Much has been written about the Adirondack Park Agency in the past two weeks, none of it by the Almanack. But we’ll add this: the agency’s cartographers continue to make handy maps. The latest is an interactive online map of new state land classification proposals. (Click here to see and use.)

There are 91 points on the map, each one describing a proposed category for new state lands (from most restrictive to least: wilderness, primitive, wild forest, intensive use, state administrative—definitions here, current acreages here.) Collectively the parcels amount to 31,000 acres.

The smallest are fractions of an acre, some of them little pieces of land that never got classified because the state wasn’t aware of them until improvements to tax maps. Some parcels are for DOT garages or adjacent to prisons. Others are recent state Forest Preserve acquisitions. The largest is 17,000 acres of former Domtar land surrounding Lyon Mountain, in Clinton County, which the APA is proposing to classify as Wild Forest, where motorized recreation is permitted on designated roads and trails.

Five public hearings are scheduled on the classifications in the next two weeks. The APA is also proposing to reclassify four parcels (468 acres) of existing state land. The APA makes these recommendations in concert with the Department of Environmental Conservation; they must ultimately be approved by the APA board and the governor. Here’s the public notice for more information.

Hearing schedule:
January 25, 2010
Fire Hall
5635 Route 28N
Newcomb, NY
7:00 pm

January 27, 2010
Park Avenue Building
183 Park Ave
Old Forge, NY
7:00 pm

January 28, 2010
Town Hall, 3662 Route 3
Saranac, NY
7:00 pm

February 2, 2010
St. Lawrence County Human Services Center
80 SH 310
Canton, NY
7:00 pm

February 5, 2010
NYDEC, 625 Broadway
Albany, NY
1:00 pm