues under approved and submitted to Governor Article XIV, which are properly a matter Rockefeller the master plan for for the Attorney General and ultimately management of state lands which was the courts. The guidelines set forth in duly approved by him in July of that Chapter II allow certain structures, year. In 1973 the legislature improvements and uses in some land renumbered and then amended Section classifications and prohibit certain of 807 to Section 816, the text of which is them in other classifications. also set forth in Appendix I. If there is a unifying theme to the master plan, it is that the protection and STATE OWNERSHIPS preservation of the natural resources of the state lands within the Park must be While the Act does not define the paramount. Human use and enjoyment term "state lands," the Agency has inter- of those lands should be permitted and preted it to mean land held in the name encouraged, so long as the resources in of, owned by or under long-term lease to their physical and biological context as the State of New York or a state agency. well as their social or psychological In addition, due to the extensive State aspects are not degraded. This theme is control in the form of a permanent drawn not only from the Adirondack easement over the North Elba Park 1 District lands on Mt. Van Hoevenberg, constitutionality of such legislative or these lands have also been considered administrative classifications of land as State lands for the purposes of the Plan. non-forest preserve. Applying this definition, the following inventory of state lands exists within the Lands under the jurisdiction of the Adirondack Park: Department of Transportation: Lands under the jurisdiction of the These consist of the travel corridors Department of Environmental owned in fee, easement, or right-of-way Conservation: for state and interstate highways and certain railroad corridors within the Park, Substantially all of the including administrative headquarters, approximately 2.9 million acres of land storage areas and maintenance administered by the Department of facilities. Environmental Conservation form part of the Adirondack forest preserve and are Lands under the jurisdiction of other protected by the "forever wild" clause of state agencies: Article XIV, §l of the State Constitution. A small amount of acreage also These include a variety of administered by the Department of developed uses such as State