Floatplanes will be prohibited from using Lows Lake after 2011 and the lake will be managed as wilderness under a resolution approved today by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). Neil Woodworth, the Adirondack Mountain Club’s executive director, said the resolution adopted today is positive step and an improvement over earlier proposals for the lake.
In January 2003, when it signed the Bog River Unit Management Plan, DEC agreed to phase out commercial floatplane use of Lows Lake within five years, but the agency never developed the regulation to implement the ban. In May 2008, the Adirondack Mountain Club, the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, the Sierra Club and the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks sued DEC. The lawsuit was adjourned while APA considered DEC’s proposed amendment to the Bog River UMP, which would have allowed floatplanes to use the lake under a permit system for 10 additional years. In October 2008, APA commissioners rejected that amendment after being advised by APA staff that it was inconsistent with the Master Plan. That prompted DEC to propose an amendment to the Bog River Unit Management Plan to allow floatplane use on Lows Lake through 2012.

A copy of the APA resolution is available via pdf. A copy of the APA staff memo pertaining to the resolution is also online [pdf].

My short history of development on Lows Lake is available here and you can see all our posts on the issue here.