Conservation groups oppose Heartwood camps

Four conservation organizations have asked Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman to halt approval of a state Department of Environmental Conservation-negotiated deal that would allow about 200 cabins to remain on state easement land owned by Heartwood Forestland Fund in St. Lawrence, Franklin and Lewis counties.

In 1998, Champion International Corp. and the state concluded a massive working forest conservation project on three primary tracts known as Croghan, Tooley and Santa Clara.

At the time, the land contained a little more than 300 hunting camps leased from the landowner, all of which were supposed to be removed by 2014. About 80 camps were taken down and some others closed.

Later, DEC and the landowner, now Heartwood, changed the terms to allow up to 220 camps to remain and be reachable by motorized vehicles in trade for 2,145 acres that would become part of the Forest Preserve. An additional 515 acres outside of the park at the north tip of the Deer River is to become state forest.

In a joint press release, Protect the Adirondacks, Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve, Atlantic States Legal Foundation and the Sierra Club called on state officials to meet with them to discuss their concerns before the arrangement becomes final.

The groups argue that DEC failed to meet public hearing requirements and that the easement modification has unresolved issues of equal value, which is required to avoid violating the state constitution.

“Apart from the fact that the state already paid in 1998 for cabin removal as part of the overall purchase price, if the modification were to be approved Heartwood would stand to gain considerable monies from fees received from leasing land to the hunting clubs in future years,” according to the groups’ statement. “In return for modifying the easements to leave cabins standing, Heartwood proposes to give the state a fee title interest in a couple of thousand acres of its land, most of which will be added to the Forest Preserve. However, there is nothing special about this land except for the Deer River area which already is under a conservation easement.”

The conservation groups maintain that the state will not receive enough value from Heartwood in return for leaving the cabins intact compared to the benefits from their removal.