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August 22, 2008

Conservation group selling Adirondack timberlands

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A conservation group announced Thursday that 90,500 acres of timberlands it bought last year in the central and southern Adirondacks are up for sale with prohibitions against residential and commercial development.

The Nature Conservancy plans to sell five lots to timber management companies subject to conservation easements with the state. Those prohibit development but permit logging with protections for habitats and river corridors, provide for some public recreation and allow ongoing leases by the landowners with hunting clubs.

The forests, mainly in the towns of Newcomb, Indian Lake, North Hudson, Minerva and Long Lake, touch six counties and dozens of towns. One parcel stretches more than 10 miles in northern Essex County. The five sale blocks range from 1,691 to 58,502 acres.

"Protected by a conservation easement, the working forest lands being offered for sale will continue to contribute to the park's wild feel, intact nature, and economic underpinnings, just as they have for more than a century," said Michael Carr, executive director of the Conservancy's Adirondack Chapter.

The nonprofit group last year purchased 161,000 acres long held by Finch, Pruyn & Co. for $110 million. The state has agreed to buy at least 57,699 acres to add to New York's 2.6-million acre Adirondack Forest Preserve, where logging is prohibited.

That portion would include the Boreas Ponds, Essex Chain of Lakes, Hudson Gorge and Opalescent River headwaters. It would open to the public gradually during a 10-year transition as hunting club or other leases are phased out.

The timberlands for sale are currently managed under two "green" certifications from Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. The conservancy said those tree-cutting practices will continue under the conservation easement. Meanwhile, a supply agreement is in place that requires pulp wood from the property for the Finch Paper mill in Glens Falls.

According to the conservancy, scientists spent the past 14 months evaluating 250 square miles of terrain. The sale will be used to pay off some of the $110 million borrowed to buy the land, while the group tries to raise $35 million privately "to underwrite the conservation gains in the transaction."

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