We work to insure that the interests of the people of the Adirondack Park and their local governments are protected as the Adirondack Park Agency carries out its duties set forth in the Adirondack Park Agency Act, the Freshwater Wetlands Act and the Wild Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act. We believe, as a guiding principle, that people are part of the environment, rather than just a burden on the environment, and that their needs should be balanced in a fair manner with the protection of the natural resources of the Adirondack Park.

We believe that the Adirondack Park should continue to be a multi use park and that it should be accessible to all who work, live and visit the Adirondacks. Recently proposed severe restrictions on uses and accessibility of the Adirondacks fail to achieve the necessary balance. We believe that balance should be restored.

Well-funded preservationist groups, and their lobbying staffs in Albany, have pressured state government for many years to deny reasonable recreational use of the Adirondacks by residents and visitors. Recent Adirondack state land unit management plans have proposed to close substantial percentages of existing campsites, existing roads and existing snowmobile trails. Severe limitations have also been proposed on the existing uses of hunting and fishing cabins on Adirondack private lands. We support the position of Adirondack local government, and user groups, that traditional uses, including hunting, fishing, trapping, snowmobiling, road side camping, ATV riding, in suitable locations, and trail bike riding should be allowed to be continued and that such uses are critical to the economic survival of many Adirondack communities.

In the past historic preservation in the Adirondacks, has been largely ignored. This has been especially true of locally significant historic structures. Great camps, including Fox Lair and Nehasane have been burned to the ground by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The 130-plus buildings of the famous resort at Schroon Manor were either sold or burned by DEC. Historic fire towers have been removed by DEC or destroyed by vandals suspected of ties to extreme preservationist groups. Entire hamlets have been abandoned in the Adirondacks without so much as a historic marker to indicate their former location. This lack of attention to history adds to the creation of the false impression that the Adirondacks have always been wilderness without significant human occupation.

A "Historic" classification has existed in the State Land Master Plan for almost twenty years. However, only three sites in one Adirondack county have been classified "Historic" during those twenty years. The Adirondack Park Agency has not classified any other sites in any of the remaining 11 counties of the Adirondacks as "Historic." We believe that there are locally significant historic sites in those counties which the Adirondack Park Agency should seriously consider for the "Historic" classification.

Adirondack towns are concerned about the loss of their historically important roads. Roads which have been town highways for more than 100 years have been classified as "Wilderness" in some towns, despite the presence of those roads. The roads are then blocked by the DEC, and declared closed, without any formal due process proceedings by town government. "Wilderness" is defined in the State Land Master Plan as "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man * * * a wilderness area is further defined to mean an area of state land or water having a primeval character, without significant improvement . . . " We believe that 100 year old municipal roads are "significant improvements" and that they, therefore, should not be classified as "Wilderness"

Massive state land acquisitions coupled with the "Forever Wild" clause of the New York State Constitution have left some Adirondack communities with little or no land for necessary infrastructure, affordable housing, economic development and other community necessities. We believe that the state should make provisions for those community needs.

Massive state land acquisitions have also placed hundreds of thousands of acres of formerly productive private timber lands off-limits to logging. We believe that this further damages the already fragile economy of many Adirondack communities with no affirmative action to replace lost jobs.

The State of New York has continued, and in recent years even accelerated, the pace of massive state land acquisitions in the Adirondacks while refusing to disclose a goal for the final mix of state and private lands. We question whether there is a goal and, if there is, how it will impact Adirondack communities and their resident. We believe that it is very difficult for local government officials to plan for the future of their communities without knowing the state's plans for the land within their jurisdictions.

Adirondack local governments are not authorized by the Adirondack Park Agency Act to appoint Adirondack Park Agency commissioners to represent the interests of residents in Agency actions critical to their futures. The Adirondack Park Agency Act provides that the Governor appoints the five resident commissioners with the advice and consent of the Senate. We believe that the five resident commissioners should be directly appointed by local government as is the case in other regional planning and zoning bodies in the United States.