PROPERTY RIGHTS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA,
INC.
P. O. Box 75, Stony Creek, NY 12878
(518) 696-5748 prfa@prfamerica.org
www.prfamerica.org
EMERGENCY ALERT:
Comment Period Extended to September 17, 2010
MOOSE RIVER PLAINS PLAN TO TAKE AWAY MUCH HUNTING ACCESS
Please e-mail (or mail) your comment by September 17, 2010 to both the APA and DEC in opposition to their revised plan for the Moose River Plains Wild Forest. The plan should be rejected.
Moose River Plains is often said to be the most important and popular sportsmen’s destination within the Forest Preserve. It is located mainly in western Hamilton County and is reached from the Town of Indian Lake by traveling west along Cedar River Road or from Inlet by traveling south on Limekiln Road. The Moose River Plains, which is the largest block of remote land in the Adirondacks readily accessible by motor vehicle and contains 48 miles of dirt roads, was acquired from the Gould Paper Company in 1963 for the purpose of sportsmen’s recreational use, not to become wilderness. The businesses in the local towns depend on the visitors to help maintain their economy.
Some key points of what is wrong with the incredibly
complicated plan:
The state will reduce the number of campsites, from 170
to 83 (with a future goal totaling 150) along the Cedar River
Road. Hunters who spoke at the Indian Lake hearing on August 16
commented that they do not trust DEC to actually build the sites
as proposed.
Alleging that they have to redo the management of the region because
the motor vehicle-accessed campsites do not adhere to their State
Land Master Plan, the DEC and APA have come up with an elaborate
set of changes to the both Master Plan and the Unit Manage Plan.
They’ll allow only a narrow strip of land one-tenth of
a mile (528 ft.) wide along both sides of the 23.9-mile Cedar
River Road where campsites will be located, but hidden from the
road and each other, and not adjacent to campers’ parked
vehicles. The agencies are proposing to call the string-like strip,
which is only 2,925 acres, an “Intensive Use” area,
as their response to the local towns and the sportsmen, who protested
the agencies’ earlier plan for a shutdown of motorized access.
Both Otter Brook Road and Indian Lake Road will be closed although they are popular for camping. The DEC will reduce these roads to trails, with only foot travel or horseback allowed.
Forty-nine miles of snowmobile travel will be closed, but only 14 new miles created, resulting in a 35 mile overall loss, but a new trail will be a connector trail.
To “balance” this voluminous supposed compromise, the agencies propose to convert 15,062 acres of the Moose River Plains Wild Forest to Wilderness, to be added to the southerly West Canada Wilderness. Their sacrosanct State Land Master Plan dictates that motor vehicles are prohibited in Wilderness and they block off all the roads. No campsites will be provided there.
Please send comments to:
Richard Weber, Adirondack Park Agency
P.O. Box 99, Ray Brook, NY 12977
apa_slmp@gw.dec.state.ny.usJosh Clague, DEC
625 Broadway, 5th fl., Albany, NY 12233
lfadk@gw.dec.state.ny.us
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