Photo via the Adirondack Park Agency

Back in May of this year, New York State purchased the Boreas Ponds Tract, a parcel of land located in North Hudson, from The Nature Conservancy. According to Governor Cuomo, the 20,758 acres of land is the largest acquisition of Adirondack land in over 100 years. The Adirondack Park Agency has been requested to start the classification process of the lands.

Last Tuesday night, the sixth out of eight total public hearings for the classification of the Boreas Ponds Tract, as well as classification and reclassification of an additional 33,660 acres of state lands in the Adirondack Park, was held at Canton High School. The hearing was a forum for the Adirondack Park Agency to present their Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and for any member of the public to make an official comment on the proposed classification and alternatives.

Kathy Regan, Deputy Director in Planning for the Adirondack Park Agency, gave a presentation on the classification process and the Draft EIS. She explained that state lands can be classified in several ways. Wilderness is the most restrictive classification and allows for no motorized access in the area, including ATVs, snowmobiles, and cars; primitive allows for some access but still no motors; wild forest allows for motorized access; and intensive use defines areas like campgrounds and ski resorts.

When classifying or reclassifying state lands, an agency must follow the guidelines of the State Environmental Quality Review, or SEQR, which involves an EIS. According to SEQR, the EIS must include a multitude of options, or alternatives, for classification.

The Adirondack Park Agency focused their presentation on the Boreas Ponds Tract on Tuesday night, showing maps of the area and the four proposed alternatives for how to classify the lands. “We do not have a preferred alternative,” said Kathy Regan during the presentation when explaining why the APA is holding the public hearings to seek input from the public.

The first alternative includes the least amount of land classified as wilderness, with the Boreas Ponds themselves and the roads leading up to them classified as wild forest. The second option classifies the Boreas Ponds as wilderness, but the road and the rest of the southern section of the tract as wild forest. The third includes more of the area classified as wilderness, and the final option classifies the road as primitive, and the greatest amount of the tract as wilderness.

After the presentation by the APA, 46 members of the public voiced their opinion on which alternative the committee should choose. Comments were balanced, with about half pushing for Alternative 4, with the most wilderness classification, and half for Alternative 1, with the most motorized access allowed in the ponds and on the roads around them.

Deb Christy, the President of the St. Lawrence County Snowmobile Association was the first to speak, and was in favor of Alternative 1. “The biggest issue is the opposition asking for all wilderness,” she said, calling for a balanced approach to classification. “Our main goal is to keep roads available for snowmobile use.”

Other members of the Snowmobile Association voiced similar concerns, the main argument for Alternative 1 being that no one should be excluded from using the Adirondack Park, including seniors, small children, and disabled people who cannot hike the road to the pond.

Jim Burdick, a teacher at Canton High School, voiced his concerns for the future environmental impact on the Adirondacks if the APA were to select the first alternative. “The Adirondacks have a crowding problem as it is,” he said. “It does not need to be intruded by noise.”

The Adirondack Park is, in fact, extremely crowded, despite being the largest protected park in the lower 48 states. Using GIS mapping, it is apparent that the park is already crisscrossed by 6,970 miles of public road, and 95% of the park is within 3 miles of a road, according to the Adirondack Wilderness Advocates. 97 of the 100 largest lakes in the Adirondacks are already accessible by motor; the Boreas Ponds would only be the 4th to be motorless and in a backcountry setting.

According to the Adirondack Park Council, there are currently 300,000 fewer acres of wilderness than there are wild forest classifications in the park. Adding the Boreas Ponds Tract to those lands classified as wilderness would help to decrease that gap, but wilderness would still be in the minority.

Another main concern for classifying most of the tract as wilderness is that it would lock up the land from recreation opportunities for people on snowmobiles and ATVs. “This is all our state land and we should be able to compromise,” said Kelly Graham, a member of the St. Lawrence County Snowmobile Association. “We all pay taxes on it.”

Tyler Socash of the Adirondack Wilderness Advocates voiced his concern over the proposed alternatives. “All land classification proposals have to have a multitude of options,” he noted. “They have to have a wide range of ecological options for what the land can become, yet none of the four options offer full wilderness protection.”

The Adirondack Wilderness Advocates are pushing for full wilderness protection because of the ecological significance of the Boreas Ponds Tract, which is noted as a value 1 wetland in the Draft EIS. Tyler Socash explained the importance of protecting the area’s 16 emergent deepwater plant species, nine amphibians and reptiles, and five waterfowl species. Some of these species are endangered or threatened, including the bay breasted warbler, the common loon, and the northern bog aster. “We need to start thinking about species with the same biotic right to live on this earth,” Socash said.

Peter Pettengill, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at St. Lawrence, noted the impacts of motorized vehicles on the environment. “Environmental impacts from motorized recreation are well-documented and range from impacts to soil, vegetation, air, water, and wildlife,” he said. “Furthermore, they can have an adverse effect on natural soundscapes, a natural resource that is not only growing scarce, but also contributes to people’s sense of solitude.”

Emily Liebelt ‘15 noted that “it would be devastating to give up thousands of acres just to allow people to drive up on one road to these ponds.” Other students from Clarkson University, SUNY Potsdam, and SUNY Canton voiced similar concerns, noting their love for the Park as it provides a break from their hectic, noisy lives. It is a place for them to unplug from our social media-driven society, and adding noise from cars and snowmobiles would impair the intangible benefit of silence of the area.

“The vast majority of the Adirondack Park is accessible already,” Socash said. “We are simply asking that this tract, due to its ecological characteristics, be protected under the guidelines of the State Land Classification Action.”

Kathy Regan noted that the APA has “never had so many people come out for a classification action before.” The issue is obviously one that is of great concern to people from a multitude of backgrounds and will have a large impact on the future of the Adirondack Park. Willie Janeway, a speaker at the hearing, noted that “however this works out, we need to work together.”

The APA is still taking written comments until December 30, which can be sent to classificationcomments@apa.ny.gov. Anyone can write in with their opinions on the alternatives and how the APA should classify these areas of the Adirondack Park. For more information on the current State Land Classification process and more detailed maps, visit apa.ny.gov.