V. ADIRONDACK & NORTHERN FOREST POLICY 

Published and unpublished reports on policy in the Adirondacks and Northern Forest region, with notes (by Rachel Neugarten.) Organized by relevance, not alphabetically.

Back to Annotated Bibliography

Northern Forest Lands Council. Recommendations for the Conservation of the Northern Forest. 2005. Accessed 2 Jan 2009 http://www.nefainfo.org/publications/nflc10thforumfinal.pdf

Adirondack Park Agency, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. 2001. AdirondackPark State LandMaster Plan. Ray Brook, NY. 112 pp. http://www.apa.state.ny.us/Documents/Laws_Regs/SlmpPDF2001.pdf

• lays out guidelines for designation and management of current state lands
• guidelines for new state acquisitions
• describes unit management plans, recommends that plans be developed for all state lands by 1990
• describes various designations (wilderness, primitive, canoe areas, wild forest, etc.)
• Appendix II lists "significant" state held easements (as of 2001)

Adirondack Park Agency. 2003. Addressing the Needs of Property Owners. (Web site, accessed Jan 22 2009.) http://www.apa.state.ny.us/Property_Owners/index.html

• Information about private land in the Adirondacks, including land use area classification, critical environmental areas, permits, etc.

Adirondack Council. 2007. 2020 Vision: A Summary of the Three-Volume Series. 40 pp. Available online: http://www.adirondackcouncil.org/2020vision2.html

1. 2020 VISION Volume I - Biological Diversity: Saving All the Pieces (1988)
2. 2020 VISION Volume II - Completing the Wilderness System (1990)
3. 2020 VISION Volume III - Realizing the Recreational Potential of Adirondack Wild Forests (1990)
4. 2020 VISION Volume IV - PrivateLandStewardship (2007)

Thomas, Todd. The Law of New York's Adirondack Conservation Easements. Associated Content Legal Report, 2006. Accessed 6 Jan 2009 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/32092/the_law_of_new_yorks_adirondack_conservation.html

• summarizes a legal challenge to the 1999 sale of Champion lands to the state of NY and the Forest Land Group (Aubin v State 1999) , and discusses ongoing debate over land use in Adks
• plaintiffs (group of hunt clubs) claimed that easements constitute "state land," must be kept forever wild, but case was dismissed on procedural grounds
• author disagrees with plaintiffs - easements are an interest in property, not the same as fee ownership lands
• "If land under a State easement cannot be kept in timber production or closed to the public, they lose all value to industrial owners and to the State as a protection tool."
• interestingly, he says "the State prefers easements in many cases to reduce an administrative burden"  - in all, the state hopes to avoid costly long-term management and monitoring buy purchasing easements - no mention of legal requirements to monitor for compliance!