Snowmobiles!

The place of snowmobiles on Forest Preserve Lands in the Adirondack Park continues to be a rumbling beneath the surface in the North Country. In 2006 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation adopted a Snowmobile Plan for the Adirondack Park. I have spent the last few days ruminating about some of the features of this plan that might radically alter use of the Forest Preserve Lands. There are some good features to the DEC's plan including trying to move some current snowmobile trails from the interior of large tracts of Forest Preserve Lands to more peripheral areas. However, there are some very scary precedent setting proposals in the plan.
The most disturbing part is the creation of a new category of snowmobile trail called 'Community Connector' trails. Since 1895 the Constitution of New York State has set aside State owned lands in the Adirondack Park as Forever Wild Forest Lands to be kept and preserved as such. The Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (page 19) requires snowmobile trails to have the character of a foot trail, yet these Community Connector trails could hardly be considered part of anyone's definition of Wild Forest Lands or a foot trail. These 'Community Connector' trails would:

• Require grading of the trail surface to remove any protrusion of rock or tree stump more than 6 inches above ground level.
• be 9 - 12 feet wide,
• Require the grading of any steep slopes the trail parallels, moving enough earth and rocks to create a 9 - 12 foot wide level bench for the snowmobiles and groomers to travel.
• Provide for possible 'cuts and fills' of trail irregularities of up to 2 feet in cut or fill or combination of the two.
• allow small excavators and/or skidsteers (a four wheel drive tractor with a loader or blade) to be used to grade trails,
  
• have branches of trees bordering the trail trimmed to a height of 12 feet,
• require 9 foot wide bridges over gullies, wet spots, and streams,
  
• be mechanically groomed by large tracked tractors, which are illegal according to the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (APSLMP),
  
• have a long sight plane and gentle banked sweeping curves (seems like a highway, doesn't it?) so that the snowmobiles could reach their speed capabilities, with anticipated travel speeds of approximately 40 mph, even with two-way traffic. Snowmobiles travel up to 80 MPH, hopefully they will not travel that fast, although there is no speed limit only safety education.
• be designed to promote tourism and economic opportunities for local communities. It should be noted that the APSLMP specifically states that snowmobile use should not be encouraged, yet the plan's goal is to promote snowmobile tourism on Forest Preserve Forever Wild lands.
  

I'm working to convince people that this kind of presence of snowmobiles on Forest Preserve Lands does not leave a wild forest in its wake! The most startling thing about this is that the State of New York, which is supposed to be the steward of the Adirondack Park and especially the Forever Wild Forest Preserve, is actually proposing this!