Lake George Battlefield protections, backcountry ski trails rank high in concerns in hundreds of comments to Adirondack Park Agency plan revisions
By Gwendolyn Craig
State and federal lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, joined more than 70 people requesting the Adirondack Park Agency to rezone most of the Lake George Battlefield Park to a more protective land classification.
The switch, they argued, would better preserve the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War site and “limit construction … that could be considered a threat to the critical historic resource.” Earlier this year, the agency authorized plans for internment of unearthed Revolutionary War-era soldiers at the park.
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
Alliance members hope the APA, which oversees public and private development in the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park, will consider changing the battlefield’s day use area, campground and park from intensive use to historic. The Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance led the call.
The agency received the letters, petitions and plans during its public comment period for revisions to the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan, a policy document governing the public forest preserve. The APA is supposed to update it every five years. It last revised the master plan in 2019.
The APA’s proposed edits did not include a reclassification of the battlefield, or other wish list items from the public, such as backcountry ski trails throughout the Adirondacks and a mountain bike corridor connecting the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest to Speculator. Written comments, racking up more than 2,000 pages, also weighed in on the agency’s proposals around accessibility, climate change, wildlife and visitor management.
An APA spokesman said the agency received more than 1,200 comments, which “may be used to develop revisions to the final proposed amendments package.”
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
The earliest such final edits may be brought to the APA board is late winter, the spokesman said. The board could vote on the package then. Once the board passes the amendments, the APA will deliver them to Gov. Kathy Hochul for her signature.
Land classifications
The APA proposes to classify the newly purchased forest preserve lands, the Four Peaks Tract in Jay, as wild forest. Wild forest allows for more recreational development, such as bike trails and some motorized access, unlike wilderness which allows for no motorized use and no biking.
While it appears no one commented against the wild forest proposal, some people felt the APA should handle the land classification process separately from the overall master plan update because it is so significant.
Kathy Regan, former deputy director of planning at the APA, said a separate process allows “the people to better evaluate the alternatives.” Leaders of the Adirondack Mountain Club also felt the APA should not bundle the classification with “these significant changes” to the master plan.
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
An APA spokesman said “due to the high degree of public interest in the Four Peaks tract, the Agency found it prudent to classify this property as part of this amendment package.” Without a land classification, the state Department of Environmental Conservation cannot make any recreational improvements to the area, the spokesman added.
The APA’s Four Peaks proposal may have precipitated the public to suggest other zoning amendments to lands in the park, such as reclassifying the Lake George Battlefield Park and the Forks Mountain Primitive Corridor in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness.
In addition to Stefanik, state Assemblyman Matthew Simpson, Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner and state Sen. Dan Stec asked for the Lake George Battlefield Park to be classified as historic.
Lawmakers and battlefield alliance members do not believe the classification change would impact the existing campground or day use areas, but rather protect it from further development and enhance state stewardship. The Adirondack Park contains five historic areas: Crown Point, John Brown Farm, Camp Santonini, the Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower and the St. Regis Mountain Fire Tower.
The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them.
But not all are convinced the change is necessary.
Lynda Karig Hohmann, former president of the alliance and a current member, questioned why such a classification was necessary. The battlefield already has state and national historic designations, which Hohmann said provides “a high level of protection.”
Hohmann also questioned if a new classification would impact the campground’s function and maintenance, an area that “provides a strong tourist benefit for the Village and Town of Lake George.” The campground at Crown Point, she noted, is under an intensive use classification.
John DiNuzzo, president of the Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance, said he believes the historic designation will provide “a higher level of care for the artifacts” and would bring the battlefield in line with other historically designated areas.
“We’ve got to have a vision, not just for now, but for the future,” DiNuzzo said. “The more that we can protect and preserve the site, the better.”
Several mountain biking enthusiasts also asked the APA to change the classification of a primitive corridor in the southern part of the park to wild forest. That would allow bikers an off-road route from the Forks Mountain Primitive Corridor in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness to the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest and continue north into Speculator.
Bike riders use Route 8, where they said the traffic is dangerous.
The master plan traditionally considers areas classified as primitive as “wilderness in waiting.” The APA may use this designation when a property has non-conforming structures or private land parcels entangled that make it incompatible with wilderness.
Walter Linck, a retired APA employee who worked on natural resource planning for two decades, said the Forks Mountain Primitive Corridor was a concession agency leaders made to allow for snowmobiles to ride to Wells.
The APA did not directly respond to questions about any of the land classification proposals, except to say that it would consider comments when drafting a final amendments package.
Backcountry ski trails
Ron Konowitz, president of the Adirondack Powder Skier Association, attends APA meetings regularly to plead his case for designated backcountry ski trails.
Sometimes Konowitz is the only person to speak during the meetings’ opening public comment sessions. Other times his testimony is bookended by concerned residents speaking out against a development project.
While the master plan includes cross-country ski trails, it notes such trails must have “the same dimensions and character” as a hiking trail. For backcountry skiing, such dimensions may not be safe, and Konowitz has advocated for wider trails.
“By utilizing natural openings in mature forests, and with minimal management, appropriate areas within the park can support ski touring trails,” Konowitz and the association’s vice president, Dean Schneller, said.
More than 100 people agree with him, based on letters and petitions sent to the APA. The Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board was among the supporters.
Visitor management and carrying capacity
Commenters had mixed reactions to the APA’s amendment on carrying capacity assessment, or how much of something an area can withstand before it becomes harmed. The lack of such studies, particularly on water bodies in the Adirondacks, has been the subject of multiple lawsuits.
The APA added visitor use management as a tool, a framework used by federal agencies including the National Park Service, for guiding management decisions. Many applauded this addition, but asked for more clarification.
The group Protect the Adirondacks said the agency should make clear “that the focus and overriding goal of visitor use management must always be protection of natural resources.”
The quote echoes the introduction of the master plan, which states ”that the protection and preservation of the natural resources of the state lands within the Park must be paramount.”
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve was concerned about the APA’s edit that said, “levels of time and resources to fulfill this commitment (of carrying capacity assessments) should be” proportional to “the significance of the impacts.”
“With this one sentence, the Agency invites future land managers and administrators the opportunity to sidestep carrying capacity assessment work,” wrote David Gibson, managing partner of the environmental group.
Unit management plans
The amendments also include the removal of outdated deadlines for unit management plans, which did not sit well with commenters and united local government advocates and environmentalists.
In 2023, the Explorer found nearly 782,000 acres of state lands in the Adirondack Park are without management plans, despite Gov. George Pataki administration’s call to have them all finished two decades ago.
These plans are important because they prescribe natural resource protection and recreational projects. These projects cannot be done without an approved plan.
Jerry Delaney, executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, said the organization “vehemently” disagrees with the removal of the management plan deadlines.
“To remove this language seems to say there is no need to revisit” the plans, Delaney said. The organization also wants a new timetable for completing management plans for areas currently lacking them. The state purchased purchased lands in 1979 that still do not have a plan, Delaney said.
Barkeater Trails Alliance, the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) and Adirondack Council, among others, also felt new deadlines are necessary.
“Removing an important mandate that was intended to establish accountability for the APA and DEC and provide integrity to the land classification system must be preserved,” ADK wrote.
Climate change
The phrase “climate change” has never appeared in the master plan, but the APA added it in this round of amendments.
The agency suggests management plans for park areas should include assessments of climate change vulnerabilities.
Environmental groups have praised the addition.
Beavers
The APA proposed allowing beaver control structures in any land classification if beaver activity threatens trailheads, parking areas, fishing and waterway access sites, picnic areas, ranger stations, roads and other park assets.
Several environmental organizations wrote against the proposal, and were particularly against allowing them in wilderness areas.
The New York Beaver Coalition also wrote to the APA to say “the priority solution should be relocating the affected trails, bridges or other infrastructure.”
Top photo: A statue erected in 1903 commemorates General William Johnson and his Mohawk allies under Chief Hendrick over the French, as seen on the Lake George Battlefield. Photo by Gwendolyn Craig
Leave a Reply