Wilderness plan has pros, cons

WANAKENA — The reaction was mixed at a public hearing Monday at the Ranger School on an Adirondack Park Agency proposal to classify a waterway for the first time, along with thousands of other acres, as wilderness.

"There's always a tension between motorized use and nonmotorized use," APA acting Executive Director James E. Connolly said.

The plan enlarges the Five Ponds Wilderness Area, but doesn't affect Cranberry Lake or Dead Creek Flow.

The proposal would classify 4,384 acres of land acquired by the state in 2006 and 2007, and Lows Lake and Hitchins Pond, as wilderness, reclassify 8,161 acres from primitive to wilderness and allow three primitive corridors to provide motorized access to private property, including Sabattis Scout Reservation. An alternative would also classify Bog Lake, at 228 acres, as wilderness.

The proposal is flawed because Lows Lake, which lies in both St. Lawrence and Hamilton counties, doesn't meet the APA's own definition of wilderness as it is a manmade reservoir created by a concrete dam, said Walter H. Paul of St. Lawrence County Federated Sportsmen.

Private landowners could still use motorboats on Lows Lake, which wouldn't comply with wilderness. The classification would give preferential treatment to canoeists and open the state to lawsuits, Mr. Paul said.

"There are groups out there who are certainly watching," he said. "There seems to be a rising sentiment that we don't need any more wilderness classifications in St. Lawrence County."

Clinton E. Farnsworth, Cranberry Lake, worried that the more remote the state makes Lows Lake and its shoreline — the majority of which it owns — the less it will value it for tax purposes.

Joshua Wilson, of Adirondack Adaptive Adventures, said he was neither for nor against the proposal, but noted that many handicapped people want a wilderness experience.

"Those people do not feel they're shut out of those areas," he said.

Others of the roughly 30 people who attended the hearing were positive.

Sherman L. Craig, chairman of the Five Ponds Partners subcommittee of the Clifton-Fine Economic Development Corp., supported the plan as good for residents and visitors, but worried that the size of the wilderness would make it difficult to maintain trails.

Classifying the area as wilderness will achieve an objective set out years ago, said Daniel Plumley, of the Organization to Protect the Adirondacks.

Lows Lake is owned by the state, unlike other waterways in the park that are held by both the state and private property owners, Adirondack Mountain Club Director Neil F. Woodworth said.

"There are many places in the Adirondack Park where motor vehicles can be used and float planes can land," he said.

The APA also had a public hearing at Long Lake on Monday and will hold another one at noon on July 20 at the DEC office, 625 Broadway, Albany. Written comments can be sent through Aug. 28 to Richard E. Weber, APA, P.O. Box 99, Ray Brook, N.Y. 12977.