Conservation groups: State is falling short on goals

Follensby Pond easements add protected acres but where does New York stand on its 30% by 2030 plan?

By Gwendolyn Craig

A lag in state land acquisition has lawmakers, land trusts and environmental organizations pressing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration over how it will meet its goals of protecting 30% of its lands and waters by 2030. They’re also wondering what lands and waters will count, something state agencies are charged with drafting by July 1 for public comment.

In 2022, New York added 5,000 acres to protected land, 65,000 acres less than what the state was averaging around the 1993 creation of the Environmental Protection Fund. Over 90 land trusts are currently holding 100,000 acres with a fair market value of $150 million for the state of New York, said Kathy Moser, chief conservation officer of the Open Space Institute. 

“We are never going to meet our climate action plan goals or our 30-by-30 goals,” Moser told legislators at a Feb. 7 environmental conservation budget hearing. 

The benchmarks these laws set are important for sequestering carbon to help combat a warming planet, protecting biodiversity, conserving wildlife habitat and preserving open space for future generations to enjoy.

In budget testimony, Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos suggested more land acquisition announcements will be coming this year — 28,000 acres protected through about 50 projects. 

For some organizations, those additions are too small. Environmental groups testified that the state’s land acquisition program is “absolutely broken,” and more needs to be done to streamline the process.

Follensby Pond

Days after the budget hearing, the state announced pending conservation easements protecting nearly 15,000 acres in the towns of Harrietstown and Tupper Lake, including the renowned Follensby Pond. It was an announcement nearly 16 years in the making. In 2008, The Nature Conservancy purchased the parcel where Ralph Waldo Emerson and other influential minds of the 1800s gathered for the legendary Philosophers’ Camp.

Katie Petronis, DEC’s deputy commissioner of natural resources, told the Adirondack Explorer the Follensby Pond easements were likely included in the commissioner’s 28,000-acre figure. That means the state has publicly announced about half of what Seggos is booking to be protected this year. 

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Petronis cautioned that the deals and acreage protected are “fluid” matters. She declined to offer her own estimates.

“We’re trying to get to very high numbers every year, and I wouldn’t limit us to 28,000 acres,” Petronis said. “I think it’s probably a fair estimate of what we are working on now that we think could close within a year if things go according to plan and some of those issues don’t arise. But it’s really hard to give a specific number because it’s just so many projects statewide, and so many things happen during the contracting process.”

Land acquisition delays

The Open Space Institute alone is holding 21,000 acres worth $24 million for the state. In Adirondack Forest Preserve counties, OSI is holding seven fee properties valued at $7.8 million, and five conservation easements totaling $2.3 million. Fee properties are those the state will purchase.

The Adirondack Land Trust is currently holding seven fee properties, a total of 949 acres for the state. Two of the parcels were donated and thus will be donated to the state, said Director of Communications Connie Prickett. The trust paid $914,000 total for the other five parcels. It’s not clear how much they would be valued today.

“The Adirondack Land Trust shares the same concerns as OSI and others about the backlog of land protection purchases by New York state, especially in light of the state’s ambitious biodiversity and climate change resiliency goals,” said Prickett.

The Nature Conservancy is no longer holding any property for the state since entering into a contract on the two Follensby Pond conservation easements. 

*Acreage provided where available

Petronis said the DEC is working with land trust organizations to better streamline the process. The state has a “fiduciary responsibility to make sure that our due diligence process is rigorous … so that we are not paying greater than fair market value for our property, to make sure that there are not going to be any clouds on title and to make sure that there are not going to be any sort of survey issues that we missed,” she said.

The DEC is looking at condensing its appraisal process in some instances, Petronis said. Currently a DEC regional office and the central office review an appraisal. The DEC also requires two appraisals. There could be some instances, Petronis said, where one appraisal and one review may “make sense.” 

The DEC has also added new real property and legal counsel staff, Petronis said.

Moser said, “one agency that we haven’t been able to find any compromise with is the Office of the Attorney General.”

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An aerial view of intact forests along the North Branch of the Boquet River on the Ben Wever Farm property, now protected by a conservation easement in partnership with the Adirondack Land Trust. Adirondack Land Trust photo by Becca Halter

Unlike the rest of the states and the federal government, New York does not accept title insurance, Moser said. OSI, The Nature Conservancy and others are asking state legislators to pass a law allowing for the state Attorney General’s Office to purchase title insurance. State Sen. Rachel May, D-Syracuse and Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr., D-Sag Harbor, are sponsoring such bills.

On Long Island, Thiele said, the Peconic Land Trust is holding $15 million in land for the state and have waited years for reimbursement. Thiele hopes his bill, should it pass, will address some of the backlog.

“It’s not just a matter of money, but it’s also slowing down the resources to do future conservation purchases,” Thiele said.

The state Attorney General’s Office did not respond to the Adirondack Explorer’s request for comment.

Most title searches go back about 40 years, Moser said, but OSI generally extends its search to 80 years. That has not appeased the Attorney General’s Office, however, which has demanded a clear and perfect title. The issue is currently playing out in the town of North Hudson, where a conservation easement is in limbo because of a bankruptcy case the state found from more than 100 years ago.

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Money for land acquisition

The Environmental Protection Fund is the state’s main source for purchasing land. In Hochul’s proposed budget, $25 million of the $400 million fund was diverted for staffing expenses. This diversion has been tried in several past executive proposals, and never sits well with lawmakers or environmental organizations. Groups, including the Adirondack Council, have called for the land protection account in the fund to be increased to $50 million from $34.5 million.

Another source for purchasing land is in the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022. Up to $650 million is allocated for open space land conservation and recreation.

Jessica Ottney Mahar, New York policy and strategy director of The Nature Conservancy, called the Environmental Protection Fund and the state’s land acquisition program, “absolutely broken.”

Ottney Mahar encouraged legislators at the Feb. 7 budget hearing to convene another hearing on how to make the fund’s administration better and find out what “is going wrong with some of these programs. It’s not for a lack of need,” she said.

Top photo: OSI’s West Mountain Property in Saratoga County Photo Credit: Bob Stone Courtesy of Open Space Institute