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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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- “State:
Stop buying land” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (Letter
to the Editor, Published in The Adirondack Journal, Warrensburg,
N.Y., January 15, 2011)
The accolades accorded to the State of New York’s
purchase of 87,000 acres of conservation easements in November
are misplaced. Whether the purchase is conservation easements
or of “fee simple” title where the
land is transferred to the Forest Preserve as “forever
wild,” the effect is to stymie the future of the
local economy.
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- “DEC Administrative
Judge Rules in Favor of McCulley’s Use of Old Mountain
Road” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, May 31, 2009
The DEC’s Chief DEC Administrative Law Judge
James T. McClymonds concluded that the Department of Environmental
Conservation staff failed to overcome the presumption that
Old Mountain Road between the towns of North Elba and Keene
in Essex County continues to exist as a public highway, whether
as a town road or other legal public right-of way. DEC Commissioner
Alexander B. Grannis then dismissed the DEC enforcement proceeding
that had been brought against James W. McCulley because he
drove his truck into the Adirondack Forest Preserve on the
road.
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- “DEC
Should Control Its Beavers” - By Carol W. LaGrasse,
PRFA, May 31, 2009
A beaver dam burst in Warren County, New York, releasing
a barrage of water that washed out forty feet of the Upper
Hudson Railroad tracks in Riparius. Taxpayers are upset at
facing still another delay and expense related to the exorbitant
railroad restoration project. But the Department of Conservation,
which owns the beavers, should pay for the repair.
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- “Energy
Issue Requires a Rational Approach” - By Carol W.
LaGrasse (Letter to the Editor, Published in The Post-Star,
Glens Falls, N.Y., November 13, 2008)
Today, the energy issue urgently demands a rational approach
to forest management. The time has come for the legislature
to revisit the State Constitution’s “forever
wild” clause, which forbids timber harvesting
on 3 million acres of state-owned land in the Adirondack Forest
Preserve, plus forest preserve lands in the Catskills.
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- “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.
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 “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.
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 “Wild Cities, Suburb Zoos,
and Rural Atrocities” - By Nathaniel R. Dickinson
(PRFA, July 2006
Instead of choosing wildlife policies on the basis of their
emotional appeal, management agencies should adopt scientifically
sound policies to deal with the frequent and severe conflicts
between wildlife and humans.
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- “Our Hike
on the Threatened Road to Whitehouse-A Photo Story, April
11, 2006” - by Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 2006)
In order to enlarge the Silver Lake Wilderness, the State
Department of Environmental Conservation proposes to deliberately
destroy the West River Road, a town highway leading to the
historic site of Whitehouse on the West Branch of the Sacandaga
River in Wells, N.Y. Two fine steel suspension footbridges
will be deliberately allowed to deteriorate, locally cherished
old stone chimneys at the ghost town will be lost, and large,
active campsites enjoyed since at least 1962, when the State
acquired the land, will be deliberately destroyed. Access
to a nineteenth century cemetery will be cut off.
- “The
Cemetery at Whitehouse” - Photo Story by
Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 2006)
The DEC’s radical eradication of highways
closes down access to cherished cemeteries, so that descendants
and local people who would like to visit, pay their respects,
and maintain the graveyards are stymied.
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- “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.
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 “Statement - Wilcox Lake Wild Forest”
- By Peter J. LaGrasse, Captain, Stony Creek Emergency Squad,
& Chairman, Stony Creek Board of Assessors, DEC Meeting,
Thurman Town Hall, March 8, 2002
Harrisburg Road should be cleared through beyond Moosewood
Club and Baker’s Clearing to Wells, other roads
cleared, and a network of roads created for pickup trucks,
which are what people drive to go fishing, ATVs for recreation,
emergency use vehicles, and ambulances.
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- “Statement
- Wilcox Lake Wild Forest” - By Carol W. LaGrasse,
President, Property of America, DEC Meeting, Thurman Town
Hall, March 8, 2002
Swaths of open area should be cut as fire breaks. Ancient
highways should be opened and trails widened for fire protection
vehicles. Waite Road and other old roads should be opened
to access State land. The State should reverse its anti-ATV
policy. Cemetery access should be respected. The State’s
environmental review should include the cultural and economic
impacts, not just biological aspects.
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- “DEC settles
in access for disabled lawsuit”-Reprinted by permission
from the Hamilton County News, July 10, 2001
The State of New York has caved in to three years of civil
rights litigation brought by disabled local residents in federal
court. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
will give the disabled real access to the State Forest Preserve
lands in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains-including access
to motor vehicle roads exclusively used by the State and the
expenditure of nearly $4.8 million to make parking areas,
restrooms, fishing access sites, boat launches, campsites,
picnic areas, equestrian mounting platforms and offices accessible
to the disabled.
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- The 1995 Adirondack Blowdown
The tangle of dead forest left behind by the devastating
July 15, 1995 blowdown remains in place because of the pressure
of the Adirondack Council on Governor Pataki to “protect”
the wild forest. At that time the State Department of Environmental
Conservation’s study pronounced the maximum level
fire hazard possible existed. The current status of thus hazard
has not been revisited. Today, the trunks caught high and
dry are surrounded with a dense growth of evergreens, which
are fine kindling. With seven million acres of western forests
destroyed by fire during 2000, it should be apparent that,
even in an area not prone to drought, a wildfire hazard in
New York in areas mixed with private property, towns, and
villages should be a prime concern of public policy makers.
Below are reprinted some of PRFA’s materials pointing
out the ironies of the State’s inaction during
1995-96.
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