Schumer backs Tahawus rail line

The rail line to Tahawus has not been used since 1989.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer has come out in favor of reopening the rail line between North Creek and Tahawus, which some environmentalists argue would violate the forever-wild clause of the state constitution.

In a letter to the Federal Surface Transportation Board, Schumer said the line would provide “much needed economic development and jobs in the Adirondack Region.”

Iowa Pacific Holdings bought the line last year from NL Industries and wants to use it to transport waste rock from the closed NL mine in Tahawus at the foot of the High Peaks.

The green group Protect the Adirondacks contends that reopening the line would violate Article 14 in the state constitution, which decrees that the public Forest Preserve “shall be forever kept as wild forest lands.” Fourteen miles of the tracks run through the Preserve.

Iowa Pacific has applied to the Federal Surface Transportation Board for common-carrier status, which would give it the flexibility to carry passengers and service other businesses along the route. However, the rail company insists it doesn’t need the board’s permission to transport the waste rock.

As reported in the May/June issue of the Adirondack Explorer, both the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Transportation also support the application for common-carrier status. The Explorer also ran a debate on the issue. Links to the debate and the news article be found at the end of this post.

Following is the text of Schumer’s letter to Daniel E. Elliott III, the board’s chairman:

“I write in support of Iowa Pacific Holdings’ reapplication to the Federal Surface Transportation Board to receive common carrier status on the Tahawus line of the Saratoga and North Creek Railway between North Creek and Newcomb, New York. This project will support much needed economic development and jobs in the Adirondack Region of New York.

“Recommissioning the Tahawus Line represents an opportunity to support the transportation needs of multiple businesses along the railway while reducing unwanted truck traffic through New York’s Adirondack Park. The decrease in truck traffic would reduce dust and pollution within one of our states great natural treasures. Reconstruction of the rail line and ensuing economic activity from its completion will generate economic activity that will benefit the region for years to come.

“I urge you to quickly move ahead with the approval process for this critical infrastructure project, as the application has garnered significant local support. I thank you for your attention to this request. Please don’t hesitate to contact my office with any questions.”

In a news release accompanying the letter, Schumer says Iowa Pacific would employ fifteen to twenty people during reconstruction of the rail line. Once the line reopens, the company expects to haul 100 million tons of waste rock a year.

Charles Morrison, a retired DEC official and member of the board of Protect the Adirondacks, said Schumer’s letter–as well as a similar one sent by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand–are the result of an intense lobbying campaign waged by Iowa Pacific.

“As public officials serving the people of the State of New York, both Senator Shumer and Senator Gillibrand are sworn to uphold the state constitution,” Morrison wrote us in an e-mail. “It is certain that if they had been given the full facts about this matter … about how the State went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court about the Tahawus rail spur in the 1940s in defense of the Forest Preserve and Article 14 of the State Consitution, they might have written a different letter, or none at all.”

 Tahawus rail article

Tahawus rail debate

Camps to stay on former Champion lands

The state acquired the lands outlined in yellow, 2,797 acres in all.

After years of negotiation and some controversy, the state has finalized an agreement that will allow more than two hundred hunting camps to remain on timberlands formerly owned by Champion International.

In 1998, the state entered an agreement with Champion to purchase 29,000 acres in the Adirondacks and preserve another 110,000 with conservation easements that allow public access.

Under the original agreement, the hunting camps on the easement lands were to be removed by 2014, but following an outcry, the state Department of Environmental Conservation renegotiated the agreement to permit them to stay. In return, the new landowner, Heartwood Forestland Fund, will give the state nearly 2,800 acres in the Deer River valley. The new agreement was signed this week.

“This is great news for the North Country. The tradition of hunting and hunting camps is an important part of our heritage,” Clifton Supervisor Robert Snider said in a DEC news release issued this morning.

The Adirondack Council also praised the deal. John Sheehan, the group’s spokesman, noted that later easement deals allowed hunting camps to remain in place. “Timber companies get more money from leasing the camps than they do cutting timber,” he said. “It helps to keep the forest intact.”

Environmentalists had raised concerns about the change in the agreement when DEC revealed its intentions in 2006.

Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, said his biggest worry was that the hunting-club members would ride all-terrain vehicles on the easement lands. But under the renegotiated agreement, he said, recreational ATV use is prohibited (the hunters can use them in the spring to reach their camps).

David Gibson of Adirondack Wild criticized DEC for conducting the negotiations behind closed doors and failing to hold a public hearing. He also questions whether the public got a fair deal. For more of Gibson’s thoughts on the matter, click here.

The deal allows Heartwood to lease up to 220 hunting camps on the easement lands. There are 208 camps now, so Heartwood could construct another twelve. The camps have exclusive recreational rights to one-acre footprints around their buildings. The rest of the easement lands are open to the public for hunting, fishing, hiking, and other forms of recreation.

More than 2,100 of the 2,797 acres deeded to the state lie within the Adirondack Park and thus will become part of the Forest Preserve. The rest lies just outside the Blue Line and will be designated State Forest. DEC spokeswoman Lori Severino said these lands are now open to the public.

Click here to read DEC’s analysis of the change in the easement deal.

Cold night on Marcy: a survivor’s tale

Jane and Steve Mastaitis at Adirondack Medical Center. Photo by Phil Brown.

He had a watch but was afraid to look at it. Instead he tried to gauge time by the slow movement of the stars across the sky. Alas, he forgot that he set his watch alarm for 4 a.m.

“When it went off, I was disappointed,” he said. “I knew I had to wait some more.”

By then, Steve Mastaitis had been curled up inside a snow hole near the summit of Mount Marcy for more than nine hours, shivering uncontrollably, suffering from frostbite, fearing the worst. The temperature fell to near zero during the night, with a wind-chill factor of twenty below.

“I knew there were people out looking for me. I just didn’t think they’d ever find me in time,” Mastaitis, a 58-year-old lawyer from Saratoga Springs, said in an interview at Adirondack Medical Center on Tuesday.

Hard to believe that a day hike in relatively mild conditions could turn into the night from hell.

Mastaitis had climbed fifteen High Peaks, but until Monday, he had never attempted Marcy, the state’s highest mountain. He did the trip at the urging of two of his sons, Evan, 30, and Benjamin, 34. Joining them was Ben’s friend, Matt. The four left Adirondak Loj at 7:30 a.m. and reached Marcy’s summit cone about five hours later.

When they emerged above tree line, they were exposed to fierce winds. When Matt stopped to put on his snowshoes, Steve waited for him while his two sons continued upward. Steve and Matt soon resumed their ascent and met Ben and Evan as those two were coming down.

Because of the wind, Steve and Matt did not linger at the summit. After snapping a few photos, they started down. At some point, Matt stopped for some reason, and Steve continued hiking. He could see his sons two hundred or three hundred yards below.

“All of a sudden I was looking at the trail and there was no trail,” he said. “It was all snow.”

Steve veered to the right into an open gully, thinking it would lead to the trail. He fell into a spruce trap and sunk up to his chest in snow. As he struggled to free himself, one of his snowshoes and one of his boots came off. After fifteen minutes, he extricated himself and put his boot and snowshoe back on.

Afraid of falling into another spruce trap, he started sliding down the gully on his butt. Instead of taking him to the trail, though, it led him to the edge of Panther Gorge, a wild and rugged canyon between Marcy and Mount Haystack.

“Luckily, I stopped myself just before I would have gone over the edge,” he said.

Steve knew he was in trouble. He tried calling 911 and his sons, but he couldn’t get a signal on his cell phone. He then tried his wife, Jane, who was at work in her job as chief financial officer for Saratoga Bridges. She picked up.

“How did he get through to me? That’s the miracle,” Jane said on Tuesday.

Steve told his wife to call 911 and send help. He said this might be his last call, because he didn’t know how long the batteries in his phone would last. Minutes later, she texted Steve and, at the urging of authorities, asked him to call 911 again so they could determine his GPS coordinates. On his second try, Steve got through to 911.

It was not quite 2 p.m. when Steve made that last call. He had reason to hope he would be found that night. Because of the wind, however, forest rangers could not land a helicopter on Marcy. Instead they landed at Lake Colden and hiked up the mountain. They searched until midnight without success, eventually retreating in the face of the severe weather. They evidently came within a hundred yards of Steve’s snow hole, but because of the wind, their shouts went unheard.

Steve had started digging the shelter about 5 p.m. He punched through a layer of crust and scooped out the underlying snow with his hands, creating a hole three or four feet deep in the gully’s slope. He tried to start a fire with pieces of bark and dead branches, but he gave up after the wind kept blowing out his matches.

He entered the hole for the night about 6:30 p.m. Scrunched up in his frigid prison, he had a view of the clear sky. The stars moved imperceptibly. He thought about his family, thought about death, and tried like hell not to fall asleep. “I was afraid if I went to sleep I wouldn’t wake up,” he said.

Despite his best efforts, he occasionally nodded off, only to wake with a start, yelling for help. No one answered.

Throughout the night he flexed his fingers, kicked his feet, and thrashed his body to keep the blood flowing. Eventually, he had to pry his fingers open to keep the joints from freezing. At some point he lost all feeling in his feet.

When dawn finally came, he realized that one of his boots had come off during the night. It was still tied. Since he couldn’t unlace the boot with his frozen fingers, he used a broken ski pole as a shoehorn to wedge his foot inside. He managed to get his snowshoes on, too. He clambered out of the snow hole and started trudging away from the gorge, sometimes crawling.

He estimates that it took him an hour to travel a few hundred yards. “As I got to a rock ledge, I heard voices and yelled for help,” he said.

They were forest rangers who had resumed the search earlier in the morning. It was 8:30 a.m. An hour later, Steve was lifted into a helicopter and whisked away to Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake. When he first arrived, his toes were purple and his fingers were ashen gray. His digits also were swollen. By Tuesday afternoon, some of the natural color had returned and the swelling had started to subside.

Jane had been waiting all night for a phone call. Upon hearing her husband had been found alive, she said, “I broke down, because I didn’t know what I was going to hear.”

Things might have turned out differently if Steve had not been wearing several layers of clothing: long underwear (tops and bottoms), knee-high socks, fleece pants, fleece sleeveless vest, windbreaker, shell jacket (with hood), mittens, two hats, and a face mask. On his feet he wore low-cut boots, which he now concedes wasn’t a good choice for winter.

He believes his training as a triathlon competitor (both he and his wife have done the Lake Placid Ironman) helped him get through the ordeal. “I’ve been through pain before,” he remarked. “It gives you a mental toughness.”

Yet he said the biggest credit goes to the forest rangers. He came to tears at the thought that they risked their lives searching for him in the night on Marcy’s summit. “I owe my life to them,” he said.

And what is the lesson from all this?

“If you’re with a group, stay with the group,” he said. “None of this would have happened if we stayed together. And just be prepared.”

DEC wants to expand bobcat harvest

Map shows proposed changes in regulations for hunting and trapping bobcats. NYSDEC.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation wants to allow more hunting and/or trapping of bobcats in many parts of the state, including the Adirondacks.

In a draft five-year management plan, DEC reports that the state’s bobcat population—now estimated to be five thousand—has been growing, especially in the Southern Tier. Roughly twice the size of housecats, bobcats prey on a variety of species, from small voles to white-tailed deer.

A bobcat. Photo from NYSDEC.

DEC says up to 20 percent of the state’s bobcats (i.e., a thousand animals) could be killed by hunters and trappers each year without hurting the population. In recent years, sportsmen have harvested between four hundred and five hundred a year. Under its proposed plan, DEC estimates that this tally would increase by less than a hundred, still well below the critical threshold.

As indicated by the map above, the trapping season in the Adirondacks and the rest of the North Country would be extended. The season now runs from October 25 to December 10. Under the plan, it would be extended to February 15. The hunting season will not change.

The trapping season in the Adirondacks had been shorter than elsewhere to protect fishers. Since the fisher population has rebounded, the department feels that rationale no longer obtains.

The plan also calls for extending both the hunting and trapping seasons in central Tug Hill to February 15.

In the biggest change, DEC wants to initiate hunting and trapping of bobcats in much of the Southern Tier, where the population has increased dramatically over the past decade. “What began as occasional sightings along the New York/Pennsylvania border has progressed to large numbers of observations, trail camera photos, and incidental captures and releases by trappers,” the proposed plan says. “Over the past five years there have been 332 bobcat observations documented in the harvest expansion area.”

DEC also seeks to allow hunting and trapping of bobcats in the region just north of New York City.

The public has until February 16 to comment on the proposal.

 Click the link below to read the plan (PDF file).

 bobcat plan

Kathleen Moser named assistant DEC commissioner

A longtime conservationist has been named assistant commissioner for natural resources at the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Kathleen Moser was picked to replace Christopher Amato, who left the post earlier this month after four and a half years on the job.

Kathleen Moser

Moser’s new responsibilities include oversight of the Forest Preserve in the Adirondacks and Catskills.

Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan applauded the appointment.

“She’s a capable person and has a good knowledge of the Forest Preserve, especially in the Adirondacks,” he said.

Neil Woodworth, executive director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, got to know Moser when she was head of the eastern New York chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

“She worked very hard with us to promote the Environmental Protection Fund and was an important ally as we tried to secure funds for land protection,” Woodworth said.

In recent years, Moser has worked for the World Wildlife Fund as well, according to her LinkedIn profile. Just before taking the DEC job, she had served on the boards of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy and the Capital District chapter of the New York League of Conservation Voters.

Moser has two degrees from Duke University, a bachelor’s in botany and a master’s in forest productivity.

Ex-IP official to head DEC Region 5

A former International Paper official has been named director of the Region 5 office of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

In his new post, Robert Stegemann will oversee an office that, among other things, manages the eastern two-thirds of the Adirondack Park. He begins on Monday, replacing Betsy Lowe, who  resigned last month.

“Bob’s impressive record in working to create a sustainable society and to preserve New York’s resources make him a natural fit for DEC,” said state Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens. “In both professional and volunteer capacities, Bob has proven to be an exceptional environmental steward. Bob will be a valuable asset to DEC and the eastern Adirondacks community.”

For the past two years Stegemann served as a natural-resources and public affairs adviser for nonprofit groups, according to a DEC news release. He had worked at International Paper for eighteen years, holding a variety of roles, including spokesman and manager of sustainability. He also served as spokesman for the Empire State Forest Products Association.

Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan applauded the appointment.

“He was the most outspoken of environmentalists among the timber-industry representatives in the Park,” Sheehan said. “And he has a good relationship with the commissioner.”

DEC says Stegemann also has been a senior policy analyst for the Tug Hill Commission and has held volunteer positions with the Rensselaer Plateau Alliance, the Adirondack Research Consortium, the Adirondack Nature Conservancy and Land Trust, and the Northern Forest Lands Council.

Stegemann earned a master’s degree from State College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a bachelor’s degree from Union College.

Adirondack Council: Protect Poke-o tract

A view across Burnt Pond. Photo courtesy of LandVest.

The Adirondack Council wants the state to purchase or otherwise protect a 2,257-acre parcel near Poke-o-Moonshine Mountain that is on the market for $2,275,000.

Dubbed Burnt Pond Forest, the tract lies just southwest of Poke-o-Moonshine, bordering state Forest Preserve. It is being marketed by LandVest, a real-estate company that deals in timberlands the Northeast.

Inside the fire tower on Poke-o-Moonshine Mountain. Photo by Phil Brown.

In an online brochure, LandVest says the property contains six peaks, several trout streams, an eighteen-acre pond, and a trail system. The brochure touts the property’s timber value but also suggests that the pond would be suitable “for the development of a recreational cabin or second home.”

Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan said the environmental group would like the state to either purchase the property outright or buy an easement that would forbid development. “We would like to see it protected as forestland with public recreation,” he told the Explorer.

The council first called for the protection of this land in 1990, in one of its “2020 Vision” reports, subtitled “Realizing the Recreational Potential of Adirondack Wild Forests.” Written by the guidebook author Barbara McMartin, the report recommended a variety of land acquisitions to expand the Preserve’s Wild Forest Areas. (A companion report focused on Wilderness Areas.)

McMartin, who died in 2005, recommended that the state purchase 3,660 acres north and west of Poke-o-Moonshine Mountain, a popular hiking and rock-climbing venue. She said Poke-o, which the state owns, “is just one of a cluster of mountains with exposed rock ledges, the nucleus of what could be a splendid hiking and climbing area.”

The Commission on the Adirondacks in the Twenty-First Century also recommended in 1990 that the state acquire land around Poke-o. The commission was headed by George Davis, who also oversaw the publication of the council’s 2020 Vision reports.

Burnt Pond Forest overlaps the tract eyed by McMartin and the commission. A comparison of maps suggests that more than half of Burnt Pond Forest’s acreage was targeted for the Forest Preserve.

Champlain Area Trails (CATS) also wants the state to purchase or protect the land on the market. Chris Maron, the group’s executive director, said the property is ideal for hiking and cross-country skiing. He noted that it would provide an alternative hiking route to the fire tower on Poke-o-Moonshine’s summit.

Dave Spiers, a LandVest broker, said the investment group that owns the property would be willing to sell tract to the state. “They’d be open to anybody who wants to make an offer,” he said.

It appears, though, that Burnt Pond Forest is not on the radar screen of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Asked if DEC would have any interest in purchasing the property, spokesman David Winchell replied in an e-mail that the department is not familiar with it.

 “The owner has not approached us about selling it to the state,” Winchell said, “nor is the parcel listed as a specific priority project in the Open Space Conservation Plan.”

Sheehan, however, noted that the state has expressed interest in protecting land in the Champlain Valley, where Poke-o sits. He said the council will urge DEC’s regional open-space committee to take steps to protect Burnt Pond Forest.

Given the state’s dismal fiscal condition, some Adirondack politicians have called for a moratorium on the acquisition of land for the Forest Preserve. Sheehan, however, said the parcel in question is small enough that the state may be able to afford it. If not, he said, an easement could be acquired for less than half of the purchase price.

Click here to read LandVest’s marketing materials and view photos of the property.

Click here to read my article on Adirondack Almanack about other timberlands marketed by LandVest.

Christopher Amato to leave DEC

Christopher Amato is resigning as the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s assistant commissioner for natural resources. He said will return to practicing law in the private sector or go to work for the state attorney general.

Amato told the Explorer that he expects to remain in the Albany region, where he lives. He said he will stay at DEC for “at least a week” longer.

Christopher Amato

“It was time for me to move on,” he said. “I very much enjoyed my time here.”

Amato had been in private practice before joining DEC four and a half years ago. Earlier in his career, he worked as a lawyer for six years in the state attorney general’s office.

As assistant commissioner for natural resources, Amato oversaw many decisions involving the management of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Asked to list a few of his accomplishments at DEC, Amato mentioned the unit management plan (UMP) for the Moose River Plains Wild Forest, which he described as a model for balancing various uses of the Forest Preserve without harming the environment. Among other things, the UMP established an Intensive-Use corridor for car camping and a new Wilderness Area where all motorized access is forbidden.

“The Moose River Plains is like a microcosm of the entire Park,” he remarked.

DEC is notoriously decades behind in drafting UMPs for all the Forest Preserve tracts in the Adirondack Park. A few years ago, Amato wrote a Viewpoint for the Explorer in which he argued that DEC should streamline its UMP process by consolidating planning for neighboring tracts. Under such a scheme, for example, DEC would write a single plan for the High Peaks, Dix Mountain, Giant Mountain, Sentinel Range, and McKenzie Mountain Wilderness Areas.

Amato still believes the UMP process needs to be improved. He suggested today that DEC could draft one management plan for all Wilderness Areas and include appendices for dealing with specific problems in the individual Forest Preserve units. “So much of these UMPs are a lot of the same [information],” he said.

DEC was supposed to finish all the UMPs in the 1970s and update them every five years.

“How are we ever going to get the staff and the time to do the five-year reviews?” Amato said. “At this point, it’s an unrealistic expectation.”

One of the biggest controversies of Amato’s tenure erupted when DEC postponed enacting a ban on floatplanes landing on Lows Lake. The action upset environmentalists, but Amato stands by the decision.

“The Lows Lake floatplane decision was important,” he said, “because there is a real necessity to encourage the type of recreational activities that rely on the Forest Preserve. If the state is going to be the owner of huge tracts of land, it needs to support uses of the Forest Preserve that are consistent with people accessing it and enjoying it. For me, floatplanes are part of the picture.”

After a three-year delay, the Lows Lake ban will take effect next year. Amato said DEC is finishing a report that will explore other opportunities for floatplane operation in the Park.

Amato leaves as DEC continues to work on two major land acquisitions for the Forest Preserve: 65,000 acres of former Finch, Pruyn lands and the 14,600-acre Follensby Park. The Adirondack Nature Conservancy bought the lands in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and plans to sell them to the state.

Despite the state’s financial problems—and some opposition to the deals—Amato said DEC remains committed to the purchases. He said DEC has been meeting with hunters, fishermen, hikers, paddlers, and other user groups to discuss how the state will manage the Finch, Pruyn lands (which will be purchased first).

Amato also has been a champion of paddlers’ rights. After I paddled through private property on Shingle Shanty Brook and encountered no-trespassing signs and a chain, Amato tried to negotiate with the landowners to allow public access. After the negotiations failed and the landowners sued me, DEC and the attorney general’s office joined the suit on behalf of paddlers. The case is still pending.

No decision on Marcy Dam

Since Irene, most of the pond behind Marcy Dam has drained. Photo by Josh Wilson.

Now that the state has decided not to rebuild the dam at Duck Hole, people are wondering about the future of Marcy Dam.

The short answer is that there is no answer—not yet.

“No decisions have been made. We’re still evaluating that,” David Winchell, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said this morning.

Unlike the Duck Hole dam, Marcy Dam remains largely intact. However, flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Irene washed away the bridge over the dam and the dam’s sluice gate. Most of the pond behind the dam has since drained, leaving a mudflat.

DEC plans to either rebuild the bridge at the dam or construct a new bridge downstream. Which option the agency goes for will depend in part on what engineers say about the dam’s structural integrity. In either case, nothing will be done until next year at the earliest.

Since Irene, hikers on the popular Van Hoevenberg Trail have been crossing Marcy Brook by boulder-hopping about a quarter-mile below the dam. That crossing may be dangerous in winter, yet snowshoers and skiers will need to get on the other side of the brook to reach Mount Marcy and Avalanche Lake. Winchell recommends that they cross what’s left of the pond, once it’s frozen, or approach Marcy Dam via the Marcy Dam Truck Trail.

Marcy Dam is one of the most familiar scenes of the High Peaks. From the dam, hikers would look across the pond toward Avalanche Pass and Mount Colden. The photographer Carl Heilman II used a scene from the dam on the cover of his book The Adirondacks.

DEC won’t rebuild Duck Hole dam

Most of Duck Hole drained after Tropical Storm Irene. Photo by Carl Heilman II.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation does not plan to rebuild the dam at Duck Hole, an iconic pond deep in the High Peaks Wilderness.

The wooden dam was breached in the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene in late August, draining about two-thirds of the impoundment.

Even before Irene, fans of Duck Hole had been urging DEC to repair the old dam. In fact, the Explorer ran a debate on the question in its September/October issue, which was on the newsstand when the storm hit. Nestled among high mountains, Duck Hole is a favorite camping spot on the Northville-Placid Trail.

The Duck Hole dam after the breach. Photo by Phil Brown.

In the Explorer debate, Tom Wemett, chairman of the Northville-Placid chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club, extolled Duck Hole as one of the most scenic water bodies in the High Peaks Wilderness. “Whether hiking on the Northville-Placid Trail or paddling and portaging from Henderson Lake (via Preston Ponds), those who arrive at Duck Hole are in awe of the stunning vistas and quiet solitude,” he wrote.

After Irene, Wemett argued for the dam’s reconstruction. But DEC spokeswoman Lisa King said today that the department has no plans to repair the dam.

“At this time, DEC does not anticipate the repair or replacement of the Duck Hole dam in the High Peaks Wilderness Area,” she told the Explorer in an e-mail. “By leaving it as is, the affected backcountry in this area can return to a more natural state. This is in keeping with DEC’s responsibilities for care, custody and control of Forest Preserve lands under the state constitution.”

The department’s guidelines for dams in the Forest Preserve favor removing dams in Wilderness Areas “when they become unsafe or are otherwise in need of replacement, reconstruction and/or rehabilitation.” Nonetheless, such dams may be rehabilitated to preserve fish and wildlife habitat, protect scenic vistas, or maintain a waterway’s navigability, among other purposes.

Spokesmen for the environmental groups Adirondack Council and Adirondack Wild said they opposed rebuilding the dam.

“It’s deep in the wilderness,” remarked David Gibson of Adirondack Wild. “It’s just as much a wilderness experience after Irene as it was before Irene.”

I did the paddle/portage trip to Duck Hole this past spring and wrote about the adventure for the July/August issue of the Explorer. A few days after Irene, I returned to Duck Hole on foot and took the photos shown here of the broken dam and the mudflat.

Adirondack guide Joe Hackett did the paddle/portage trip a few weeks after Irene and found enough water remained to paddle to the lean-tos near the dam. “Duck Hole is down, but it’s not out,” he told the Explorer after his trip.

Duck Hole, the source of the Cold River, is fed by at least three streams, including the outlet of Lower Preston Pond. Over the next several years, the mudflats should be overtaken by vegetation and provide habitat for a variety of wildlife–not to mention improve the view.

Mudflat at Duck Hole after Irene. Photo by Phil Brown.