Posts Tagged ‘permits’

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Discussion time: Year two of AMR permits

AMR lotAdirondack Explorer reporter Gwendolyn Craig reported this week that the Adirondack Mountain Reserve is continuing the reservation system launched last May.

She also asked and received answers to some of our questions. Take a read through and chime in with your thoughts in the comment area below. What other questions do you have for the people in charge of this permit system?

(Photo courtesy of Peter Bauer)

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Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Permits in the preserves

AMR lotIn September I had a chance to try out the Adirondack Mountain Reserve’s reservation system. The Monday Dave and I went, it was pouring and there were a handful of cars in the parking lot and no people. Not exactly a good start for a journalist looking to chat with folks about how they liked the new system.

We sat in the car for a bit, and sure enough a car drove up and based on the amount of time it was parked near the parking attendant shelter, it looked like they might not have a permit. I secured my raincoat, grabbed my recorder and dashed to the vehicle in case it was about to turn around and head out to Route 73. Instead, the car drove into the parking lot and the couple that got out were equally eager to talk to me. They asked if they could jump on my hiking permit as they did not have one. One free permit can be good for up to eight people.

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Friday, October 16, 2020

DEC is Capable of Testing Limited Entry for High Peaks in 2021

route 73On this 2020 Columbus Day weekend, peak use of parts of the High Peaks and Giant Mountain Wilderness areas in the Adirondack Park were again exceeded. Now is the time to consider a permit reservation or limited entry system for key points of entry into these wilderness areas as necessary, helpful, practical, and practicable.

Adirondack Wild is concerned with a spate of recent comments made to North Country Public Radio that our NYS DEC is not ready to launch a limited entry or permit reservation system. Of course, DEC is not ready right now. They have not been given any direction from the Governor and the DEC Commissioner to get and be ready. Given such a direction and expectation, DEC could be ready in summer and fall of 2021. DEC is fully capable of studying, gaining public input, designing, and implementing with partners a fair and effective limited entry pilot program next year.

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Sunday, October 4, 2020

Hiker Permits? Turns out we’ve been there before

Over the past few years, articles in the Adirondack Almanack, Adirondack Explorer, and other  media outlets, in addition to posts on blogs and social media, has made quite apparent the issues facing the High Peaks Wilderness related to hiking and backpacking.

Matters of hiker education, the ever-increasing number of search-and-rescues, an overly strained and understaffed force of  Forest Rangers, parking, and litter have been brought to the forefront of the public’s attention.

A  variety of solutions have been proposed by groups such as the Adirondack Mountain Club  (ADK), Adirondack Council, and the High Peaks Strategic Planning Advisory Group (HPAG).  A hiker permit system is one of the proposed solutions. In contrast to other articles regarding  hiker permits, this one does not opine on the merits of such, but to make readers aware that they were once implemented in the Adirondacks – albeit at a very small scale.

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Sunday, October 6, 2019

Time To Reconsider An Old Idea, A High Peaks Permit System

Credit goes to the Department of Environmental Conservation and its Region 5 facilitators for including a “break-out” session on Permits at its late July High Peaks-Route 73 stakeholder meeting at the Keene Central School. After all, the very word “permit” has been an electrified “third rail” (hazardous, indeed) topic for years.

That was not always the case, however.  In 1978, the first draft of a High Peaks Unit Management Plan included a section on “individual user controls” with eight alternatives along a spectrum ranging from mandatory registration and reservation permit systems, to no controls at all. Alternative C, reservation or permit systems, stated that “through past experience the U.S. Forest Service has found that a permit system is one of the best ways of gathering user information concerning an individual management area.”

The 1978 draft UMP went on to recommend that a “free permit system should be initiated in the eastern High Peaks with no effort to limit numbers of people using the area for at least three years. Data will be analyzed. If at some time in the future it is determined that numbers of people using the area will have to be controlled, even just for certain high use weekends, the mechanism will already be in place to do so.” » Continue Reading.



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