Five leaders of organizations which deal with the governance of the Adirondack Park came together to speak about the Park's future in a panel discussion on April 13. The panel members were Ross Whaley, Chair of the Adirondack Park Agency, John Sheehan of the Adirondack Council, Peter Litchfield of the Blue Line Council, Virginia Brandreth of the Adirondack Landowners Association, and J.R. Risley, Supervisor of the Town of Inlet and member of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages. The panel discussion was sponsored by the Sophomore Seminar "Forever Wild: The Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondack Park," as well as the Levitt Center's series on "The Environment: Public Policy and Social Responsibility."
The Adirondack Park was created by the State of New York in 1892. Today it encompasses approximately 6 million acres, making it the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, surpassing the Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier and Grand Canyon parks combined. A unique quality of the Adirondack Park is the fact that while about half of the Park belongs to the people of New York State and is constitutionally dedicated to remain "forever wild," the other half is private land on which people live, work and camp. Many of the panelists alluded to this unique combination as both a source of tension and a source of strength for the Park.
Ross Whaley is the Chair of the Adirondack Park Agency (www.apa.state.ny.us), the New York State governmental agency created in 1971 to enforce the laws regarding the Park, and to develop long range land use plans for both public and private land. Whaley called the Adirondack Park "the greatest conservation experiment in the world, forever," emphasizing the importance of policy regarding the Park. He described some of the challenges the Park will face in the next 20 years, including tension between private and public land as well as between full time residents and visitors, invasion by pollutants and foreign species, and water quality. All these problems are related to an influx of residents and visitors that Whaley foresees in the near future for the Park. Whaley also spoke about maintaining the delicate balance of economic and environmental concerns. While he agrees that the Adirondack region has economic problems, he said that he does not attribute them to environmental regulation as some do. The role of the APA, he said, is not to shut out development but to shape it for the benefit of all.
Next on the panel was John Sheehan of the Adirondack Council (www.adirondackcouncil.org), a not-for-profit organization which advocates for environmental policies in the Park. Sheehan said that the biggest problems he foresees for the Park include conversion of existing homes, development of currently open land, and climate change. He said that acid precipitation, though still a problem in much of the Park, should be behind us soon due to new legislation at the federal level that curbs emissions. Sheehan emphasized the fact that individuals doing small things adds up to a huge impact on the Park and how we leave it for future generations. He called the land use plan "outdated," and said that lack of regulation for private home septic systems is a large problem. Climate change is as much as a problem for the Adirondack Park as it is for the rest of the world, Sheehan said, though the federal and state governments are dragging their feet on the issue. The Adirondacks includes a unique type of forest cover known as low elevation boreal forest, which has an unusually high ability to absorb and hold excess carbon, one of the causes of global climate change. The Adirondack Council is currently advocating the special preservation of a 73,000 acre region in the northwest Adirondacks which they are calling the Boreal Heritage Reserve.
Peter Lichtfield is an officer of the New York Blue Line Council, a coalition of large Adirondack land owners and service providers who seek a balance in state policy between environmental preservation and economic well-being. Lichtfield shared some of his own personal thoughts on the future problems of the Adirondack Park. He believes that small Adirondack towns will begin to disappear due to lack of services, perhaps in favor of the thriving second-home industry around lake shores. He also said that we might see a large number of service providers having to commute into the Adirondacks to serve tourists due to the high costs of year round living. Lichtfield said that he view increased state ownership, which has now exceeded 50% of the Park, as a problem. To remedy these problems, the Blue Line Council pursues Park Agency Reform that will take the economic and community impacts of Agency decisions.
Virginia Brandreth of the Adirondack Landowners Association spoke from the perspective of the many non-commercial landowners living in the Adirondack Park. She said that the membership of her organization is dedicated to good stewardship of the Park's natural resources, and recognizes that private landowners have a large role in stewardship. Brandreth said that bringing together private landowners helps them to exchange ideas about land use and resource management, as well as provide constructive input to debates on issues affecting the park. She described some of the problems she sees in the Park's future, including increasing taxes and costs for residents, poor management and enforcement by state officials, and environmental quality.
J.P. Risley is the Supervisor of the Town of Inlet, and a member of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages. Risley said that he agreed with much of what had already been said, since he feels that all the organizations related to the Adirondacks have a few common goals and plans. He stressed the importance of youth as a resource for the Adirondack region, saying that unemployment and high cost of living are driving young people away from living in the Park. There is also a lack of civic volunteers and involvement, as well as difficulties with infrastructure. Risley ended by saying that while the Park Agency has become more user friendly, there are still things in the Park Agency Act that need to be revised and updated.
The event was sponsored by Sophomore Seminar 220, "Forever Wild: The Cultural and Natural Histories of the Adirondack Park," taught by Professors Rosenstein and Kinnel of Chemistry, Professor Cannavo of Government, and Professor Williams of Biology. It was also sponsored by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center's 2003-2004 series on "The Environment: Public Policy and Social Responsibility."
-- by Caroline O'Shea '07
