Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve

ADIRONDACK WILD EXCLUSIVE

Reimagine the APA: How should the APA position itself for the future?
By Chad Dawson

Nelson Rockefeller signing legislation. Explorer file photo

The Adirondack Park Agency Act was a bold plan born with considerable thought, vision, controversy and hope for the future.

Now we are 50 years into that future. Most supporters and critics would likely agree that the main purpose of the act, to “insure optimum overall conservation, protection, preservation, development, and use” of the park’s public and private resources and open space character was achieved. But the degree of success attributed to the act depends on each person’s perspective, hopes and aspirations for the park.     

With the lessons learned in this grand historical experiment, and some experience, wisdom, and insight, how do we refocus on the promise and vision of the APA Act? Some reappraisals have been suggested by Adirondack advocates and supporters.

RECENT FIELD NOTES

06/01/21 Fragmenting Whitney Park? News on May 29 comes from the Times Union’s journalist Wendy Liberatore that the late Marylou Whitney’s husband John Hendrickson plans to apply for an 11-lot subdivision of Whitney Industries land in Long Lake. Unable to sell the 36,000-acres in one fell swoop, Hendrickson tells the TU journalist that he will change the name to Whitney Real Estate and try for a permit allowing one private, two-three-thousand-acre estate on each of 11 lakes, leaving him, he estimates, with $238 million. read more >

05/20/21 Adirondack Nature Conservancy – An Unheralded Founder While visiting the Adirondack Nature Conservancy website this week I am reminded of this chapter’s founding fifty years ago. Like the legislative formation of the NYS Adirondack Park Agency, an Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy was one of the 181 recommendations of the Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks, which reported to Governor Nelson Rockefeller and the public in 1970. read more >

5/07/21 The Court’s Snowmobile Connector Decision in Perspective The NYS Court of Appeals has just decided by a 4-2 majority, that New York State agencies under Governor Andrew Cuomo have violated Article 14, Section 1 of our State Constitution by impermissibly constructing snowmobile community connector trails through the ‘forever wild’ Forest Preserve, removing rocks, grading the trails, bench cutting the trails, and cutting thousands of trees.
read more >

4/23/21 An Earth Day remembrance: lessons in Adirondack activism Adirondack wilderness champion, conservationist, author, filmmaker and hunter/fisher Paul Schaefer (1908-1996) was a pied piper for young people in search of a cause, just as John Apperson and Bob Marshall had been for him when Schaefer was in his early 20s. During the 1980s and ’90s, Paul was in his eighth decade of life, and scouts, teens and Earth activists of all ages found a way to Paul’s doorstep in search of wisdom and to gain a sense of Adirondack history and current direction. read more >

4/09/21 At 50, how are APA and DEC Performing? In the just-approved 2021-22 state budget is a $3 billion-dollar environmental bond act, subject to voter approval in November 2022. If approved, it may make a small dent in the $60+ billion needed statewide to upgrade our state’s old water and sewage treatment systems. If approved, it may help to do even more than we are doing today to prepare and make more resilient New Yorkers and their villages, towns, counties and cities for the more frequent and more severe weather events that will continue during a warming climate. read more >

3/18/21 Demystifying Wildlands Monitoring The long promised public unveiling of the Wildlands Monitoring Guidance by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) and Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), once again, did not occur. It was planned for the March APA Board meeting and was pulled from the agenda during that two-day meeting. What is so secret about it? Nothing, actually. So, why the repeated lack of transparency over multiple years?
read more >

SAFEGUARDING THE WILD | EXTENDING THE WILD | EDUCATING FOR THE WILD

WILD ACTION NOW!

05/21/21 • 'No data, No Science' read more >

05/19/21 • Good editorial about state tree cutting read more >

04/21/21 • Debar Lodge proponents map out process for saving it read more >

04/19/21 • Marina lawsuit presses state to study read more >

03/31/21 • Hiker parking reservation system coming read more >

03/30/21 • DEC, Private Club Piloting High Peaks Hiker Reservation System read more >

News Archives >

06/02/20 • Whitney Subdivision Plans threaten Adirondack Park read more>

05/04/20 • Adirondack Wild Applauds Court of Appeals Decision in Snowmobile Community Connector Case read more>

04/12/20 • Adirondack Wild Lauds APA Recommendation to Maintain Rural Use read more>

Press Archives >

06/09/21 • Fish Creek Campground Unit Management Plan read more >

06/02/21 • Threat to the Adirondacks and Need for A. 4074/S. 1145 read more >

04/15/21 • Letter to Members of NYS Senate and NYS Assembly read more >

Comments Archives >

The mission of Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve is to advance New York’s ‘Forever Wild’ legacy and Forest Preserve policies in the Adirondack and Catskill Parks, and promote public and private land stewardship that is consistent with wild land values through education, advocacy and research.

Photos: Top left: Adirondack scenery © Ken Rimany;
Field Notes From the Partners: Carved 'Beaver House' sign - by Paul Schaefer. Photo © Ken Rimany;
Wild Action Now photo: Dan Plumley at the Keene Valley Library, along with Naj Wikoff, sharing what they learned and offered to the gathering of leaders at the Conference of World Parliamentarians on Tibet. Photo © Ken Rimany.