New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Division of Lands & Forests Region 5 Dix Mountain Wilderness Area Unit Management Plan Amendment Towns of Elizabethtown, Keene and North Hudson Essex County, New York January 2004 George E. Pataki Erin M. Crotty Governor Commissioner Lead Agency: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 625 Broadway Albany, NY 12233-4254 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Office of the Commissioner, 14th Floor 625 Broadway, Albany, New York 12233-1010 Phone: (518) 402-8540 • FAX: (518) 402-8541 Website: www.dec.state.ny.us Erin M. Crotty Commissioner MEMORANDUM To: The Record From: Erin M. Crotty Re: Unit Management Plan Dix Mountain Wilderness Area The Unit Management Plan for the Dix Mountain Wilderness Area has been completed. The Plan is consistent with the guidelines and criteria of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan, the State Constitution, Environmental Conservation Law, and Department rules, regulations and policies. The Plan includes management objectives and a five year budget and is hereby approved and adopted ___________________________________ Erin M. Crotty, Commissioner PREFACE The Dix Mountain Wilderness Area Unit Management Plan has been developed pursuant to, and is consistent with, relevant provisions of the New York State Constitution, the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL), the Executive Law, the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan, Department of Environmental Conservation (“Department”) rules and regulations, Department policies and procedures and the State Environmental Quality and Review Act. Most of the State land which is the subject of this Unit Management Plan (UMP) is Forest Preserve lands protected by Article XIV, Section 1 of the New York State Constitution. This Constitutional provision, which became effective on January 1, 1895 provides in relevant part: The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the Forest Preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, or shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed. ECL §§3-0301(1)(d) and 9-0105(1) provide the Department with jurisdiction to manage Forest Preserve lands, including the Dix Mountain Wilderness Area. The Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (“APSLMP” or “Master Plan”) was initially adopted in 1972 by the Adirondack Park Agency (“APA”), with advice from and in consultation with the Department, pursuant to Executive Law §807, now recodified as Executive Law §816. The Master Plan provides the overall general framework for the development and management of State lands in the Adirondack Park, including those State lands which are the subject of this UMP. The Master Plan places State land within the Adirondack Park into the following classifications: Wilderness; Primitive; Canoe; Wild Forest; Intensive Use; Historic; State Administrative; Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers; and Travel Corridors. The lands which are the subject of this UMP are classified by the Master Plan and described herein as the Dix Mountain Wilderness Area. For all State lands falling within each major classification, the Master Plan sets forth management guidelines and criteria. These guidelines and criteria address such matters as: structures and improvements; ranger stations; the use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment and aircraft; roads, jeep trails and State truck trails; flora and fauna; recreation use and overuse; boundary structures and improvements and boundary markings. It is important to understand that the State Land Master Plan has structured the responsibilities of the Department and the Agency in the management of State lands within the Adirondack Park. Specifically, the APSLMP states that: "..... the legislature has established a two-tiered structure regarding state lands in the Adirondack Park. The Agency is responsible for long range planning and the establishment of basic policy for state lands in the Park, in consultation with the Department of Environmental Conservation. Via the master plan, the Agency has the authority to establish general guidelines and criteria for the management of state lands, subject, of course, to the approval of the Governor. On the other hand, the Department of Environmental Conservation and other state agencies with respect to the more modest acreage of land under their jurisdictions, have responsibility for the administration and management of these lands in compliance with the guidelines and criteria laid down by the master plan." In order to put the implementation of the guidelines and criteria set forth in the APSLMP into actual practice, the DEC and APA have jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) concerning the implementation of the APSLMP. The document defines the roles and responsibilities of the two agencies, outlines procedures for coordination and communication, defines a process for the revision of the APSLMP, Dix Mountain Wilderness Area – Unit Management Plan January 2004 iii as well as outlines procedures for State land classification, the review of UMPs, state land project management, and state land activity compliance. The MOU also outlines a process for the interpretation of the APSLMP. Executive Law §816 requires the Department to develop, in consultation with the APA, individual UMPs for each unit of land under the Department’s jurisdiction which is classified in one of the nine classifications set forth in the Master Plan. The UMPs must conform to the guidelines and criteria set forth in the Master Plan. Thus, UMPs implement and apply the Master Plan’s general guidelines for particular areas of land within the Adirondack Park. Executive Law §816(1) provides in part that “(u)ntil amended, the master plan for management of state lands and the individual management plans shall guide the development and management of state lands in the Adirondack Park.” Acknowledgments Planning Team: Kristofer Alberga Forester 2 Division of Lands & Forests Lt. John Elithorpe Env. Cons. Officer II Division of Law Enforcement Robert Inslerman Biologist 2 (Wildlife) – retired 3/2003 Bureau of Wildlife Phil Johnstone Conservation Operations Supv. 2 Division of Operations Joseph LaPierre Forest Ranger 1 Forest Protection and Fire Mgt. Charlie Platt Forest Ranger 1 Forest Protection and Fire Mgt. William Schoch Biologist 2 (Fisheries ) Bureau of Fisheries Walter Linck State Land Program Assistant Adirondack Park Agency Staff Contributors: Paul Clickner Forest Ranger 1 Forest Protection and Fire Mgt. Brian Finlayson Cartographic Tech. 3 Bureau of Forest Preserve Mgt. Mike Grove Real Property Spec. 1 Bureau of Real Property Lt. Fred LaRow Forest Ranger 2 Forest Protection and Fire Mgt. Lt. Bob Marrone Forest Ranger 2 Forest Protection and Fire Mgt. Thomas Martin Forester 3 Division of Lands and Forests Robert Messenger Forester 2 – Central Office Bureau of Forest Preserve Mgt. Jim Papero Forester 1 – retired 3/2003 Bureau of Forest Preserve Mgt. Ed Reed Biologist 1 (Wildlife) Bureau of Wildlife Edwin Russell Forest Ranger 1 Forest Protection and Fire Mgt. Scott vanLaer Forest Ranger 1 Forest Protection and Fire Mgt. Richard Weber Supv. of Regional Planning Adirondack Park Agency Dix Mountain Wilderness Area – Unit Management Plan iv January 2004 Table of Contents PREFACE...................................................................... iii Acknowledgments................................................................ iv Table of Contents ....................................................................v Acknowledgments............................................................... vii Section 1 – Introduction ...............................................................1 Planning Area Overview............................................................1 Unit Geographic Information ........................................................2 ...............................................................................2 General Location..................................................................3 General Access ...................................................................3 General History...................................................................3 Section 2 – Inventory, Use And Capacity to Withstand Use ...................................6 Natural Resources.................................................................6 Physical .....................................................................6 Biological ...................................................................12 Visual/Scenic Resources/Land Protection ..........................................23 Critical Habitat ...............................................................24 Man-Made Facilities ..............................................................24 Past Influences ..................................................................24 Cultural.....................................................................24 Archeological and Historic Resources .............................................25 ..............................................................................26 Public Use ......................................................................27 Land Resources ..............................................................27 Wildlife.....................................................................29 Fisheries ....................................................................30