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The Adirondack Park Agency gave its stamp of approval for an RV campground in the town of Mayfield at is monthly meeting last week. It also sent out to public comment plans for an expanded boat launch and a beach closure in Broadalbin, about seven miles from where the campground is planned.
The two projects brought up some interesting questions about the park’s boundary, which does not include the southern tip of Great Sacandaga Lake. You can read more about the projects and the Blue Line discussion here.
In case you missed it, local officials also gathered at the former Moriah Shock prison complex in Mineville to advocate for its reuse. Some groups would like to see the buildings turned into workforce housing. Check out Tim Rowland’s story here.
Meanwhile in Albany, the 30-by-30 bill has been delivered to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk. Now we wait to see if she will sign it before Dec. 31. The bill advocates for protecting 30% of New York’s lands and waters by 2030.
Also sent to Hochul’s desk was a bill deeming an application filed with the New York state and local police and fire retirement system by the widow of Stephen L. Raymond, Shari Raymond, as timely. Stephen Raymond was an environmental conservation officer, who patrolled the Adirondacks. He died from lung, bone and brain cancer linked to his service in New York City after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. We sat down with Shari Raymond in June.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation didn’t just graduate a class of forest rangers this month. A new class of 18 environmental conservation officers were also celebrated. None of the new recruits will be stationed in the Adirondacks region. They’re all headed downstate, a DEC spokesman said, specifically New York City and Long Island. There are now 286 conservation officers in the state. DEC said there are 32 officers and investigators covering Region 5 and 31 covering Region 6, two areas that include the Adirondack Park.
“Each day our Officers are working a number of cases, from enforcing clean air and water regulations, to supporting fish and wildlife laws, and investigating large scale environmental crimes, all in an effort to protect New Yorkers from environmental pollution and exploitation. I’m confident our new Officers are ready to continue that rich tradition of environmental protection,” said Karen Przyklek, DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement director.
Photo at top: An Adirondack Park Agency presentation shows the slice of a proposed campground in Mayfield that is located in the Adirondack Park.
This first appeared in Gwen’s weekly “Adirondack Report” newsletter. Click here to sign up.
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The 30-by-30 bill looks to be a big deal, though I don’t know as much about it as I would like. “Conserving” 3.5 million acres in 7 years will be a challenge regardless. A potential pitfall that I could see is that conservation strictly speaking is not something that we can put deadlines on — it is an ongoing responsibility (one that is already challenging as it is).
Addressing the emergency of habitat loss and fragmentation, by mandating conservation design, for example, is a much better short-term priority. Second, there probably need to be dedicated organizations set up for things like visitor use management and long-term planning for conserved lands (along with some philosophical soul-searching). Then, of course, we can start signing paperwork to officially “conserve” lands.