The New York Times
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Adirondack Tract to Be Sold to Conservation Group

By KIRK JOHNSON

January 4, 2001

The largest private landowner in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, International Paper, said yesterday that it had agreed to sell 26,500 acres to the Nature Conservancy, a private environmental group, for $10.5 million in what would be one of the largest land preservation agreements in the state's history.

The agreement is complex, and people at some environmental groups said the virtues of the plan would emerge only in its details, which are to be worked out in the coming months. A portion of the land, for example, is to continue in active commercial use as timberland after the sale is completed; the amount of land and its location remain to be worked out. The purchase is to be completed within 90 days.

But state officials and leaders of the Nature Conservancy agreed that at a minimum the sale would protect in perpetuity a chain of undeveloped lakes and ponds that are considered jewels within the wilderness section of Adirondack Park. And the commercial logging that does occur will be overseen by the state.

"We wanted to find a way to satisfy the public interest in these lands, but also maintain a commercial working forest, because we think that's important, too," said Robert Stegemann, a spokesman for International Paper.

Gov. George E. Pataki said in an interview that the agreement was unprecedented, partly because of the size of the tracts involved, but also because it would complete what he said has been an environmental dream of the state since at least 1997, when New York bought an adjoining 15,000-acre tract. In that case, the seller was the Whitney family, inheritors of the fortune of William C. Whitney, the industrialist, who purchased tens of thousands of acres of upstate land in the 1800's.

Officials at the Nature Conservancy said the agreement would cover a backwoods canoeing trail that had been concentrated in the Whitney section ever since its sale, but which would now extend into International Paper land as well.

Mr. Pataki stressed that while preservation was the state's first goal, encouraging sustainable economic activity in the Adirondacks was crucial as well. He said managed logging and increased tourism on the newly opened wilderness lands would provide economic stimulus to neighboring towns.

New York State has been acquiring land in the rugged north country of the Adirondacks for more than a century. The result is a sprawling wilderness that many environmentalists have called one of the nation's last great wild places. Adirondack Park itself now includes six million acres, making it the largest public park in the lower 48 states.

A spokesman for the Adirondack Council, a private environmental group that focuses on the park region, said the agreement was "tremendous news." But the spokesman, John F. Sheehan, said there were still concerns because so many details, especially how the land would be managed, remained unsettled.

"We would have liked to see it all become wilderness," Mr. Sheehan said. "But at the very least, it will be preserved from development and the commercial operations will be overseen by the state." He said his group would be an active participant in negotiations about long-term management of the land.

The state director for the Nature Conservancy, Henry Tepper, said the delicate balancing of interests was the hallmark of the agreement. He said that while the Nature Conservancy had bought other, smaller parcels for protection while agreeing to their continued commercial use, the latest deal was by far the largest of its kind in New York.

"This agreement simultaneously maintains a managed forest landscape, conserves ecological resources and supports the local economy," he said.

Most of the land is in Hamilton County, in the town of Long Lake. The land is clustered in three large parcels that contain four large lakes, more than 12 smaller ponds, over 4,000 acres of pristine wetlands, 85 miles of rivers and streams, and a rare section of spruce and fir forest.

Mr. Pataki and the officials at the Nature Conservancy said, however, that the extension of what had been a well-established canoe route through this area of Adirondack Park was what gave the land much of its recreational appeal. Little Tupper Lake, in particular, will connect to the Bog River and Tupper Lake. Round Lake and Loon Pond, two large, remote lakes in a section adjoining the Whitney parcel, will also greatly expand the canoeing network, they said.