ࡱ> z|y%` BbjbjNN 4,,Byttttttt$*&*(*(*(*(*(*(*$]+h-L*t%%%L*tta*$)$)$)%tt&*$)%&*$)$)tt$) |(^$)&*w*0*$)a.(.a.$)$)a.t)4$) L*L*)*%%%%d  tttttt Press Republican coverage From:  HYPERLINK "http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_089235756.html" http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_089235756.html Acccessed 4/9/09 Danish investors buy huge chunk of Adirondack land Published March 30, 2009 By KIM SMITH DEDAM Staff Writer KEENE VALLEY A Denmark group that runs a pension fund now owns timber rights to 92,000 Adirondack acres. ATP Timberland Invest K/S, part of Denmark's largest pension fund, invested $32.88 million with Regions Morgan Keegan Timberland of Birmingham, Ala., to purchase former Finch, Pruyn & Co. land. A conservation easement agreement from the state will add tens of millions of dollars more to the deal, eventually dissolving subdivision and development rights on the Danish investment, which sprawls from North Hudson to Indian Lake and Blue Mountain Lake, touching into six counties. MONTHS-LONG EFFORT The sale was final Monday, dividing the 161,000-acre former Finch, Pruyn forest, which has been held in timber management for 142 years. The sale brings closure to more than half the resale plan wrought by the Nature Conservancy in 19 months. Henrik Gade Jepsen, CEO of ATP Timberland Invest K/S, issued a statement Monday saying the property was precisely what they were looking for. "It meets the high standards of our pension fund's commitment to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment and it fits perfectly in our portfolio investment strategy." ATP Group, based in Hilleroed, Denmark, is billed as the fourth-largest pension program in Europe, with 4.5 million members and reporting assets of $70 billion in 2008. EASEMENT HELPED Mike Carr, executive director of the Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, said the state easement made the land affordable for the buyers. "The $32.88 million is $357 an acre for the restricted fee title. They are just buying timber rights here; it's the reason they are buying it for cents on the dollar." The wilderness holding features some 274 miles of rivers and streams, many feeding into the headwaters of the Hudson River. The Nature Conservancy paid $110 million in 2007 for the entire Finch, Pruyn property. PUBLIC ACCESS Some 65,000 of the acres left will be added to the Forest Preserve over the next two years, Carr said, providing eventual public access to untouched wilderness areas. More than 1,000 sportsmen currently pay for exclusive use of some of the lands through leaseholder agreements, which support the tax payments. Several Adirondack towns will buy parcels for community projects, housing and recreation trails. Another 3,000 acres is still in private negotiations. STEADY INCOME The sale will deliver steady return on investment, Carr said of the financial scheme. "This is not some crazy, high-risk, 30-percent investment strategy. The trees grow regardless of what the economy does, and you can time the harvest to when the market comes your way." Regions Morgan Keegan will continue to supply the Finch, Pruyn pulp mill in Glens Falls in an 18-year fiber-supply agreement, keeping logging crews at work in the woods. Towns within and bordering the vast forest tract have been consulted through the course of planning. Newcomb, in Essex County, has the most acreage involved. Newcomb Town Supervisor George Canon gave Carr credit for working through a maze of options. "We didn't know what to expect when the Nature Conservancy bought the Finch lands," he said in a statement. "I give them a lot of credit for listening and working with us on snowmobile trails and other opportunities." All 27 towns have given a green light to move forward with the plan, Carr said. The towns can veto Environmental Protection Fund spending for state forest lands. E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com All articles accessed 9/17/08  HYPERLINK "http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_046223046.html" http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_046223046.html Finch, Pruyn considered momentous by other greens By KIM SMITH DEDAM Staff Writer February 16, 2008 02:25 pm ELIZABETHTOWN -- Early reaction from environmentalists to the Finch land-management plan is favorable, if not exclamatory. From his office in Keene, Dan Plumley, director of park protection for the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, heralded the plan as progress. "The tentative deal ... represents momentous progress towards what we hope will eventually result in a truly comprehensive land-protection agreement. "The literal arc of wildness' embodied across the extensive (Finch, Pruyn) northern tracts will require a redoubling of efforts by Commissioner (Pete) Grannis and Gov. (Eliot) Spitzer if it is to be fully protected for future generations. "We applaud Commissioner Grannis, Mike Carr and his staff at The Nature Conservancy and the many park communities and town officials who brokered this significant conservation achievement to date. "We look forward to ensuring that additional key tracts, some 40 percent of the lands outstanding, may eventually be forever protected as wild forest lands as well." The Nature Conservancy and the Department of Environmental Conservation announced Thursday a plan to redistribute 134,140 northern acres of former Finch, Pruyn and Co. timberlands now designated as Resource Management. The conservancy bought all 161,000 Finch, Pruyn acres last June for $110 million. Nearly 58,000 acres will be sold to the state for addition to the Adirondack Park, while about 74,000 will be kept for timber harvest. Land allocation for towns to use to expand parks and community resources is also part of the land-use manifest, along with new connector routes for snowmobile trails. From lobbyist headquarters in Albany, the Adirondack Council observed how pending new land use would mean greater public access. "This is the largest and arguably the most significant land acquisition the state has made in a decade or more," Adirondack Council John Sheehan said. "These lands being added to the Forest Preserve and those private lands being opened to recreational use by the public have been off-limits -- and many areas have been unseen by the public -- since the Civil War." Sheehan indicated some bean-counting is ahead for planned additions to snowmobile trails. The newly minted Finch land-management plan adds connector routes to achieve a total 70-mile circuit, much of which is existing trails, according to Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Connie Prickett. But Sheehan took issue with the mileage total, citing the historic park cap, which is now being reconsidered by the Adirondack Park Agency. "DEC also plans to work out the details of a snowmobile trail connecting North Hudson, Newcomb, Long Lake, Minerva and Indian Lake. In all, the deal would add 75 miles of snowmobile trails to the park," Sheehan said. "Of those, 29 miles already exist and are leased to riding clubs. Another 35 of new trail would be constructed. Of those, 10 miles would be on the Forest Preserve. This will be tricky, given the mileage cap on Forest Preserve for snowmobile trails. We believe it has already been exceeded." Sheehan also estimated costs the Nature Conservancy will incur to successfully execute the plan. "The conservancy is hoping to close the deal with the state within three years. No specific dollar figure has been attached to the project as yet. "However, when all is said and done, the conservancy expects to have laid out about $35 million in carrying costs (interest, tax payments etc.) over the three years between now and the state's purchase." From  HYPERLINK "http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_045233034.html" http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_045233034.html Historic land-use plan outlined for new state acquisition By KIM SMITH DEDAM Staff Writer February 15, 2008 06:52 am ELIZABETHTOWN -- The land "deal of the century" has a land-use plan some are calling historic. The state Department of Environmental Conservation and The Nature Conservancy Adirondack Chapter announced specifics Thursday on how they purport to conserve the northern 134,140 acres of former Finch, Pruyn and Co. timberland. State land acquisition, town parks, snowmobile trails and hunting-club leases are worked out in the plan. The Nature Conservancy took a leading role in the process when it bought 161,000 acres of Adirondack forestland from Finch, Pruyn last June for $110 million. The green group has spent seven months conducting an extensive scientific inventory and coordinating multifaceted interests with DEC, town officials, numerous hunting clubs and sporting groups. "It has been gratifying to roll up my sleeves and work with community leaders and other stakeholders to figure out where we can come together toward mutually agreeable outcomes," Michael Carr, executive director of The Nature Conservancy, said in a statement Thursday. "Most of all, it is exciting to see this globally important forest landscape protected." The northern stretch of former Finch, Pruyn land is spread among the towns of North Hudson, Newcomb, Minerva, Indian Lake and Long Lake. Up to 1,098 acres will be made available for communities to acquire, the Conservancy said. Some 57,699 acres -- 43 percent of the northern holdings -- are slated to be sold to the state for addition to the Forest Preserve. Another 73,627 acres will be protected as working forest in state-held conservation easement agreements. In addition, 1,715 acres in Indian Lake will be sold with conservation easements to Finch Paper/Atlas Holdings. Community-enhancement projects built into the plan allow for expanding a golf course, adding trails to connect existing snowmobile routes, setting aside acres for affordable housing and building a ball field. "In consultation with the town supervisor and school superintendent, parcels in the Town of Newcomb have been identified for their suitability to expand the public golf course from nine holes to 18, as well as establish new housing for foreign-exchange students," the Conservancy said. "There are also opportunities in Newcomb to remedy at least two situations affecting hundreds of homeowners: securing property access and fixing a dam in disrepair. In Indian Lake, a small Finch parcel may make it possible for the community to establish a new ballfield, and in Long Lake affordable housing may be an option, and a problematic residential road may be rerouted." Connector routes to existing snowmobile trails would close a circuit providing about 70 continuous miles for snowmobile travelers, said Conservancy spokeswoman Connie Prickett. Jim Jennings, executive director of the New York State Snowmobile Association, said the connector trails would be "a boon to the winter economy." Prickett said the plan combines a move making leased trails permanent with opportunities to establish some new trails. Three-quarters of the northern acres are currently held in recreational lease agreements with 42 separate private hunting clubs. Once land is added to the state Forest Preserve, private use of it ends and reverts to public access, generally for hunting, fishing, paddling or hiking. A total of 22 hunting clubs will continue to hold some type of lease agreement, the Conservancy said, either with a conservation easement for public corridors, or with reduced acreage or relocation. The other 20 clubs lease land slated for sale to the state. To ease the change in use, The Nature Conservancy and DEC worked out a 10-year transition period that would "allow clubs to remain exclusively on the property for three years, followed by two years of exclusive use during the hunting and fishing seasons and then five years of camp use with shared public recreation." After that, the land would be added to the Adirondack Forest Preserve. "Spectacularly beautiful places that have been privately owned and off-limits for more than 100 years will eventually be opened up for public use," the Conservancy said. "From paddling to hunting, hiking to snowmobiling, this plan captures an astonishing variety of new public recreation opportunities." But until the plan is implemented, the lands remain private property. "Because of the complexity of this massive land-protection project, it will take several years for the various parcels to change hands," the Conservancy said. DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said the Finch land-management plan finds balance. "This agreement strikes a balance among environmental, economic and outdoor recreation needs. It incorporates what local communities told us was important to them. And, in the center of the Park, it adds to the acreage of lands to be kept Forever Wild.'" Joe Martens, president of the Open Space Institute, which loaned The Nature Conservancy $25 million toward the purchase, said the agreement is historic. "It is based on sound ecological principals, common sense and open dialogue. It will ensure the protection of a vast and increasingly important biological landscape, boost local economies and maintain many traditional uses of the properties." The price per acre New Yorkers will pay to buy the land has not been determined, Prickett said. DEC will conduct an appraisal to assess the value of the Forest Preserve and easement lands and then make a formal contract offer to The Nature Conservancy. "We hope to keep the public informed as it happens," Prickett said. "There are enormously exciting opportunities for public recreation in the future, but it's going to take some time for all of this to be completed." Disposition for the southern 27,000 acres is still under review. "Those acres are scattered across 22 towns," Prickett said. "It's less land, and a lot more community outreach to do." A map of the proposed classification breakdown and the snowmobile trail network are on the Nature Conservancy Web site:  HYPERLINK "http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/newyork/preserves/art13582" http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/newyork/preserves/art13582 From:  HYPERLINK "http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_028070301.html" http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_028070301.html Some towns see benefits in massive Adirondack land deal By KIM SMITH DEDAM Staff Writer January 28, 2008 07:28 am ELIZABETHTOWN -- The "deal of the century" could end up being a bargain for some Adirondack towns and villages. The Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy is closing in on strategic plans to sell, lease and keep parcels of the 161,000 acres it purchased from Finch, Pruyn & Company last June, Executive Director Michael Carr said in an interview this week. Some of the lands will be kept as timber lots to support the Finch Paper Company. Other parcels will be offered to the state for purchase, and some land may be sold to private timber investment companies. The break-out isn't finalized, though a draft version of what the conservancy is calling a "disposition strategy" has been sent to the Department of Environmental Conservation. Not unlike a "unit management plan," the strategy is based primarily on science, forestry and an inventory done on the lands over the last six months. It will not be open for public comment and will be reviewed at DEC for its accord with the Open Space Conservation Plan, according to DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren. Carr said they haven't come up with final numbers of acres that will be sold yet. But about 83 percent of the property is located in five towns -- North Hudson, Minerva, Newcomb, Indian Lake and Long Lake -- all surrounded by Adirondack forestlands in a large mass that likely won't be subdivided. "Ideally, we'll avoid subdivision. It takes time and costs money," Carr said of the emerging strategy. The conservancy would consider redrawing boundaries in other holdings along Adirondack Park Agency jurisdictional lines or along a highway or a river, Carr added, in areas considered "non-critical, where it makes sense to subdivide." Subdivision requires approval by the APA. ONE-THIRD OF NEWCOMB About 60,000 acres of the former Finch, Pruyn lands are in the Town of Newcomb, composing fully one-third of the town. Town Supervisor George Canon has had two meetings with Carr in the past six months. "So far he seems to be trying to make everybody happy without committing himself," Canon said of the ongoing discussions in his town. Of primary concern in Newcomb are some 30 to 50 hunting and fishing club lease-agreements, the supervisor said, conveying long-held and historic use of lands in Boreas and Tahawus sections of the Adirondacks. Carr said the concern of sportsmen is understood at the Nature Conservancy. "We are also hunting enthusiasts, some of us, and hunting is a historic primary use of the Adirondack forest." Carr pointed to recent success the conservancy had with recreational clubs on 104,000 acres of former DomTar lands they purchased several years ago in the northeastern corner of the park. Two of 23 clubs were displaced, he said. But that deal had more elbow-room, more distance per club per acre. "Fully 131,000 acres of the former Finch, Pruyn lands are leased to hunting and fishing clubs," Carr said. "Unfortunately, some of them will be displaced. We will try to strike some balance. The public would always have access to the acres conveyed to the state." GOLF COURSE AND SNOWMOBILE TRAILS Newcomb is looking to obtain 200 acres of former Finch, Pruyn land to add nine holes to the town-owned golf course. They are also looking to add a snowmobile corridor to Indian Lake. The trail would be built under existing power lines. "Those are the items up for discussion," Canon said. A similar deal is underway the next town over. In North Hudson, Supervisor Bob Dobie and other town officials met with the Nature Conservancy twice. About 22,000 acres of former Finch, Pruyn land contain historic hunting grounds including the historic Boreas Great Camp. "It looks like a good share of North Hudson land is going to be sold back to the state," Dobie said, a move he is cautious of. But Dobie gave the environmental group high marks in terms of effort. "I think they are genuine in this review. They are trying to do some good things for everyone," Dobie said. "They've offered North Hudson land for a snowmobile trail to Newcomb." The sled corridor would follow roughly the Blue Ridge Road under an existing power line, ultimately connecting Newcomb and North Hudson with Schroon Lake and Crown Point on the eastern edge of the Adirondack Park. Dobie said negotiations haven't touched on a manner of sale or a price for lands to build the trail. "That's what the next meeting is about," he said. "But they have been genuinely interested in what we've had to say. They (the conservancy) were gracious enough to take us into the (Boreas) Great Camp. It is a beautiful, beautiful building." Finch, Pruyn and Atlas Holdings, LLC, held a lease on the Great Camp property for eight more years, he said. After that, the plan is to raze the historic structure, returning the land to wilderness. FIBER SUPPLY Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Connie Prickett said some of the newly purchased land would remain as timber holdings in a fiber-supply agreement struck with Finch Paper Company at the time of the $110 million sale. Finch reportedly selectively culled timber from about 3,500 acres last year. The Nature Conservancy has said from the beginning a good portion of the land will remain in working forest. Other negotiations underway include conveyance of hamlet lands in Long Lake and Indian Lake to the Adirondack Community Housing Trust for affordable housing, a use Senator Betty Little (R-Queeensbury) applauds. Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward said the Nature Conservancy's apparent priority to work with the towns had been a welcome gesture from the green community. She, too, remains concerned with the sportsmen's lease agreements, hoping they will remain in place. "We understand they made a deal with the Gooley Club in Newcomb to let them still hunt and have a club for 20 years. But I have a strong feeling that after that 20 years is up, the state will try to buy that land."  HYPERLINK "mailto:kdedam@pressrepublican.com" kdedam@pressrepublican.com  HYPERLINK "http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_028070304.html" http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_028070304.html State lawmakers watching Nature Conservancy By KIM SMITH DEDAM Staff Writer January 28, 2008 07:27 am LAKE PLACID -- Lawmakers are watching the Nature Conservancy disposition strategy with great interest in how the green group proposes to sell some of it to the state. Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) has called for a halt to state land purchases until state tax payment disbursement policies are vetted through appeals in a recent court decision. The Dillenburg case, currently on appeal, ordered the state to stop paying all land tax payments and payments-in-lieu-of-taxes. The Supreme Court judge also issued a stay on the order, until the matter is reviewed in appellate court. The legal breach, ironically, has brought together sides often on opposite ends of the table over conservation land purchases. Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy Executive Director Michael Carr doesn't believe the tax case, born in Chautauqua County, has any merit in the Adirondacks. The legal structure of the Adirondack Park Act requires two consecutive legislative decisions to amend the constitution for any change in land use. The state has too much at stake to lose inside the blue line in a tax case. "There are 18 million New Yorkers proud of the forest preserve," Carr said. "We fully support continued state tax payments to municipalities in the Adirondack Park, so not to cause unnecessary strain on the residents of the park." Land sold to the state in the Nature Conservancy's strategy would revert to a higher tax rate, in most instances, Carr added, as property moved out of 480-480s agreements to regular taxable status. For their part, Newcomb Supervisor George Canon and North Hudson Supervisor Bob Dobie support a moratorium on state land purchases while the Attorney General's office appeals the state tax payment decision. "I'm totally in agreement with it," Canon said. "Things have a way of getting screwed up sometimes." Sayward said lawmakers from the Adirondacks and Catskills are looking to meet with environmental groups and the Attorney General's office before the end of January to come up with a type of hold-harmless clause for the state lands. "But environmental groups should honor the moratorium until we get this thing resolved. It's the very least they can do," she said. "Environmental groups and the Nature Conservancy are as interested as we are in putting this court case to rest." Any final plan for conveyance of some of the 161,000 former Finch, Pruyn & Co. acres of park land, as a private sale, would not go before any public hearing or require public input. Still lawmakers and town officials would weigh in on the plan if they see it as detrimental to their town tax base. "Towns have an option to negate stand land purchases if the money is coming from the Environmental Protection Fund," Canon said. They can contest sales that would move land off the tax rolls. While the Nature Conservancy completes its disposition strategy, the environmental group is paying $1.1 million in taxes annually on the former Finch, Pruyn land.  HYPERLINK "mailto:kdedam@pressrepublican.com" kdedam@pressrepublican.com  HYPERLINK "http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_205221527.html" http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_205221527.html Good science makes good neighbors By KIM SMITH DEDAM Staff Writer July 24, 2008 04:00 am BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE -- Careening through a forest dell of four-foot hay-scented fern, scientists pushed into thick underbrush heading toward a swamp. The earthy smell of peat and spruce gum hung on the wind, and thunder rumbled off the mountain peaks. Not many humans have traversed this soggy patch of earth, where every step leaves a footprint-shaped pool of water. Heavy rubber boots can sink up to the knee; they make a giant sucking sound in stride. Fresh signs of bear, moose and deer were apparent in open areas. In this setting, New York State Natural Heritage ecologists were exploring deep regions of a 15,000-acre parcel of former Finch, Pruyn & Co. lands sold to the Nature Conservancy's Adirondack Chapter last year. STRATEGIC RESEARCH Tucked between the base of Blue and Dun Brook mountains, it's a small L-shaped sliver of the total 161,000 acres. A final strategy for land-use management is still in the works, but most of the property will be sold in working-forest agreements, explained Nature Conservancy scientist Michelle Brown, who organized the trip. Ecologist Tim Howard said the region is a likely candidate for special easement restrictions to protect high-grade wetlands sprawled out around Dun Brook. Howard and colleagues Greg Edinger and Laurie Swift are top scientists with the Department of Environmental Conservation's Natural Heritage Program. They are working in the Adirondacks this summer as hired experts for the Conservancy. Their research will help govern management of special habitat. ROADS UNTRAVELED Assembling at 9 a.m., the expedition rambled in four-wheel drive along old logging roads until the trail vanished in new-growth forest. "I guess this is as far as we go on wheels," Brown said. Evidence of skidder ruts and overgrown timber staging areas put the last cut here some 40 to 50 years ago, she estimated. Using GPS points, Howard and Edinger marked the woodland parking lot and started to bushwhack due north toward the swamp. Special hand-held computers helped catalog data at observation points along the way. Through miles of changing terrain, Edinger marked seven or eight sites, where he counted numbers and types of trees and plants at the canopy, sub-canopy, shrub and herbaceous levels. Edinger also used a Biltmore stick, an old-fashioned lumbering gauge that measures height from a distance and is traditionally used to estimate the board feet of lumber in any tree. About half way in, Howard noticed a black spruce tree with deformed needles curling inward like a ball. On closer inspection, he discovered tiny red clumps of dwarf mistletoe, a parasite plant that grows under the bark of a tree. The mistletoe infects primarily fir and pine trees, causing them to grow "witches brooms," strange-looking bundles of twigs and foliage stuck at the top. HERITAGE DATA Information gathered from the swamp will be added to state Heritage Forest data banks. "The upland forest shows active management," Howard said, "but down in the wetlands, there's a lot less. We could call this a high-quality example of black spruce-tamarack swamp." He had been up Dun Mountain the week before and had several other sites to visit in these watery regions. The science will inform good land management, Brown said. It will also work as a benchmark to observe impact of climate change on pristine areas. With 74,000 acres tagged for timber management, the Nature Conservancy hopes to learn all it can about condition, habitat and natural communities before the land is sold to an as-yet-unnamed timber company. Large-scale protection requires more than just mapping, Brown said. "It is a mosaic of forest preserve and working forest." kdedam@pressrepublican.com  HYPERLINK "http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_216211519.html" http://www.pressrepublican.com/archivesearch/local_story_216211519.html The Blue Ledges - a unique destination By DENNIS aPRILL The Outdoor Perspective August 05, 2007 06:28 am Pounding whitewater, magnificent cliffs, unusual vegetation "" this sums up my impression of Hudson River Gorge on the Essex-Hamilton County border. I've been to the Gorge by two very different means of transportation "" on foot and by raft. Walking was the most relaxing and rafting the most exciting. No matter how you get there, the Hudson Gorge and the Blue Ledges that constrict the river are not only sights worth seeing, but, according to recent findings, home to many rare, little-seen Adirondack plants. At 350 feet or so high, the Blue Ledges are so named because they seem to have a bluish tinge to the billion-year-old anorthrocite rock that makes up the cliffs. Here, the Hudson, which downstream becomes a wider, more docile river, narrows to 150 feet. The rapids of Hudson Gorge are legendary and can reach Class V status in the spring and fall when water levels rise. At other times of the year, dam releases at Lake Abanakee are needed to propel the rafts over continuous rapids as the release water bubble surges downstream. The year 1991 saw my first trip to the Gorge. I rafted down from Lake Abanakee with Lake Placid's Wayne Failing, owner of Middle Earth Expeditions, and a group that contracted his guiding service. Wayne is probably the most experienced and reliable guide on the Hudson. This was my introduction to whitewater rafting. It was an exhilarating, fast-paced ride down to Blue Ledges. We camped in the heart of the Gorge, where I fished in gradually lowering waters, catching a brown trout. The next day we finished off the trip at North River. Many years later, I walked in to the Gorge, getting a different perspective. That time I followed a 2.5-mile trail that begins just before Huntley Pond off the Northwoods Club Road, which intersects Route 28N in the Town of Minerva. It was May, the trail wet in sections; white hobblebush flowers lined the path. There also were also trout lilies, Canada mayflowers and the occasional trillium in bloom. The trail partially paralleled Huntley Pond, then skirted a wetland before rising to a knoll. When the Hudson is running at full throttle as it was that day, you can hear the distant rumble of cascading water before finally getting to the beach opposite the main cliffs. "It is these cliffs," according to ecologist Jerry Jenkins, "that contain some of the largest concentrations of rare and uncommon plants in the (Adirondack) Park." These include 96 species of moss, 36 of which are considered rare, and three are only found at the Ledges. One reason for such diversity may be the lime-marble layer that occurs in narrow bands of the Precambrian rock. The Nature Conservancy, which now owns the Blue Ledges, says that OK Slip Falls that plunges into the Gorge and the ravine the falls created hold 69 species of moss and liverworts, 22 considered rare or uncommon. As of now, there are no plans to change land use or public access from that of original owner Finch-Pryne. 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