Genesee Valley Chapter
Adirondack Mountain Club

CONSERVATION COMMITTEE

Updated December 16, 2008 9:27 PM ET

Local Alerts and Updates

November 25

Monroe County Parks Public Meeting – The Genesee Valley Chapter was well represented The Master Plan under consideration: 2008-11-25_Ellison Park Updates.pdf For more information, see the Conservation page.

December News from Dave and Tim

By Dave Harrison and Tim Noble

Important Parks Advisory Meeting Scheduled for December 18

The Monroe County Parks Advisory Board will meet on Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 4:00 P.M. at the Monroe County Parks Office, 171 Reservoir Avenue in Highland Park.

The meeting agenda includes a report by EDR, the engineering firm hired to advise the Parks Advisory Board with respect to the updates of the master plans covering those parks on or near Irondequoit Bay.

This will be the first Advisory Board meeting since the standing room-only meeting that took place at Penfield Town Hall last month. The issue of mountain biking in the County parks will surely be an important aspect of the engineer's report at this month's meeting. It's very important that we reinforce the position on mountain biking previously taken by our Chapter by having a large presence at this public meeting. Chapter members are urged to attend if their schedules permit.

ADK-GVC's position statement on mountain biking in the County parks is available here.

You can find more information on the master plan at http://www.monroecounty.gov/parks-index.php

More December Updates and Issues

Meeting on Monroe County Parks master plans attracts standing room-only crowd. The issue of whether, and to what extent, mountain biking should be permitted in certain County parks was a major topic of discussion at a Monroe County Parks Advisory Board meeting that took place on the evening of November 25 at Penfield Town Hall. The meeting was the latest in a series of Advisory Board meetings dealing with proposed updates to the master plans for the six parks on or near Irondequoit Bay (Ellison Park, the Ellison Wetlands, Tryon Park, Irondequoit Bay Park East, Irondequoit Bay Park West, and Devil's Cove). Before a jam-packed audience, the engineer whom the County had hired to develop the revised master plans summarized his recommendations for each park. The meeting was then opened for public comments.

Although the public comments covered a variety of issues, by far the most contentious issue was that of mountain biking. The preliminary recommendations call for the continuation of the ban on off-road bicycles on all of the parks, with the exception of Tryon Park, where a multi-use trail would be developed that would include mountain biking as a permitted use. Such use would be reviewed by the County after a 36-month trial period.

The organized mountain biking community was well-represented at the meeting. Some mountain biking advocates objected to any limitations on mountain biking on the foot trails in the various parks. Other mountain bikers voiced their objection to the selection of Tryon Park as the site for the multi-use trail or to the engineer's recommendation that mountain biking in Tryon Park only be authorized on a trial basis.

At least 32 ADK-GVC members attended the meeting, and many of these people voiced their concerns about allowing unrestricted mountain biking access to the foot trails in the various parks. In addition to ADK, members of the Sierra Club, the Genesee Audubon Society, People for Parks, and other organizations, as well as individuals not affiliated with any organizations, offered comments that expressed similar concerns to those that ADK-GVC raised in the written policy statement that it had sent to the Parks Advisory Board and the engineer several months ago. (That policy statement is available on the Chapter's website.)

Speaking on behalf of our Chapter, conservation committee co-chair Dave Harrison reiterated the Chapter's position, which (a) recognizes that mountain biking as a legitimate form of outdoor recreation, (b) opposes, for public safety and environmental reasons, the opening of all of the foot trails in all of the parks to mountain biking, and (c) suggests permitting mountain biking on an experimental basis in one (and only one) of the parks. Tryon was one of the parks that our policy statement suggested for the mountain biking experiment.

Dave commended those aspects of the engineer's recommendations that paralleled the Chapter's policy. However, he objected strongly to a provision in the plans referring to the construction of a bridge across the Irondequoit Creek narrows, connecting the Tryon Park side of the creek with the Ellison Wetlands side. That bridge, he pointed out, had been proposed (and apparently given preliminary approval by the County) by a citizens group as a means of connecting the hiking trails in the two parks. The bridge proposal was, however, made long before any issue arose with respect to possible mountain biking in Tryon Park.

Noting that there has already been considerable illegal mountain biking in the Ellison Wetlands, and that the engineer's recommendations call for enhanced measures to protect the environmentally sensitive Ellison Wetlands, Dave stated that the plan for the Wetlands would be undermined by the construction of a bridge that would create a pathway for mountain bikers who were cycling on the trails in Tryon Park to continue their activity on the foot trails in the Ellison Wetlands, where mountain biking was prohibited.

The Advisory Board's plans call for finalizing its recommendations for the various master plans by the end of December, and then presenting them to the County Executive and the County Legislature for adoption in early 2009. We will be following the progress of these plans, and will use the Chapter website and hotline to keep Chapter members advised of further developments.

Many thanks to all of the ADK-GVC members who turned out for the November 25 meeting.

Proposed New York State acquisition of Hemlock/Canadice lands. For over a year, the fate of the pristine forests surrounding Hemlock and Canadice Lakes has hung in the balance. This Chapter and many other organizations and individuals interested in the preservation of our State's wild lands have advocated the sale of the lands, which are presently owned by the City of Rochester, to the State of New York under an arrangement that would protect the lands from future development. Both the City and the State have expressed interest in such a sale. From Rochester's point of view, the sale would generate much-needed cash or the City, while at the same time not affecting the City's ownership of the water rights to the two lakes.

Over the past several months, the State and the City conducted separate assessments of the monetary value of the lands and following the completion of those assessments, the two parties entered into negotiations. As of the end of November, however, no deal had been announced, and many observers feared that with the State's current financial crisis, if no agreement was reached very soon, any State funds that are currently available for the purchase of the Hemlock/Canadice lands would cease to be available. This concern led ADK-GVC to send a letter to Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy on December 1 urging him to use his best efforts to consummate the sale before the opportunity to do so was lost. Later the same week, an article appeared in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle stating that the deal was being held up by a zoning issue in the Town of Canadice. That issue, it was reported, impacted the validity of the assessments that the City's and the State had used as the basis of their negotiations. As of this writing, it was unclear whether the foregoing zoning problem could be overcome, and if resolved, whether the clearing of the zoning obstacle would take place in sufficient time for the deal to be completed.

ADK submits written comments on impact of increased oil and gas drilling in Western and Central New York. Due to increasing energy costs, it has become profitable to drill for oil and gas in the Marcellus shale deposit, located in Western and Central New York. Much of the deposit lies under New York State's parks and forests, and the Finger Lakes Trail passes over the deposit. Mining through the shale raises significant environmental concerns, due to the need to pump water into the shale to force out the oil and gas. This practice causes the accumulation of large quantities of polluted water, which in many cases must be removed from the drilling site.

On October 29, Allison Beals, ADK's Director of Government Relations and Conservation, submitted written comments to the New York State Assembly concerning the potential environmental and recreational impacts that increased natural gas drilling in Western and Central New York could cause. Although acknowledging the testimony of other organizations concerning the water pollution problem, ADK focused on other, indirect consequences. Ms. Beals pointed out that with the extremely large amount of water that the "hydro-fracking" process involves, hauling water into drilling sites may be necessary if municipal water is not available, with estimates of increased truck traffic in the hundreds per day. Such a large increase in truck traffic could, it was argued, disrupt the natural character of many state parks and forest lands.

It was also pointed out that the process for testing the ground for resources does not come without disruption. Specifically, it was noted that "thumper trucks," that have disturbed people in residential neighborhoods, could have negative impacts on wildlife, and that since building wells and drilling are very expensive processes, frequent testing using the "thumper trucks" is inevitable to ensure drillers of the locations where it is worthwhile to drill. In addition, it was pointed out that the creation of temporary roads for trucks would attract many "thrill craft" riders such as ATV and dirt bike enthusiasts who are seeking challenging and muddy terrain. In ADK's view, increased ATV use could lead to trespass on State Park lands and scenic hiking trail systems.

Noting that the original intent of preserving forest areas and state parks such as Allegany State Park, Letchworth State Park, and Watkins Glen State Park was to provide a natural experience to the public for recreation and scenic values, Ms. Beals' concluded by stating that ADK wants appropriate measures to be taken by regulatory agencies to ensure the protection of these forest lands' scenic and recreational character, and that while ADK understands the economic hardships facing New York State, we must not allow our unique historic and natural environment to be sacrificed to industrialization for short term energy resource opportunities.

Lows Lake Controversy

A major issue for the Adirondack Mountain Club which the Genesee Valley Chapter has supported involves the phasing out of float plane usage on Lows Lake. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) stated in the area Unit Management Plan that floatplane use was to be phased out over a five year period that ends in January. DEC then proposed a permit system that would allow float plane usage for up to another 10 years. The Main ADK then opposed this along with other environmental organizations and then sued DEC to force them to ban float planes.

Recently the issue was being reviewed for approval by the Adirondack Park Agency. In their September meeting the APA delayed the approval decision advocating that DEC come up with a compromise approach on the issue. ADK favored this position so the suit has been delayed to give APA a chance to review the issue. At the GVC January meeting Workshop Jim Townsend a member of the local chapter and also a current commissioner of the APA will be presenting a session on Environmental and Conservation issues in the Adirondacks. The Lows Lake issue will be one of the primary issues reviewed.