Updating the blueprint: The ongoing revision of the State Land Master Plan

 Key stakeholders emphasize the need for careful amendments to Adirondack Park’s land management policies

By Tim Rowland

On a makeshift stage at the Whiteface Mountain ski lodge Wednesday evening, 10 speakers strode to the podium in hopes of putting their stamp on the Adirondack Park’s State Land Master Plan. 

To keep the SLMP (pronounced slump) fresh, the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is charged with periodically updating the plan, which is the guiding document governing procedures on the half of the 6 million acre park that is publicly owned, better known as the Adirondack Forest Preserve.

While the park is a mix of public and private lands, the plan governs the approximately 2.9 million acres of state land protected by the state Constitution’s “forever wild” clause. These lands are administered by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The park agency oversees public and private development in the park.

“As we take in new information, scientific knowledge grows and overall state policy evolves,” said Megan Phillips, APA’s deputy director for planning. The plan occasionally needs to be updated “to reflect the challenges, pressures and opportunities that impact the park today.” 

An important plan

Yet to Adirondack advocates, the document is so holy that it needs to be watched like a hawk, and not without reason. Even small, technical changes or well-intentioned policy shifts “can have ripple effects that last for years and years,” said Rocci Aguirre, executive director of the Adirondack Council. “Nuance in this case is hugely important.”

For example, among the APA’s proposals is expanding access in the park to people with mobility impairments, which speakers universally praised. But motors are a wilderness anathema, and there were some worries that vague language could create a loophole for some motorized technology that today might not even exist.

“There is nothing that changes wilderness character more than bringing in a gasoline powered engine into wilderness, and that’s what’s being proposed,” said Peter Bauer, co-executive director of Protect the Adirondacks. 

Questions about management plans

Some of the master-plan amendments are boilerplate and uncontroversial, such as designating the state’s newly acquired Four Peaks property in Jay as Wild Forest. Others have broad implications for park management, including the incorporation of Visitor Use Management — a standard for protecting fragile resources from increasing crowds that the federal government relies on to protect its national parks.

Most speakers favored heavier protections for the park, and suggested the APA has not been going far enough in response to climate change, assessing the ability of public land to absorb public use and keeping current on Unit Management Plans that plot future action on individual tracts of public property.

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“We have concerns that some of the draft language allows an overly permissive profile, especially with wilderness areas,” said Pete Nelson, director of Adirondack Wilderness Advocates.

Rather than imprecise policies, Nelson urged the use of specific management tools, such as the Summit Steward program, “which is a rock solid, evidence-based argument that things other than limiting visitors work, and work well.” 

Keene Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson also advocated the agency stay current on UMPs, which doesn’t always happen. “Unit management plans need a hard deadline for completion and review,” he said. “UMPs should not be allowed to sit uncompleted, and outdated UMPs should not be used as an excuse for no action to be taken.”

Wildlife protection concerns

Also notable is the way a word or two can affect an entire species. Matt McNamara, an environmental program specialist for the APA, said definition of wildlife management structures limits their use to the protection or restoration of threatened or endangered species, but “this does not include species of special concern, like the quintessential Adirondack species, the loon.” A proposed amendment would address this oversight.

Griffin Archambault, research biologist for the Loon Center, said flooding that is more common due to a changing climate is endangering shoreline nests. This situation can be addressed with the creation of floating rafts upon which the birds can nest.

The amendments also add a section on climate change in general to the state land plan, although some speakers suggested it should be more comprehensive.

Some flooding is not the fault of climate change, but of that most persistent of species, the beaver, and that plan would allow for contraptions that mitigate their damage to trails and trailheads — although Nelson said one of his board members had quipped “We should be changing our behavior in response to beaver activity in the wilderness, not the other way around.”

More details about the State Land Master Plan amendments can be found at https://apa.ny.gov/State_Land/apslmp-amendments-2024.html. Written public comments will be accepted through Dec. 2 and can be submitted here [email protected]. A final in-person public hearing will be held in Albany on Oct. 29, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the state Department of Environmental Conservation Public Hearing Room on the first floor at 625 Broadway.