New information added on April 1, 2012

Skate Creek Club

St. Regis Club

Azure Mountain Club

Beaver Pond Club

Sunbeam Club

Benz Pond Club

Moose River Plains Plan to Take Away Much Hunting Access Apr. 9, 10, 11 PRFA to Exhibit at NEACA Arms Fair at UTICA AUD Sunday, February 28, 2010 PRFA at NEACA Show Holiday Inn at Lake George Oct. 31 - Nov. 1, 2009: PRFA to Exhibit at NEACA Arms Collectors Show in Saratoga City Center See photos from the show Fall 2006: Bulletin: “Remaining Champion Hunting Camps May Be Saved” - New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Fall 2006 July 2002: “Diamond Sportsmen’s Club Agrees to Cumbersome APA Permit” — By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA July 2002) Non-jurisdictional “hunting and fishing camp” classification by-passed. Member and guest monitoring, APA-managed logging, biological survey imposed. Club by-laws incorporated into permit, no club rule changes without APA permission. 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) February 2001: Fighting Back—Hunters Organize New Club and Inviting Additional Members Club buys land that environmentalists wanted the State to acquire “Diamond Sportsmen’s Club is Seeking New Members: Adirondack club is acquiring land around scenic pond and opening up membership to the public” - by Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, February 2001) December 2, 2000: “Appeal of lawsuit challenging State acquisition of Champion International lands” See Also

In-Depth Information “DEC’s Wolf Scheming” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, March 2012 (Reprinted from New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Winter 2011-2012, PRFA) DEC’s voluminous Strategic Plan for the State Forests (August 2010) and its 110-page June 2011 letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service demonstrate the state’s official policy to accomplish wolf recovery in New York State and the Northeast. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation letter to US Fish and Wildlife Service, June 30, 2011 - By Christopher A. Amato, Assistant Commissioner (8 pp. letter of the 110 pp. commentary and technical information transmitted to comment on “Proposed Rule to Revise the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife for the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) in the eastern United States, Initiation of Status Reviews for the Gray Wolf and Eastern Wolf (Canis lycaon)” This letter argues against the US FWS proposed rule change involving reclassification of the wolves in the Northeast, and warns that “the new National Wolf Strategy…would leave wolves in the Northeast without any federal protection and essentially abandon the possibility of wolf recovery in the Northeast.” “Buried in the State Budget: Over $50 Million to buy 75,000 Acres for ‘Forever Wild’ Adirondack Forest Preserve” - Letter to Members of the State Legislature, by Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., March 16, 2011 While the State Legislature fights about where to cut jobs to meet a huge budget shortfall, hidden in the tentative budget is $50 million to buy private Adirondack land from The Nature Conservancy to block it from public access and kick out the hunting camps: $40 million to acquire over 60,000 acres of prime timberland formerly owned by Finch Pruyn Co. and relegate it to ‘forever wild,’ never to be logged again, and over $10 million is to acquire 15,000 acres in the area of Follensby Pond, with the same fate. “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. Hunting Access and Hunting Club Leases Should All Be Saved - By Carol W. LaGrasse, Reprinted from New York Property Rights Clearinghouse Vol. 13. No. 3 — Summer 2009 Letter to DEC in Support of Revised Conservation Easement Allowing Hunting Camps to Remain on the Champion Lands - From Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, to Robert K. Davies, Director, Lands and Forests, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, E-mail, December 27, 2009 “Bulletin: Split Ruling on Adirondack Park Agency’s New Regulations” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, November 27, 2009 State Supreme Court Judge Robert Muller ruled on November 25 that the APA’s new regulations requiring a variance for most expansions of lakeshore houses are valid, but held that the new rules restricting non-jurisdictional hunting and fishing cabins to primitive conditions and the new rules eliminating automatic separate lots when a waterway or highway divide a parcel are invalid. “Victory at Hand: Hunting Camps Will Be Saved on Leases on Champion Conservation Easement Lands” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, December 5, 2009 Reversing its policy requiring the removal of all remaining hunting camps by 2013, the DEC has announced an agreement with Heartland Forestland LLC to allow 220 camps to remain permanently on leases located on the 110,000 acres formerly owned by the Champion International Corp where the DEC acquired conservation easements in 1999. “Hunting Impact of Land Acquisition” - By Susan Allen, Publisher & Editor, Adirondack Park Agency Reporter, Keene Valley, N.Y. — “Hunting Impact of Land Acquisition” (PRFA, Lake George, N.Y., October 17, 2009) “Is There an Adirondack Awakening?” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, April, 2009 (Reprinted from the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 13, No. 1) The extreme policies of the Adirondack Park Agency, Department of Environmental Conservation, and Governor David Paterson are arousing opposition that has been brooding for years. Local citizens and officials are expressing mounting anger about the state’s regulatory impositions; prosecutions of landowners; obstruction of economic development; unbridled state land acquisition; impeding and closing of travel, recreational access and campgrounds; and the attempted imposition of unbearable real estate taxes.  “Warning: Strict New APA Hunting and Fishing Cabin Regulations” - Flyer (Publ. Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., February 8, 2009) The jurisdictional exception for 500 sq. ft. or less hunting and fishing cabins under Resource Management that was negotiated into the APA law in 1973 is being watered down by imposing regulations that are tighter than the law, so that it will be harder to build a non-jurisdictional hunting and fishing cabin in the future.  “Adirondack Stretch of North Country National Scenic Trail Planned” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, January 2008 Property Rights concerns for the 140 mile stretch of the Adirondack segment of the 4,600-mile North Country National Scenic Trail include acquisition techniques, exact location, liability, ultimate ownership, and impacts on hunting and trapping. The plan for the trail has been moved out of the High Peaks region to a less scenic area to the south after over two decades of opposition by the Adirondack Mountain Club. North Country National Scenic Trail - Letter from Thomas L. Gilbert, Superintendent, Ice Age & North Country National Scenic Trails, Madison, Wisconsin, to Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., March 31, 2008 In response to Ms. LaGrasse’s February 18 and February 25 letters and her article in the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, Mr. Gilbert stated that the article recounted the North Country National Scenic Trail history “quite well.” He enclosed important documents and answered the questions Ms. LaGrasse raised about trail width, ownership of the trail, and hunting access, and discussed the trail liability issue. North Country National Scenic Trail - Adirondack Segment - E-mailed response to Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, from Thomas L. Gilbert, Superintendent, Ice Age & North Country National Scenic Trail, Madison, Wisconsin, February 19, 2008 This e-mail discusses whether the state or local government, or the National Park Service would own the Adirondack segment of the North Country trail, initially and ultimately; what the width of the land that is owned or managed for the trial will be; and what the width of the functional walking trail that is cleared and maintained will be. North Country National Scenic Trail - Letter from Thomas L. Gilbert, Superintendent, Ice Age & North Country National Scenic Trails, Madison, Wisconsin, to Peter Frank, Division Chief, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, January 4, 2008 Official Park Service comment on the Draft Adirondack Park Trail Plan for the North Country National Scenic Trail. A particular point that needed clarifying, was that the 47 miles of “New Trail” that will need to be built is in addition to the 27 miles of “Temporary Corridor.” These two categories total 74 miles in addition to the 70 miles of “Existing Trail” (including “herd paths”). A future Memorandum of Understanding is proposed, which would cover acquisitions, administrative policy, marking the trail, shared-use trails (to ultimately be hiking-only), and compatibility with range of existing landowners and landscapes. Viewing this letter requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. It is free software for viewing and printing Adobe PDF files. Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™ is free, and freely distributable, software that lets you view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files on all major computer platforms, as well as fill in and submit PDF forms online. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer it can be downloaded free by clicking the Acrobat Reader icon on the right. “DEC’s Insidious Disregard for the People—Comments on DEC Draft Wilcox Lake Wild Forest UMP”- By Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, March 2, 2007 DEC’s insidious disregard for the people is exemplified by its treatment of Stony Creek and environs. The proposed Draft Unit Management Plan for Wilcox Lake Wild Forest should be discarded. The plan should be re-drawn under new assumptions, with the local culture, economy, history, and the community included as salient factors in a plan that respects the local people. “Wild Cities, Suburb Zoos and Rural Outrages—Reflections on My Career in Wildlife Management”-By Nathaniel R. Dickinson, Wildlife Biologist, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006) To understand the today’s alarming increase in the conflict between different species of wildlife and man, Nate Dickinson recalls his successful effort to restore wildlife management in New York State to the legal mandate to maintain deer in balance with natural food supplies, to create conditions where man and nature can thrive in harmony. To prevent conflicts, there are places where wildlife should not be. “Land Acquired - But Wait, Access Closed” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Reprinted from the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, PRFA, Summer 2006) New York State’s announcements when acquiring vast tracts of private land for the Forest Preserve promise more access for the public, but over decades, more recently over a very short time, the campsites and access roads are being closed and the land is being cut off from hunters and other recreational users that do not fit the mold approved by extreme environmentalists.  “Out-foxing the Foxes” - By Nathaniel R. Dickinson (PRFA, May 4, 2006) A “rather universal human tolerance for the wild kingdom, fueled by the radical environmental movement,” has generated such unwelcome neighbors as foxes in Britain’s cities, aggressive bear in New Jersey suburbs, and uncontrolled deer populations causing millions of damage to agricultural crops and motor vehicles, including human fatalities. “Closing the Forest to the People—Eliminating Camps and Motor Vehicle Access: Comments on DEC’s Draft Unit Management Plan for the Moose River Plains Wild Forest” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, April 26, 2006) The New York State Administration is proceeding hell-bent to diminish the Adirondack economy by closing down long-existing access to the Adirondack Forest Preserve. DEC’s plan for the popular Moose River Plains would eliminate at least two miles of motor vehicle access roads, one bridge, 6.7 miles of ATV roads (including popular Otter Brook Road), 26.95 miles of snowmobile trails, and 99 campsites. “Commentary on Uncontrolled White-tailed Deer Populations” - By Nate Dickinson (PRFA, January 6, 2005) Deer-vehicle accidents with substantial human fatalities and rampant destruction of plants, gardens, and forest regeneration are the natural result of policies in opposition to sound, scientific management when Nate Dickinson was Big Game Leader for New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. “Adirondack Agency Puts Final Stranglehold on 18,896 Acres” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Property Rights Foundation of America, January 2005) The Adirondack Park Agency’s September 2004 permit for a final division of the Long Pond property in St. Lawrence County, N.Y., tightened the noose on the already desiccated future of a tract that was once the site, in 1972, of the “Horizon” development proposal, which environmentalists had then exploited to rush the APA act into law. APA Commission Photo Gallery Long Pond Tract Photo Gallery “Dispossessed” - By Susan Allen (PRFA, Sept. 2004) Book Reviews: Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It by Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove and Mists of the Couchsacrage: Rescue from State Land by Alden L. Dumas Dr. Mindy Fullilove’s Root Shock captures the mid-20th-century horror of loss of home in her documentation of urban renewal. The story Mists of the Couchsacrage by Alden L. Dumas is haunted by the banished hunting camps destroyed by New York State’s insatiable lust for wilderness, which it creates by eliminating the rural culture.  “Property Rights Bills in the New York State Legislature” - By Jeff Williams, Assistant Director of Government Relations, New York Farm Bureau - Speech to the Seventh Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October 18, 2003) The New York Farm Bureau’s 34,000 grassroots members succeeded in defeating a mislabeled “canned shoot” bill, which had no acreage limitation. Open burning and light pollution (fugitive lighting) bills threaten farmers. Tax exempt reform legislation could relieve undue burdens on property owners. “Hancock Tracts in Adirondacks are Sold Privately” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Reprinted from N.Y. Property Rights Clearinghouse, Summer 2003) GMO Renewable Resources Acquires 72,000 Acres in St. Lawrence County for $25.5 Million. Except for Camps on Earlier Conservation Easements, Hunting Club Leases to be Honored. “Gov. Pataki Vetoes Misleadingly named ‘Canned Shoot’ Bill” Upon the protests of upstate legislators, the farming community, and property rights activists, a bill to severely restrict game farming that was passed in June on the last days of the sessions of each house of the legislature, was vetoed by the Governor in August.  “St. Lawrence County Officials and Sportsmen Unite to Save Clubs — Stillwater Club Meeting Focuses on Keeping Hancock Tracts in Private Hands” — By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, April 20, 2003 Now that the 71,500-acre Hancock timberlands are being offered for sale, local officials, community leaders, and sportsmen are determined to avoid a repeat of the Champion International deal, where 298 hunting camps are slated for demolition to start soon on the 139,000 acres that the State acquired in 1999 in fee simple and conservation easements. “The Nature Conservancy is Quietly Acquiring ‘The Bob’ for the State” (Reprinted from the New York Property Rights Clearinghouse, PRFA, Summer 2002) The Twenty-first Century Commission’s 1990 wilderness plan was defeated by locals, but land acquisition goals are fast being executed. “Conservation Easements-A Second Look”-By Carol W. LaGrasse, Speech to the Boone and Crockett Club Annual Meeting, Hilton Rye Town, Rye Brook, N.Y., November 30, 2001 (PRFA, Dec. 2001) This speech to the Boone and Crockett Club, a nationwide hunting and conservation association founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887, addresses why conservation easements are hostile to hunting and ranching, as well as touching on the common dangers to farming and timber production. “Open Space Plan Reveals the Same Old Illegalities—DEC Fails to Reveal Full Extent and Impact of its Land Acquisition Plans,” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (November 28, 2001) Final comments on the draft New York State 2001 Open Space Conservation Plan. Statement points out that the plan violates the State Environmental Quality Review Act, SEQRA, by failing to reveal the current statistics of government land ownership and the full extent of future land acquisition plans. PRFA pointed out many other violations and inadequacies. “Town of Altamont Vetoes State Purchase of Forest Land —1999 Lawsuit Against DEC Acquisition of Champion International Lands Sparks Reform” - by Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 2001) Responding to a DEC’s new policy to request local approval for land purchases, the Altamont Town Board passed a resolution on May 21 to veto the DEC acquisition of 2,800 acres of productive timber land owned by the Oval Wood Dish Corporation. May 21, 2001: “A Resolution Opposing the Acquisition by the People of the State of New York of Forest Lands Reputedly Owned by Oval Wood Dish Corporation - Town Board, Town of Altamont, State of New York, County of Franklin,” - unanimously passed May 30, 2001: “Update on Adirondack Litigation” - Speech by Carol W. LaGrasse to the Adirondack Park Agency Local Government Review Board, Baxter Mountain Lodge, Keene, N.Y. The lawsuit challenging the State acquisition of the Champion International tracts and the lawsuit that Carol LaGrasse brought on April 30, 2001 challenging new regulations promulgated by the Adirondack Park Agency.

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