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PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:                               Contact:

Thursday, April 16, 2009                                   Paul Ertelt, (518) 449-3870

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APA OKs Plan to Ban Floatplanes on Lows Lake After 2011

RAY BROOK, N.Y. -- Floatplanes will be prohibited from using Lows Lake in the Adirondacks after 2011 and the lake will be managed as wilderness under a resolution approved today by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA).

A 2003 unit management plan for Lows Lake called for floatplanes to be phased out over five years, but the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) did not adopt the regulation needed to implement the ban. In May 2008, ADK, the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, the Sierra Club and the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court to compel DEC to adopt a ban.

Neil Woodworth, ADK’s executive director, said the resolution adopted today is positive step and an improvement over earlier proposals for the lake.

“If DEC and APA keep their commitments to manage Lows Lake as wilderness after 2011, it is likely that no further litigation will be necessary,” Woodworth said.

An earlier DEC proposal, rejected by APA in October, would have allowed floatplanes to use the lake for at least 10 more years.

A copy of the APA resolution is available here. A copy of the APA staff memo pertaining to the resolution is here.

The Adirondack Mountain Club, founded in 1922, is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to protecting the New York State Forest Preserve and other wild lands and waters through conservation and advocacy, environmental education and responsible recreation.

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