Selection of Thirteenth Annual Conference Speeches
on the Adirondacks Published:
Book of Talks by Influential Grassroots Speakers Catches Spirit
of Event
Grassroots Speakers, Edited by Carol W. LaGrasse
Bulletin, May 12, 2010
PRFA’s New
“Welcome” Postcard:
Satirical Postcard Carries a Message about the
Adirondack Park
January 2010
Ordering Information
“Finch,
Pruyn & Co. is Sold to Connecticut Holding Company; Soon
All 161,000 acres of Timber Land Go to The Nature Conservancy” - News Brief, PRFA, August 2007
“Before Leaving Office, Gov. Pataki Announces
Preservation of More Than One Million Acres; Northern Counties
Suffer Population Declines”-News
Brief, PRFA, March 2007
Bulletin: “Remaining
Champion Hunting Camps May Be Saved” - New York Property
Rights Clearinghouse, Fall 2006
See Also
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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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- “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.
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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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- “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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 “Tax Base in the Adirondack
Park” - by Peter J. LaGrasse, B.S., B.A., Chairman,
Board of Assessors, Town of Stony Creek, N.Y (Speech presented
at the Fourteenth Annual National Conference on Private Property
Rights, Lake George, N.Y., October 23, 2010).
An examination of real property tax trends and local town
revenue streams from many sources reveals the extent to which
the tax base is volatile, subject to changes in economic activity,
or state or federal policies. Dating to policies traced back
to 1885, the state-owned-land portion of the tax base, which
amounts to 50.15% of Stony Creek’s tax base, is
vulnerable to political decisions, which could ultimately
precipitate the full implementation of the Biosphere Reserve
and depopulate the Adirondacks.
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- Statement
in Opposition to APA/DEC Plans for Moose River Plains
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E-mail to APA/DEC by Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, September 16,
2010
Sportsmen beware: The extreme plans for this most popular,
yet remote area of the Adirondacks will convert 15,062 acres
of land deeded as the Moose River Plains Recreation Area to
APA/DEC Wilderness category, forever cutting off roads and
all access except for use by the most athletic individuals.
So-called “roadside camping,” which
is simply camping where the motor vehicle can be driven on
a narrow dirt road to a parking spot close to the primitive
encampment, will be restricted to a thin string one tenth
of a mile wide on either side of Cedar River Road. In addition,
Otter Brook Road and Indian Lake Road will be closed. The
present number of camps of 170 will be reduced to 83. (Many
camps have already been stealthily taken away, reducing the
number from over 200.) Forty-nine miles of snowmobile trail
will be closed and only 14 miles created.
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 “A
State Snowmobile Plan & the Local Economy: Worth Commenting”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Reprinted from the New York Property
Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 14 No. 2 (PRFA, Early Summer
2010)
A new snowmobile plan for the area in the vicinity of Lake
Pleasant in Hamilton County, known by DEC and APA as the Jessup
River Wild Forest, is touted as facilitating a “connector"
between communities that stops the use of a popular established
route that is too deep in the forest for the environmentalists‘
taste. However, the “connector” dead
ends at the Piseco Community Hall, not exactly a snowmobile
destination, while prohibiting the use of Oxbow Lake to reach
the Oxbow Inn and Oxbow Hotel and eliminating short spurs
that make it possible for local residents to get to the trail.
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- “A
Letter to Residents and Legislators of the Adirondack Park”
- By James N. O’Rourke, Sr., Lake Pleasant, N.Y. 12108
Referring to the Town of Lake Pleasant and the Village
of Speculator in Hamilton County,World War II veteran and
former town supervisor James N. O’Rourke, Sr.,
describes the decline in this thriving community after the
Adirondack Park Agency came into existence in 1973.
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- “Statement
Opposed to the Rerouting Snowmobile Trails in Jessup River
Wild Forest” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, June 16,
2010
The proposed plan to reroute snowmobile trails in the Jessup
River Wild Forest does not satisfy the Adirondack Park Agency
law’s requirement for balance. The elimination
of trails, lake crossings, and spurs will threaten one of
the few surviving businesses in Lake Pleasant, the Ox-Bow
Inn on Route 8.
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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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- “APA Re-votes: Waters
& Underlying Land of Lows Lake Are Not Classified”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, November 14, 2009
According to the APA’s vote in September, the
waters and underlying land of Lows Lake on the border of Hamilton
and St. Lawrence Counties would be classified as “wilderness”
and “primitive” because the underlying
land is state-owned and most of the surrounding land was state-owned.
This would have been the first such determination where all
of the surrounding land was not state-owned. However, one
of the votes was invalid and the APA reconsidered the decision
at its November meeting. At this meeting, every commissioner
was present and all of the State agency designees sided with
the opponents of the classification. In addition, one of the
governor-appointed commissioners who had favored the classification
reversed his position. The new vote was 7 to 4 in favor of
approving the land use classification for the area around
Lows lake, but not the lake itself.
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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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 “Victory:
Old Mountain Road Opened to Motor Vehicles” - By
James McCulley, President, Lake Placid Snowmobile Club, Lake
Placid, N.Y., Thirteenth Annual National Conference on Private
Property Rights (PRFA, Lake George, N.Y., October 17, 2009)
Jim McCulley’s first-hand account of his successful
battle to restore motorized use to Old Mountain Road between
Keene and Lake Placid brings the entire history to life. This
is the first time DEC has been forced in court, both in the
Essex County Supreme Court and in the DEC Administrative Court,
to open up a town road that the agency tried to close.
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 “Righting
the APA/DEC Access Policy” - By Ted Galusha, President,
Adirondackers for Access, Warrensburg, N.Y., Thirteenth Annual
National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Lake
George, N.Y., October 17, 2009)
In 1998, Ted Galusha and other disabled individuals filed
suit in federal court and immediately won an injunction opening
the roads, trails and areas that the DEC officers drove on
to access the Adirondack Forest Preserve and illegally arrested
them on for using motorized vehicles. After three years of
fighting in court, they had a consent decree, signed by the
judge as a court order on July 5, 2001. This speech is a heart-rending
litany of the myriad ways that the state has chosen not to
comply with much of the consent decree and the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
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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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 “APA Classifies
First Water Body - Lows Lake Mainly ‘Wilderness’”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, September 20, 2009
The Adirondack Park Agency asserted a new power in September
by classifying a water body for the first time, in this case
designating Lows Lake in the town of Long Lake as mainly “wilderness.”
In addition to designating the waters and bed of the lake
as largely “wilderness” and also “primitive,”
the agency decided that the shores of lakes do not have to
be entirely owned by the State of New York for the lake itself
to be classified and so managed, as long as the bed of the
lake is owned by the State.
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- “Statement
in Opposition to the Reclassification of Lows Lake and Vicinity”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, August 25, 2009
The proposed classification of Lows Lake itself (the actual
waters of the lake) as wilderness is a new power grab by the
APA, which has never before classified the waters of a lake.
Acting Executive Director James Connolly called it a “progression
in the way it deals with water bodies.” This six-page
statement shows how the illegalities and injustices in this
group of classifications exemplify the bias against seaplanes
and the like and favoritism toward canoers, kayakers, and
hikers, who are the political clientele of the wealthy who
control the APA. Environmental considerations are not a factor.
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 “Statement in Opposition
to the Lows Lake Classifications and Reclassifications”
- By Susan Allen, August 28, 2009
This succinct one-page statement covers a range of reasons
why the Lows Lake Classifications and Reclassifications should
not be approved. For instance: “Dams, roads and
private inholdings contradict the description of the area
as ‘wilderness.’” Bias is indicated
by the DEC’s plan to increase the number of campsites
for canoers, whereas campsites for hunters and families in
the forest preserve are being greatly reduced.
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- “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.
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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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- “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.
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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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- “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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- “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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- “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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- “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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- “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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- “Disabled
Apartheid-DEC’s Betrayal and Discrimination”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Hearing Statement on DEC Lake George
Wild Forest UMP, Queensbury Town Hall, December 13, 2006.
DEC has betrayed the visionary effort of the disabled to
open up access to the Forest Preserve to people with disabilities
and people who are not athletic, by virtually closing down
the popular family recreation area on the Hudson River in
Warrensburg, which was established on land acquired from Niagara
Mohawk, while keeping open the most limited facilities exclusively
for the disabled.
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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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 “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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Photo
Gallery
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- Our walk to a small graveyard along an old Indian
Lake town road barricaded by New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to enlarge the Adirondack
Forest Preserve wilderness shocked us with the realization
that DEC is eradicating roads, trails, and history.
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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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