Did the Nature Conservancy overcharge New York state for Adirondack land?

The Adirondack Nature Conservancy is facing a crunch of negative press, following a report in the New York Daily Post claiming that the organization was overpayed for land that it sold to the state in the Adirondack Park.

According to the newspaper, the Conservancy acquired the land — roughly 20,000 acres — for $6.3 million dollars, then sold it to the Department of Environmental Conservation for $10 million.

“We intend to begin an investigation into the potential overpayment by the state for these lands in the Adirondacks and into questions about the evaluation methods that were used to value the property,” a spokesman for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told the Post.

“Questions have been raised by the valuation of the land and the possible motivations and relationships of those involved, and we will review all of the above.”

The article was reported by Fred Dicker, a journalist and opinion writer who has been outspokenly hostile to conservation efforts in the Adirondack Park.

In a letter written to the Post, and published on the Conservancy’s website, the green group’s state director described the account as “extremely misleading.”

“The price the state paid for the land,” wrote Bill Ulfelder, “was determined by two independent appraisals commissioned by NYSDEC. The price was further substantiated by state review one month prior to the purchase and approved by the Office of the State Comptroller.”

However, the Comptroller has also announced that he will review the land deal and the process used to valuate land being considered for the state forest preserve.

This report comes at a precarious time for the Conservancy.

The organization used the revenues from the 2008 sale to help finance the massive Finch, Pruyn and Follensby land transactions.

Environmentalists hope that the land will soon be acquired for addition to the Park’s constitutionally protected land.

But the state budget crisis has caused Governor David Paterson to propose deep cuts to funding for land acquisitions.

State Senator Betty Little and other regional lawmakers have proposed a moratorium on land purchases.