Investment group sells Clifton, Colton acreage

Thousands of acres within the Adirondack Park in St. Lawrence County were sold earlier this month by a British investment group to an Atlanta timberland management company.

Clerical Medical Forestry Limited, London, sold land for $9.4 million in the towns of Clifton and Colton to New Forestry, which uses the same address in Atlanta as Timbervest Partners Green Mountain, the buyer for $29.2 million of large tracts from Clerical Medical in the towns of Clifton, Colton, Fine and Pitcairn.

The Adirondack Council, an environmental group, had urged the state last year to buy the land, among more than 30,000 acres Clerical Medical had for sale, including frontage on the Oswegatchie River and South Branch of the Grasse River west and north of Cranberry Lake, and land outside the hamlet of Fine.

Timbervest President Gordon Jones didn't return a call for comment on the company's plans. The Times was unable to determine if the purchase included land Clerical Medical had for sale adjacent to Long Pond property where the state has easements and acreage on the East Branch of the St. Regis River.

According to its Web site, Timbervest was formed in 1995 to manage timberland and related assets for pension plans and investors.

Adirondack Council spokes-man John F. Sheehan said Monday that he was not familiar with either Timbervest or New Forestry. "We'll definitely look into them," he said. "I believe this would be their first purchases in the park."

Timbervest appears to have no other holdings in St. Lawrence County, but New Forestry has owned land in Hopkinton since 1997.

Clerical Medical had held various pieces of property in the county since 1989.

"We managed it for Clerical Medical, and we hope we'll manage it in the future," said Thomas W. Gilman, area forester with Fountain Forestry, Tupper Lake.

It wasn't clear whether the sale would improve the state's quest for a conservation easement on the land.

"We had approached Clerical Medical in the past," Department of Environmental Conservation Regional Forester David S. Smith said. "They didn't want to pursue it."

Some of the land sold to Timbervest is adjacent to the Tooley Pond Tract, approximately 29,000 acres, that the state acquired in fee and by easement in 1999 from Champion International Corp.

"It's all in that same block of land," Mr. Smith said.