DEC Adopts 'Complex' Planning

The APA has approved new UMPs that combine the High Peaks and the Dix Wilderness areas.  It also includes the new Boreas lands.  The UMP for the Vanderwacker forest is also new.  Overall they adopt a much broader landscape planning effort.

The region know as the Great South Woods will be the first to experiment with 'complex planning' a new approach that takes into consideration in a whole region, not just a section of it in isolation.

The project will be run by SUNY ESF and they launched this project website.
Read a news story about it here.

Marcy Dam, damaged by a big storm, will be slowly dismantled rather than rebuilt.  Duck Hole dam was destroyed by the same storm and not rebuilt.  These areas will revert to their natural state, consistent with the ideas of back country wilderness.

Read the news story here.

"January, the APA advanced the cause of Wild Land Complex Planning when it approved the Taylor Pond Wild Forest (TPWF) Unit Management Plan. The TPWF consists of 26 separate parcels stretching across three counties from the shores of Lake Champlain to Saranac Lake. Plans include closing dead-end and redundant snowmobile trails; closing an illegal boat launch while opening a new one in a better location; establishing a new mountain bike trail system; and, arranging better parking for trails to popular mountain peaks"

This item is copied from the Adk Council's 2013 State of the Park report