More questions about the LeRoy Douglas story in Black Brook
LeRoy Douglas, in the Clinton County town of Black Brook, has emerged as a prominent figure in the Adirondack property rights movement.
Last year, Douglas sued the Adirondack Council environmental group for its involvement in an Adirondack Park Agency enforcement case on his land.
He also told the Glens Falls Post Star that he had experienced “nothing but trouble from environmental groups trying to buy his land…”
“I think I have been picked upon by the state of new York, the Adirondack Park Agency, the DEC, now the Adirondack Council is involved,” Douglas says, in a video posted on the Post-Star’s website.
“Because they’re targeting my land on Silver Lake to be turned over to the state of New York.”
Douglas describes state land acquisitions as part of an effort to purge local property owners.
“All they want to do is come in here and change everything over and take everything away, the lands and the rights away from the Adirondackers.”
In a post on this blog, Post-Star reporter Will Doolittle wrote that he was told by Douglas that he never had any interest in selling his land to the state and didn’t want his property included on a list for future land acquisitions.
But documents provided to NCPR by the Department of Environmental Conservation indicate that Douglas himself approached the state of New York in an effort to sell part of his land — specifically for inclusion in the Adirondack forest preserve.
In a letter written to New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation in 2000, Douglas writes, “This letter is to serve as a formal notice of intent to sell a portion of my property at Silver Lake, Black Brook, New York, to the state of New York.”
Douglas points out that the “Bainbridge Parcel” lies between chunks of forest preserve land and property owned at the time by the Adirondack Nature Conservancy.
In the letter, Douglas notes that his realtor had already met and toured the property with officials from the DEC and with the Nature Conservancy’s Mike Carr.
Before signing “very truly yours,” Douglas asks the state to clarify whether or not they are interested in acquiring his land.
In a response letter, sent to Douglas in July 2000, a DEC official thanked him for his interest and asked for more information.
“I expect the state may very well be interested in acquiring your property,” wrote DEC regional forester Tom Martin. “But please be aware that this is not a quick process.”
Martin advised Douglas that the state can only pay fair market value and adds, “We will move forward as soon as we hear from you.”
More reporting needs to be done on this story, but the letters released today by the DEC raise questions about Douglas’s portrayal of himself as someone hounded by the state and by green groups.
It also appears to clarify why his property was included on the state’s Open Space Plan — apparently at his own request.
According to the Department of Environmental Conservation, Douglas has never asked them to remove his property from the list of land under consideration for purchase by the state.
