Court of Appeals: Clearing trees for snowmobile trails unconstitutional
The decision by New York's highest court ends nearly eight years of litigation that divided environmental groups and overturns part of a lower court ruling.
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The decision by New York's highest court ends nearly eight years of litigation that divided environmental groups and overturns part of a lower court ruling.
The state’s highest court will soon decide what constitutes a constitutionally protected tree in the Adirondack Forest Preserve, potentially impacting the construction of planning snowmobile trails.
The fate of Adirondack Forest Preserve trees and trails is on the line in an ongoing lawsuit that has divided environmental organizations.
Adirondack Wild and Protect the Adirondacks sued in 2016 to thwart a Department of Environmental Conservation plan to route a snowmobile trail across newly acquired state land between Indian Lake and Newcomb. The Adirondack Park Agency had signed off on the trail on Chain Lakes Road South, which passes within a half-mile of the Hudson River in a mile-long stretch where the river is designated “wild.”
By Phil Brown
In July, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court agreed with Protect the Adirondacks that the number of trees cut for community connectors is excessive, violating Article 14, the clause of the state constitution mandating that the preserve “shall be forever kept as wild forest lands.”
By Tim Rowland
Both parties to a controversial and consequential forest-use lawsuit have appealed a July 3 court ruling that says construction of a planned network of snowmobile trails in the east-central Adirondacks is illegal because it would mow down too many trees on the forest preserve.
Local officials and proponents of other trail projects to benefit cyclists and skiers have fretted that the court's ruling could block more initiatives.
By Sara Ruberg
“You’re turning over staff so quickly. They’re trying to make more money per hour or they’re shifting for a different place to live or there are transportation issues. All those things come together to degrade the employees that support the businesses.”
A New York appellate court on Wednesday ruled that the state’s tree-cutting for “community connector” snowmobile trails is excessive and violates the state constitution’s protections for the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Protect the Adirondacks sued the Department of Environmental Conservation in 2013 over 27 miles of snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Park, claiming the trails required…
A new group--Adirondack Wilderness Advocates--is seeking nonprofit status, raising the question of what niche it and several other Adirondack groups fill.