An environmental group is proposing that more than half of the Adirondack land purchased by the state this past summer be classified wilderness.
New York State will purchase 69-thousand acres of former Finch-Pruyn lands from the Nature Conservancy over the next five years. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation must classify the lands under Unit Management Plans. The group “Protect the Adirondacks” is proposing that a 39-thousand acre portion be used to create an Upper Hudson Wilderness Area. Protect the Adirondacks Executive Director Peter Bauer notes that some of the lands are already classified wild.
Peter Bauer says the purchase consolidated some very important lands along the Hudson River.
Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board Executive Director Fred Monroe says Protect is asking for too much land to be designated wilderness and most of the land in their proposal does not meet the definition of wilderness.
Protect the Adirondacks’ proposed Upper Hudson Wilderness Area would be focused along 22 miles of the Hudson River between Newcomb and North River and be larger than nine other wilderness areas in the Adirondacks.