Advocacy Group On-Board With Upper Hudson Rail-Trail
Parks & Trails New York, an Albany-based advocacy group, has joined an effort to develop a rail-trail between North Creek and Tahawus.
The group Friends of the Upper Hudson, which seeks to build a 29-mile multi-use trail along an old railroad bed, recently announced the partnership. Parks & Trails will provide help with technical issues, planning, public outreach, grant writing, fundraising and other activities.
The trail would follow the railway formerly used to haul ore from the NL Industries mine, passing through the towns of Johnsburg, Indian Lake, Minerva and Newcomb. The trail would provide easy access to the scenic Upper Hudson and Boreas Rivers, as well as a dramatic crossing of the Hudson over a long trestle.
When complete, the trail could lure tens of thousands of users to a part of the Adirondacks that is not visited by many hikers. But there are concerns about the project. First is the cost, estimated at $4.4 million for a stone-dust trail, or $7.3 million for paved. And there are also access questions, as the right-of-way (across both private and state land) will expire with the removal of the tracks. However, backers say a federal law to encourage the reuse of rail beds may solve the complicated land issue.
The project backers have completed a feasibility study and are working with partners to acquire and preserve the corridor for trail use.
Trains haven’t run on this section of rail for decades. To the south, a tourist line called The Upper Hudson Scenic Railroad operates in warmer weather on the same line between North Creek and Riparius. That railroad faces an uncertain future: the section is owned by Warren County, which is seeking proposals from new operators for a scenic railroad. The rail-trail would ave no impact on the tourist line.
The Friends of the Upper Hudson Rail Trail maintain a website here. To find out more about the Healthy Trails, Healthy People program, contact Parks & Trails New York at 518-434-1583 or ptny@ptny.org or visit the Parks & Trails New York website here.
14 Comments:
The 30-mile Tahawus rail spur,consisting of right-of-way easements, rails and other appurtenances that have been owned owned since 1989 by NLI, is not available for any use other than for hauling ore from Tahawus. That is the only purpose for which this spur of the D & H, declared by the State some years ago to be abandoned (as a spur it is not subject to federal abandonment, can be used.)
In 1941 the federal government took a temporary easement, strictly for the purpose of hauling ore,on the 13-mile Forest Preserve segment in southern Essex County by eminent domain, which the State fought all the way to the US Supreme Court.The court records stating the purpose of the easements on both the Forest Preserve and private land are available. At the time, Governor Lehman corresponded with FDR about it and FDR assured him that he would try to have the temporary easement extinguished and the rails removed at the end of the war.
The result of the State's strenuous effort to protect the Forest Preserve was that a 15-year temporary easement was taken instead of the easement being extinguished at the end of the war in 1945. The 15-years was, on the record to enable the feds to recoup their $3.0 m. construction cost for building the railroad in 1942. The real reason was that the feds had leased the spur to to National Lead and NL wanted to keep on mining and using the spur to haul ore. But the 15 years didn't start until Truman declared the war to be over in 1952.
Then in the early 1960s, the federal General Services Administration was under pressure to get rid of this kind of property, as surplus, and GSA wanted to sell it to NL. The State objected strongly and in 1962 GSA went to court and by eminent domain extended the easement to 2062, for 100 years, for the same purpose as the original 15-year easement - for hauling ore from Tahawus.
Then in 1982 NL ceased active mining at Tahawus and in 1989 GSA sold the easements and rails, etc. at auction in the Americana HOtel in Latham. The sole bidder, at $950,000, was NLI, a new name Given to National Lead as a result of a merger. NLI had claimed that it might need the railroad to haul ore in the future if reserve deposits at Cheney Pond ever became economic. The State would have bid at auction and the Nature Conservancy was ready to do that on behalf of the State, but the State backed off in light of NL's reserve deposits story and let NL have it. In hindsight, this was a real dumb move.
In reality, NLI sold the rolling stock in 1989, opened new mining operations in Louisiana in 1983, gradually shut down throughout the 1990s while it dickered with the State and then the Open Space Institute to have them buy the whole 11,500 acre property - or nothing, including the highly polluted area around the pits and mill buildings which the State could not buy because of liability concerns.
Then in 2001 OSI purchased all but the polluted 1200 acres, including the reserve deposits. In 2005, OSI and NLI jointly filed with APA to subdivide the easements and take up the rails in the Essex County section, including on the Forest Preserve, for a trail, leaving the southerly section for use as a North Creek tourist train extension. They soon learned that the easements can only be used for hauling ore and that a tourist train or a trail would never happen.After 6 months OSI dropped the application in order to get on with subdivision of its 10,000 acres at Tahawus. In 2006, NLI took down the mill buildings.
The bottom line is that ore will never again be hauled from Tahawus and upon extinguishment of the easement that was taken for that purpose, all property rights revert to the owners of the fee title interest in the land, including the State of New York for its 13-mile segment of the easement
The easements have absolutely no value to NLI. NLI should remove the rails for their scrap value and facilitate the extinguishment of the easements in court, with reversion to private owners and the State. After that, we'll see where the idea of a trail goes, keeping in mind that it was State policy in the 1940s and 1960s to have this right-of-way revert to its pre-1941 condition as Forest Preserve.
The person behind this comment and prior comments is doing an impressive job into looking into the history of this rail corridor - an attorney with a client, it would seem. However, the client has not contacted the Friends of the Upper Hudson Rail Trail and is maintaining anonymity. Given the vast support for the trail, this hesitation to go public is understandable.
Bottom line is that this rail corridor was constructed at public expense and rather than have it go to waste, it should be made to serve the public good.
It will definitely be an interesting issue. Consider that the state is now under pressure to expand the snowmobile network. Doing so on old railbeds is a reasonably environmentally sound way to do it, given that the land is already compromised.
Not sure of your conclusion that the railbanking law doesn't apply here. The combination of the federal creation and ownership of the ROW complicates the situation. Plus you also have the potential for squatter's rights. Snowmobilers have incorporated the trail into the NYS trail system without argument from the landowner. They have maintained the trail as if they owned it. Railcar owners have been riding the rails. Abandoned rails? Not obviously so.
As far as "expanding the snowmobile network" Have you been on the track in question?
There are already snowmobile signs up (and have been for years). 2 years ago state corrections cleared several miles of the line from Rte 28 in both directions. Whose authority got that done ?
Will the knowledgeable annonymous please explain the situation on the other expanse
of "Abandoned" track running from Big Moose to Saranac Lake? DOT apparently cares for this track within the Forest Preserve.
Bottom line is that one man's "waste" is not another man's "waste."
having the 13-miles of easements on State-owned (that means ALL of the people in the state) "forever wild" Forest Preserve land revert to the State and gradually grow up in forest again as it was before WWII was not thought to be a waste when the State was fighting the eminent domain proceeding all the way to the US Supreme Court in the early 1940s. Nor was it considered a waste in 1961 when the State objected to GSA's proposed sale of easements and rails to NL, whereupon GSA by eminent domain, with the same sole purpose again of hauling ore from Tahawus, extended the easement on the Forest Preserve to 2062.
The State's first duty is to uphold Article 14 of the State constitution and protect the Forest Preserve. Legally, a trail for snowmobiles never had any rights in this situation and it does not have any now.
If you are saying that a snowmobile trail has more value, both economic and environmental, than the Forest Preserve, you are wrong and you will be on the losing end of that argument.
There are a lot of competing "presures" on the State. The push for snowmobile trails is just one of them. You asre right that the Forest Preserve land was compromised in the early 1940s. That's why the State went to court. The land at Tahawus with the open pits and massive piles of waste rock also were compromised. Yet in 50 to 100 years that waste rock will be covered with mature forest again. So it will be with the scar of the railroad roadbed that was cut through the Forest Preserve.
My "conclusion" that federal railbanking law does not apply here is not a SWAG (Stupid Wild Ass Guess). It is fact. It is a matter of written record that NYSDOT has abandoned this railroad spur. And because it is simply a spur of the old former D & H, and is not a separately incorporated railroad, it is not subject to abandonment under the federal Interstate Commerce Commission. A spur is a spur is a spur. It doesn't matter whether it is 100 yards long or 30 miles long. You can be sure of these facts.
There is no such thing as "squatter's rights." That's trespassing, plain and simple. I assume that the tracks and right-of way are posted. The fact that people are doing things illegally does not give them any "rights" to do them. This a matter of lack of enforcement by NL, the Towns, the fee title owners of the land on which the right-of-way easements were taken (including, the State, if this activity extends to the 13-mile Forest Preserve segment), etc. I recommend that you do your civic duty and report these trespass activities to the landowners and law enforcement authorities.
Buck - Did NLI's present manager at Tahawus (or former manager) get authority from from company headquarters im Texas to allow the right-of-way to be used for snowmobiling? This is a rhetorical question to which I realize that you probably don't have the answer. Nevertheless, there are liability issues for the company and there is also that the possibility that the right of way easement aleady has reverted to the fee title owners as a result of lack of use for the singular purpose of hauling ore. It has not been used for that purpose for 20 years and has been declared abandoned by NYSDOT (which is partly a tax dodge by NLI).
Buck - Sorry not to have answered your question about the Remsen to Lake Placid line. The State owns that and keeps puming money into it. Where it goes through the Forest Preserve, there could be some questions about whether that State-owned land qualifies as being Forest Preserve land under the definition of Forest Preserve land in the Environmental Conservation Law (look at ECL 9-0101(6). That would be for the courts to decide. If you know anyone that wants to take up the case, let us know.
I know someone willing to take up the case.
To the anonymous poster who is obviously knowledgeable about this issue and to the folks from the Friends of the trail group: Have you guys really not met? I think it would be great to have this trail but according to Anonymous it may be a no-go.
I assume the you folks pushing for this trail (thank you) or folks at PTNY (thank you) are looking into the legality of it.
Anonymous, you may be 100% correct, so please reach out to the Friends so their effort and money won't be wasted. If it is true you have not contacted them, you shouldn't expect them to stop because of anonymous comments on a blog.
You are probably right, but that's the way it is for now. There's not enough common ground. I would support the trail, but only with the precondition of no motorized recreation machines. No snowmobiles. No ATVs, etc. We had enough of the noise from blasting up there by NL, which reverberated throughout the mountains. We don't need the whine of a dozen snowmobile engines breaking the winter silence in the High Peaks Wilderness Area. The Upper Hudson group is not prepared to make that guarantee.
Bikes, hikes, x-country skiing, etc. would be great (assuming that no one on foot is killed by bikes coming down that 2% grade)
The Rail Banking statute applies to corridors exempt from the STB's abandonment procedures. STB's rail banking procedure explicitly includes this case.
The statute is short and plainly worded, and for all significant questions has been interpreted in favor of trail sponsors. It is indeed disturbing that the Federal Gov't can overrule our cherished Article 14, but that's the way federalism works.
But there is no reason to be alarmed in this particular case - it's just a bike trail, never more than 2.3 miles from a highway, and with a destination that is historically interesting, but won't look natural again until after the next ice age.
This trail is an excellent idea. Anyone who objects, please spend a little time investigating how trails help society in so many ways including adding value (not reducing) to those homes located near the trail.
As for pavement...please go with stone dust. Its cheeper and will not crack. Easier for runner and most bikers. Less to maintain as well.
Greg...
Hey, Anonymoose. Everybody likes trails for hiking, biking, canoeing, etc. But not at the expense of the Forest Preserve. Without the Preserve, the Adirondacks would just be another suburb by now. You had better start thinking about it because we are losing it at a rapid rate - the thing we cherish most, the wild forest and wilderness.
The guy who said that the roadbed, with the rails removed, wouldn't revert to wild forest until the next Ice Age sould remember that climate change works in mysterious ways. Some places get warmer while others get colder. But, in any case, have you looked at the piles of waste rock at Tahawus lately? They stopped mining less than 40 years ago and already a lot of that rock is getting covered over with aspen. Another 50 and we'll have hardwoods. In 200, Old Growth.
That railroad roadbed would be hard to find in 50 years, but the bridges, built for heavy ore trains, will last a few lifetimes.
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