“Before Leaving Office, Gov. Pataki Announces
Preservation of More Than One Million Acres; Northern Counties
Suffer Population Declines”-News
Brief, PRFA, March 2007
February 6, 2006
Open
Space Plan Public Comment Time Extension Denied
- Letter from Susan Allen, Editor & Publisher, Adirondack
Park Agency Reporter, to Francis Sheehan, N.Y. State Dept. of
Environmental Conservation
April 23, 2004
260,000-acres of International Paper Co. in Adirondacks to be
“Protected”
In celebration of Earth Day, April 22, 2004,
Gov. George E. Pataki announced the biggest acquisition of land
in the Adirondacks yet - 260,000 acres of International Paper
Co. forest in 9 counties and 34 towns within the Adirondack Park,
nearly all of IP’s Adirondack
holdings. In a deal involving the Conservation Fund, the State
will own 2,000 acres in fee simple and will acquire conservation
easements in 255,000 acres. Full
story
“Gov. Pataki’s State of the State: The Land
Acquisition Threat Among Platitudes & Promises” - PRFA, January 2004.
Gov. Pataki announced that the State has now “protected
500,000 acres,” of his targeted ten-year
goal of one million acres of land.
September 2002:
“Governor
Pataki Announces Plan to Preserve an Additional One Million Acres
of Land”
November 2001:
“Open
Space Plan Reveals the Same Old Illegalities—DEC Fails to
Reveal Full Extent and Impact of its Land Acquisition Plans”
- Press Release (PRFA, November 13, 2001)
October 2001:
DEC Open Space Conservation Plan
The New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation, and Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
have revised the land acquisition plan, “Conserving Open
Space in New York State 2001.” The 485-page draft plan and
generic environmental impact statement describe the philosophy
of the two agencies and their wish lists for new government land
acquisitions, and gives the regional advisory committee reports.
February 2001:
“Pataki
Wants to Increase Funds to Buy Land”
See Also
“Vermont Study Affirms Short-term Protections
for Champion Leaseholders but Rejects Perpetual Protection for
the Camp Culture”
Additional Resources
New York State Open
Space Conservation Plan
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
address
French-Canadian Residents Ousted from Their Land in
Indian Lake - Historian’s report,
posted March 2005, originally attached to New York State’s
1987 management plan for Siamese Ponds area.
The “Report of the Town and County Historian of
the Area Known as ‘Little Canada’in the
Town of Indian Lake” by Ted Aber, Historian, January
25, 1982, tells how the French-Canadian residents were, “without
exception, ousted from their land” when it was sold
to New York State. In 1987, the APA Siamese Pond “Wilderness”
designation threatened access to the cemetery and abandoned settlement
on historic John Pond Road. The State closed the old road anyway.
Essential Books
& Publications
Conserving Open
Space in New York State—1997 promulgated by New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation
(This is the latest revision of the Open Space Conservation Plan.)
The Property Owner’s
Experience—New York’s Arbitrary and Excessive Environmental
Regulation of Private Land and Resources - Observation and Recommendations for Reform by
Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA 1998)
Publication
Order Form
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In-Depth Information
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 “Enormous
Wilderness Corridors Masquerading as Land Management Refinements”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Reprinted from New York Property
Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 15, No. 1 (PRFA, Spring 2011)
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s
Strategic Plan for its 442 state forests comprising 786,000
acres outside the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves
focuses on ensuring connectivity for wildlife movement between
large “matrix blocks” of state forests
maintained as mature cover connected with wide, natural strips
of land with a high percentage of forest cover. This system
would enhance connectivity though deep forested areas from
Ontario to Georgia.
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- Adirondack Council Displayed
Its Real Character - Letter to the Editor, By Carol W.
LaGrasse, Published in The Post-Star, Glens Falls,
N.Y.
The Adirondack Council displayed its real character with
its mean-spirited attack on the APA Local Government Review
Board when they passed a resolution against the State of New
York acquiring 60,000 acres of sustainably harvested timber
land formerly owned by Finch, Pruyn Co. of Glens Falls.
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- Letter
to U.S. Representative Scott Murphy about importance of
Federal Fair Housing Act to deal with Adirondack housing issue,
by Carol W. LaGrasse, Property Rights Foundation of America,
Inc., February 15, 2010
Letter by Carol W. LaGrasse follows up August 2009 letter
personally presented to Rep. Scott Murphy, and further urges
him to bring the federal Fair Housing Act to bear on the APA
and DEC obstruction of access to housing.
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- “Hunting
Camps to be Saved on Champion Conservation Easements”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, January 2010
Over ten years after Gov. George Pataki announced that
all 298 hunting camps on the former Champion International
lands would have to be removed, the DEC has issued a revised
conservation easement to allow 200 camps on the easement lands
to remain in perpetuity. This will continue the long-standing
cultural and social tradition of allowing people to enjoy
local hunting and fishing clubs in the Adirondack region,
according to DEC. The original plan was “a mistake,”
the lands and forests director said.
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 “The
Meaning of the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve”
- By Peter J. LaGrasse, Chairman, Stony Creek Board of Assessors,
Thirteenth Annual National Conference on Private Property
Rights (PRFA, Lake George, N.Y., October 17, 2009)
The meaning of the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve
is made clear by a study of the technical literature of proponents
and a map study of the state acquisition of land in the Adirondacks
since the designation in 1989. The core area, reserved to
be without human influence, is defined as all of the state-owned
land. The areas between the state-owned land in 1989 are rapidly
being filled in with fee simple state acquisitions and state
purchases of conservation easements. The Biosphere Reserve
designation, which is under UNESCO auspices, is at the heart
of the goal to depopulate the region.
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- “The
Adirondack Park Agency Idea” - By Carol W. LaGrasse,
President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., Thirteenth
Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA,
Lake George, N.Y., October 17, 2009)
The idea of the Forest Preserve changed from one of protection
of the forest in the late nineteenth century to assure a benefit
to the state as a whole (primarily the protection of the flow
of water to assure commercial navigation on the Erie Canal
and the Hudson River) while extending fair policy to the local
people, to the current state policy of radical preservation,
massive state land acquisition, and a systematic program to
cause the depopulation of the local people in a vast region
many times the size of the original Forest Preserve.
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- “State
Acquisitions for Adirondack Forest Preserve Have Monumental
Hunting Impact” - Two-page flyer published by Property
Rights Foundation of America, Inc., February 8, 2009
The Department of Environmental Conservation misleads the
public about the purpose of land acquisitions for the Forest
Preserve. State ownership does not to increase access, as
claimed. This flyer summarizes ten years of DEC’s
actions to impede and close hunting access; eliminate hunting
camps; lock out snowmobilers, ATV’s, and motorized
vehicles; and close roads and state campsites. A roster of
major land acquisitions is also included.
Requires Adobe
Acrobat Reader
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- “Governor’s
Proposed State Tax Cap Would Be A Tax Outrage” -
By Carol W. LaGrasse, Property Rights Foundation of America,
Inc. Reduced size version (pdf) of advertisement that appeared
in the Adirondack Journal, January 31, 2009
A cap on the State payment of property taxes to localities
within the 6,000,000-acre Adirondack region would gradually
cause a damaging and destructive shift of the tax burden to
the already restricted and weak local economies. Fair play
demands that the Legislature’s long-established
doctrine to pay local taxes be upheld.
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- “Governor’s
Tax Cap Threatens 125-Year-Old Covenant to Pay Local Taxes”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Property Rights Foundation of America,
Inc., February 12, 2009
When the New York State Legislature established the Adirondack
Forest Preserve, the Legislature followed the recommendations
of the official commission, which concluded that because the
protection of the forest “would be chiefly for
the benefit of the rest of the State,” the State
should “hereafter bear taxes upon its lands in
the Adirondack region.” It may take 125 years,
but with control of much of the land, preservationists control
the tax base and future.
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- “Statement
in Opposition to Issuance of Tax-exempt Bonds to Finance The
Nature Conservancy Acquisition of the former Finch, Pruyn
& Co. Lands” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, President,
Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., December 2, 2008
(Public Hearing held by the Colorado Educational and Cultural
Facilities Authority, City of Glens Falls, N.Y.)
The proposed issuance of $45 million in tax exempt bonds
by the Colorado authority to refinance The Nature Conservancy’s
borrowing to acquire the 160,540 acres of Finch, Pruyn &
Co. lands in the Adirondack “Park”
should be disapproved by the IRS because the transfer of this
acreage in fee simple and perpetual conservation easements
will foreclose forever the development of these lands, further
desiccating the economy and future of the communities. About
100 square miles of the tract, the finest timber producing
land, would be transmitted in fee simple to become part of
the “forever wild” Forest Preserve,
where logging would be prohibited.
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- “Comments
on Granting The Nature Conservancy Tax-exempt Loan to Pay
for the Purchase of Finch Pruyn land in the Adirondacks, New
York State” - By Peter J. LaGrasse, Chairman, Stony
Creek Board of Assessors, December 2, 2008 (Public Hearing
held by the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority,
City of Glens Falls, N.Y.)
Using the example of the eradication of development potential
in a selected section of Stony Creek by TNC’s
planned sale to the State of New York of either conservation
easements or fee simple title, the chairman of the board of
assessors of the Town of Stony Creek explains his opposition
to the grant of the tax-exempt bonding bailout of The Nature
Conservancy to reduce its cost of borrowing to acquire the
former Finch Pruyn lands.
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- John Maye Personal
Statement Against Tax-exempt Bonds for The Nature Conservancy
- Transcript from public hearing held by the Colorado Educational
and Cultural Facilities Authority at City Hall, Glens Falls,
N.Y., December 2, 2008
After John Maye and his wife moved into their camp, The
Nature Conservancy approached the couple several times to
sell their property, but they weren’t interested.
“The Nature Conservancy was aware of the conjured
up violations by APA and DEC to force the sale of my property…March
28, 2008 my total maximum penalty was $2,962,000…”
The enforcement penalty was dropped after four years, but
the toll on his health remains great.
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- Letter in Opposition
to Tax-exempt Bonds for The Nature Conservancy to Acquire
Land in the Adirondacks - By Howard Aubin, Councilman,
Town of Black Brook, N.Y., E-mail to Frederic H. Marienthal,
Attorney for Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities
Authority, November 25, 2008
Requirements of IRS Code Sec. 147 for local government
approval have not been met. In addition, The Nature Conservancy
contacted an elderly couple this summer to buy their property
and when the couple refused to sell, the Adirondack Park Agency
threatened the couple with a $2.962 million fine. “Giving
such a bond to the Nature Conservancy only helps them to terrorize
more people within the Adirondacks.”
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- “Colorado
Tax-Exempt Bonds for TNC’s New York Land-Grab”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, November 2008
The Nature Conservancy is looking to the Colorado Educational
and Cultural Facilities Authority to rescue it from the level
of interest payments it is experiencing on $45 million that
it borrowed to acquire 160,540 acres of forestland in the
Adirondacks from paper manufacturer Finch, Pruyn and Co. to
flip to the state as “Forever wild”
Forest Preserve and conservation easements.
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- “Property Rights
Around New York” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, President,
Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc. (Speech to the
Building & Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson
Region, White Plains, N.Y., September 11, 2008)
On the anniversary of 9/11, the insidious attempt to repeal
new building code protections of high-rise office occupants
that were the culmination of the work of the best minds in
fire protection and engineering points to the true need for
government that would protect the economy and property rights
of New Yorkers by dealing with dictatorial historic preservation,
NIMBY obstruction of local development, utility obstruction,
warrantless rental inspections, overzealous wetland protection,
free-wheeling eminent domain, and limitless preservation-oriented
land acquisition.
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- “Black
Brook Wins First Round in Fight to Block Land Acquisition”
- by Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, April 30, 2008)
Acting Clinton County Supreme Court Justice Patrick R.
McGill ruled on April 21, 2008 that the State of New York
could not justify its motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought
by the Town of Black Brook and Howard Aubin, personally, to
assert the local veto power of the State’s acquisition
of 15,000 acres of Finch Pruyn lands within the town. The
veto power was established by the Environmental Protection
Fund act in 1993.
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- “Stop
Strangling the North Country” - by Carol W. LaGrasse
(PRFA, March 18, 2008)
The Governor should reject the privately negotiated land
deal between the DEC and The Nature Conservancy to acquire
57,699 acres of productive land that was formerly owned by
Finch, Pruyn and Co. of Glens Falls for the “forever
wild” Adirondack Forest Preserve and 73,627 acres
of conservation easements, the bulk of the rest of the Finch,
Pruyn land. Adding these vast acreages to the 3 million acres
of Forest Preserve and nearly 700,000 acres of DEC conservation
easements will further squeeze the economy and future of the
North Country
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- “Taxes on
State Lands,” excerpt from Report of the Comptroller
to the New York State Legislature, 1885 Assembly Document
#36, (January 23, 1885, pp. 21- 24)
This excerpt, entitled “Taxes on State Lands,”
from the Report of Comptroller Alfred C. Chapin to the Legislature
is the result of the work of a commission appointed pursuant
ty the Legislature in 1884 to “investigate and
report a system of forest preservation” related
to the “forests covering the Adirondack Plateau
and the relations which these forests bear to the commercial
and industrial interests of the State.” The recommendations
of the commission, known as the Sargent Commission, were of
paramount influence in establishing the state’s
Forest Preserve policies, including that for State payment
of taxes on the Forest Preserve lands. The commission’s
principle concern was the effect of forest devastation on
“the water-sheds of the principal streams of the
State.”
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- “Dillenburg
v. State of New York, Threat to Adirondack Tax Base”
- By Peter LaGrasse, Chairman, Board of Assessors, Town of
Stony Creek (March 3, 2008)
This paper shows the results of Peter LaGrasse’s
research into the history and law involving the case Dillenburg
v. State of New York. The historical documents demonstrate
the motivation of the framers of the 1886 legislation providing
for the state payments of taxes on the Forest Preserve land
on the basis of statewide benefit. However, LaGrasse expresses
concern with the State Supreme Court Chautauqua County (which
is under appeal) decision because this court precisely followed
a State Court of Appeals case.
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- “A
Sound, Consistent Policy” - “Worth Commenting”
By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, January 2008
Since 1886, the State has paid real estate taxes on its
Adirondack Forest Preserve, now amounting to three million
acres contained within the six million-acre “Blue
Line” of government and private land in northern
New York, because the State-owned lands provide a statewide
benefit of, first, watershed protection, and, additionally,
more recently, environmental preservation envisioned by statewide
residents. The economic sacrifice of the 100-plus towns and
villages in the Adirondacks has been recognized for over a
century, as well. Legal action to end these tax payments,
in Dillenburg vs. State of New York, is not justified.
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- “‘Smart
Growth’ to the Rescue” - By Carol W. LaGrasse
(PRFA, July 27, 2007)
The Spitzer Administration announced on July 17 that it
was setting aside $1 million for “smart growth”
planning to revitalize the economy of the Adirondack region.
But the Adirondack region already suffers from the groundbreaking
1973 smart growth-style Adirondack Park Agency Act. The economic
difficulty of the of the 12-county Adirondack region is caused
by the State Adirondack Park Agency’s radical
land use controls and the State’s voracious appetite
for land, driving up the price of real estate beyond local
means and leaving little land for any practical use.
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- “Unbridled
Radical Preservation” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Reprinted
from New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 11,
No. 2, Spring 2007)
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,
known as DEC, has (with the State parks office) finalized
its new Open Space Conservation Plan, dated November 2006,
but available only during spring 2007. The plan reveals that
the State currently owns 4,327,000 acres in fee simple plus
731,000 acres in conservation easements to save “open
space,” or a total of 5,058,ooo acres. All government
“open space” land ownership in New
York, in both fee simple and conservation easements, totals
5,486,500 acres. In 424 pages plus nine appendices, the plan
describes the means of government ownership and control to
preserve open space and the countless new goals to acquire
and control more land.
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- “New
York Property Rights Directions”-Speech by Carol
W. LaGrasse, Cato Institute Conference-“Property Rights
on the March: Where from Here,” December 1, 2006, Washington,
D.C.
An overview of where property rights stand in New York,
what the directions are, and where the work for our cause
has been effective: focusing on the battle to keep land in
private hands, holding off extreme land-use regulation, the
issue of conservation easements, regional preservationist
land-use battles, ubiquitous zoning conflicts; and eminent
domain.
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- “Open
Space Plan Announces Another Feeding Frenzy on Private Property”-By
Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, February 2006)
DEC’s 2005 Draft Open Space Conservation Plan
is based on unjust treatment of rural New Yorkers, insider
relationships with land trusts, and violation of environmental
law. The plan should be revamped and reissued in draft form
to comply with environmental law, revealing government land
ownership and protection inventories for each political subdivision
and with the full extent of the ultimate acquisition plan
divulged for the state and each political subdivision.
Photo Gallery
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- “Illegal,
Unjust, and Irresponsible” - by Carol W. LaGrasse
(PRFA, January 17, 2006)
DEC 2005 Draft Open Space Plan fails to reveal full extent
and impact of its land acquisition plans, violates the principles
of environmental justice and good government.
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 “They’ve Got a Little List”
- An original poem by Susan Allen. The poem was read at the
DEC hearing for the Open Space Plan at Ray Brook, New York
on Nov. 14, 2001. Inspired by The Mikado, with apologies
to Gilbert and Sullivan.
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- “Governor
Announces Acquisition of over 26,000 acres of International
Paper Company land in Adirondacks” - PRFA Bulletin,
October 6, 2001
In early October, DEC circulated Governor Pataki’s
announcement that the State and The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
have agreed to preserve 26,562 acres of land in the Adirondacks
primarily in Hamilton County, that TNC recently acquired from
International Paper Company (IP) for $10.5 million. The land
deal appears to be a mix of fee simple and conservation easements,
modeled after the Champion International acquisition.
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- “Governor
Announces Preservation of Adirondack Tracts” - Reprinted
from New York State Environment, published by the NYS
Department of Environmental Conservation, October 2001 (dated
“Spring/Summer 2001”)
Official press release about deal to acquire 26,562 acres
of International Paper Company land.
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- “Environmental
Justice in New York State—Statement to the DEC Environmental
Justice Advisory group, July 12, 2000, Albany, NY - by Carol W. LaGrasse,
President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.”
This statement, which was presented in Arbor Hill, Albany,
called attention to the DEC policy of deliberately pursuing
policies in the Adirondack North Country of massive land acquisition
that are eliminating the economic resource base and serving
to accomplish the extreme environmentalists’ aim
of de-populating the area. In response to questions posed
in the public invitation to testify, the statement includes
recommendations for environmental justice.
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- “Land
acquisition push gains steam” - by Carol LaGrasse,
reprinted from Hamilton County News, Feb. 18, 1992
An array of programs created by environmental preservationists
are aligning to effectively promote government acquisition
of Adirondack land. (This February 1992 article, posted in
May 2009, sheds light on two decades — so far
— of land acquisition policy.)
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