ACTION ALERT UPDATE!

Background information to support April 7 Action Alert, "State Parks to Hold Five Public Workshops on Trail Development"

Trails Talking Points 


The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) is a nonprofit, membership organization with more than 28,000 members and 25 local chapters across New York. ADK and its members have been building and maintaining trails in the wild lands of New York for more than 85 years. One of ADK’s first major projects was the construction of the 133-mile long Northville-Placid trail, which was completed in 1923.


ADK supports the $95 million capital investment in state parks, which includes $8 million for state campgrounds in the Adirondacks and Catskills. We recognize that the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) has many pressing capital needs, including the need to develop and maintain recreational trails in the state park system.


But New York also needs to invest additional resources in developing and maintaining recreational trails in its largest parks, the Adirondack and Catskill parks, and other lands managed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. 


OPRHP is responsible for about 375,000 acres of park land. DEC is responsible for 4.5 million acres, an area roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island. DEC manages 95 percent of all state-owned land in New York and 14 percent of the entire land area of the state.  


DEC manages 3 million acres of Forest Preserve in the Adirondack and Catskill Parks, an area larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks combined. The agency also manages 770,000 acres of State Forest land, 700,000 acres of conservation easement land and 300,000 acres of wildlife management areas. 


DEC is responsible for portions of the Finger Lakes Trail and Long Path North. DEC-managed State Forests provide hiking and other recreational opportunities within easy access to most New Yorkers.

There are nearly 30,000 acres of State Forest and 12,800 acres of Wildlife Management Areas with 114 miles of foot trails in DEC’s Region 3 (Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties). This is in addition to more than 168,000 acres of Catskill Forest Preserve in the region.


There are more than 100,000 acres State Forest and nearly 20,000 acres of Wildlife Management Areas with 122 miles of foot trails in DEC’s Region 4 (Albany, Columbia, Delaware, Greene, Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Schoharie counties). This is in addition to more than 122,000 acres of Catskill Forest Preserve in the region.

There are nearly 200,000 acres of State Forest with 328 miles of foot trails in DEC’s Region 7 (Broome, Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, Oswego, Tioga and Tompkins counties).

There are nearly 49,000 acres of State Forest with 165 miles of foot trails in DEC’s Region 8 (Chemung, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne and Yates counties).


There are nearly 99,000 acres of State Forest with 190 miles of foot trails in DEC’s Region 9 (Allegany, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie, Niagara and Wyoming counties).


DEC is responsible for 20 percent more land than it was a decade ago, but it has lost 20 percent of its land stewardship staff over the past 10 years. (The DEC bureau responsible for State Forests and conservation easements lost 28 percent of its staff at the same time its land management responsibilities increased by 80 percent.) In some field offices, a single forester is responsible for natural resource management and recreational oversight on more than 200,000 acres. 


In January 1995, DEC’s Division of Lands and Forests had a staff of 225. Its current staffing level is 187. (That’s an increase from a recent low of 160.)


DEC’s land management responsibilities continue to grow. In February, DEC announced an agreement with The Nature Conservancy that will add nearly 58,000 acres of former Finch, Pruyn land to the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Under the deal, DEC will also manage conservation easements on more than 73,000 acres.


DEC maintains a trail system in excess of 5,500 miles that supports a wide range of recreational activities, including hiking, horseback riding, biking and snowmobiling. Hiking is allowed on all 5,500 miles of trails. 


In 2007, DEC spent a mere $500,000 on trail work, about $90 per mile of trail. By comparison, Rocky Mountain National Park, with only 250 miles of trails, has an annual trail maintenance budget of $1 million. 


The $500,000 includes the $150,000 contract for ADK’s professional trail crew. It also covered other contracts, salaries for DEC seasonal staff and materials.


Unlike Parks, DEC is responsible for hundreds of miles of backcountry trails, which are much more expensive to build and maintain. Tools and equipment must be carried in or flown in by helicopter. Some backcountry trails can cost $15,000 to $20,000 per mile to maintain.


The cost of maintaining a mile of hiking trail varies, but the average is about $5,000 a mile. On a 10-year maintenance schedule, that means DEC should have an annual trail maintenance budget of $2.75 million, so the current funding gap is $2.25 million.


Because of lack of funds, DEC has been forced to do triage, dealing with only the most serious problems. Delaying necessary trail work can mean higher expenses in the long run. Damage to trails from erosion is particularly difficult to reverse.


Many trails on both OPRHP and DEC land need to be reconfigured using modern switchback design that minimizes erosion. Many old-style hiking trails lead straight up the mountain, causing water to rush down the mountain like a stream.


Although ADK receives DEC money for its professional trail crew, the group is not seeking additional funding. Its professional trail crew is at capacity and cannot take on additional work. (For 2008, DEC has increased the amount of ADK’s professional trail contract to $217,000.)


Last year, ADK volunteers put in 6,682 hours on trail and lean-to projects in the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves. If the state had paid for that labor at the rate of $12 an hour, that volunteer labor would be worth more than $80,000. These figures do not take include local volunteer trail projects organized by ADK chapters across the state.

Click here to read the Action Alert.