PRESS RELEASE

 

For Immediate Release:                               Contact:

Monday, March 10, 2008                                   Paul Ertelt, (518) 449-3870,

                                                                      paulertelt@adk.org

State Should Adhere to Snowmobile Trail Cap

The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) has urged state officials to adhere to the letter and the spirit of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (APSLMP) in establishing mileage limits for snowmobile trails within the Adirondack Forest Preserve.

When the plan was adopted in 1972, it established that there should be “no material increase” in the mileage of existing snowmobile trails on Wild Forest lands in Adirondack Park. The plan also stipulated that the mileage cap should remain the same even as the Forest Preserve was expanded.  

In 1980, the state Department of Environmental Conservation estimated that there were about 849 miles of snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Forest Preserve in 1972, but a recent DEC analysis put that figure at 740 miles.

“It is ADK's position that the revised estimate of 740 miles supersedes the former estimate of 849 miles and should be used for any calculations of a prohibited material increase in new trails,” said ADK Executive Director Neil F. Woodworth.

It is ADK’s understanding that when the Wild Forest Unit Management Plans (UMPs) are completed and implemented, there will be 766 miles of trails open for snowmobiling on lands classified as Wild Forest. The additional 26 miles, an increase of about 3.5 percent, do not represent a material increase over the 740 miles of snowmobile trails that existed in 1972. But an increase of nearly 109 miles, or about 15 percent, is clearly material by any yardstick, Woodworth said.

Any material increase in the mileage cap would require an amendment to the master plan, which would require public hearings.

The Adirondack Park Agency is scheduled to take up the issue of the snowmobile trail cap at its monthly meeting this week. Woodworth outlined ADK’s position on the mileage cap in a March 3 letter to APA Chairman Curt Stiles.

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.

Click here to read the letter to Chairman Stiles.