The Adirondack Council goes hunting for Tupper Lake Dreams

2007-03-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

What’s going on at the Adirondack Council? Why is an environmental organization backing away from protecting the Adirondacks? If the Adirondack Club and Resort obtains the Adirondack Park Agency permit it will safe guard 5,355 acres of resource management forest land through conservative forest management plans that would insure a healthy forest and encourage biodiversity.

The council is blindsided by fear. They think that the Adirondack’s resource management land is all going to the developers while turning its back to years of clear-cutting, road building and unregulated camp building caused by poor logging practices in an unmanaged and unregulated forests.

It seems like the ultimate goal of the Council is to have resource management lands purchased by the State so they can be put in a severely restrictive, Forest Preserve land classification. By not supporting the project they have assigned the land a dismal future and created huge stumbling block for the future prosperity of Tupper Lake. The land will still be for sale. Logging will go on unabated and without plan and the chance for public good (re-opening the Big Tupper Ski resort) will vanish.

Half of the 5,821,183 acre Adirondack Park is owned by the State and 26.69% of private land is classified resource management (1,553,594 acres). In the Town of Tupper Lake there are 53,620 acres of resource management lands. The AC&R project encompasses about 6,262 acres with only 906 actually developed. Statistically the developed aspect of the project represents .015% of total Park development.

Here's another interesting statistic. The Adirondacks is 5,821,183 acres (the size of Vermont) . There are only 131,000 people who reside here or 1 person for every 45.8 acres of land. If Tupper Lake grows another 2,000 people over the next 10 years because of the resort project, then the there will be 45.11 acres per person. An even more interesting statistic would be a proximity study since most people are not scattered evenly throughout the Adirondacks, but live in close proximity in the Villages.

The Town fathers are doing the right thing by supporting a plan that protects the 6,000 acres of resource management lands while providing and economic stimulus to the local economy. The Tupper Lake Community has worked since 1998, developing community strategy, to protect and promote its natural resources. There has been numerous public meetings and chance for input. Except for Wildlife Conservation, there has never been a representative from the Council or any of the so called environmental groups at any of those meetings. They talk the talk of protecting the Adirondacks and working with communities, but in truth care very little for the average Joe who lives here.

Adirondack Council Goes Hunting for Tupper Lake Dreams

The Adirondack Council goes hunting for Tupper Lake Dreams