Key facts in NY Post article on Nature Conservancy Adirondack deal questioned

by Brian Mann on April 8th, 2010

On Monday, New York Post writer Fred Dicker reported on what his sources described as an apparent sweetheart deal between New York state and the Adirondack Nature Conservancy.

The headline says it all: “NY gave environmental org. absurd $3.7M profit for forest.”

Dicker — himself a frequent critic of conservation efforts in the Park — builds his story in large measure around the comments of Fred Monroe, head of the Local Government Review Board.

Monroe, who says he was Dicker’s initial source for the story, has been pressing for a moratorium on land deals in the Park.

But Dicker also quotes a local appraiser in the North Country, who appeared to question the deal on professional grounds:

“This price was not indicative of property values in the area generally,” said James Gonyo, Clinton County’s director of real property tax services.

But the accuracy of the Post’s account is drawing scrutiny. In the Adirondack Daily Enterprise Thursday, Mike Lynch reported the following:

James Gonyo, Clinton County’s director of real property tax services, was quoted in the Post as saying the purchase price was “higher than we would have assessed it at.”

He told the Enterprise something different.

“Let me tell you what I told that guy (Dicker),” Gonyo said.

“I told him I really couldn’t tell him much about the sale. What was not in there at all was that we did not use the sale for comparison purposes simply because it was in several towns and wouldn’t be allowed, so I really hadn’t done any investigation.”

Dicker also suggests that the purchase price paid by New York state represented a “little-noticed giveaway” revealed only by his paper’s probe.

But a review of press coverage of the Domtar deal shows that the purchase prices — the amount the Nature Conservancy paid and the amount paid by state officials — were both disclosed in detail.

Here’s a report from Associated Press writer Mike Virtanen, published in January 2009.

The state paid $10.8 million for the easements on 84,000 acres, and almost $10 million to own the 20,000 acres, most of that added to New York’s Forest Preserve. They include 3,830-foot Lyon Mountain and a mile of shoreline on nearby Chazy Lake…

…With individual donors contributing $4 million, the conservancy in 2004 paid Domtar $6.26 million for 19,960 acres…

Dicker’s initial article also failed to note key details, including the fact that that the transaction followed the state’s receipt of two independent appraisals of the land, an internal review by the Department of Environmental Conservation, and a separate review by the New York state Comptroller’s office.

The Post article also appears to confuse the collapse of the national housing and real estate market with the very different market for timber tracts.

On his radio show, Dicker has been open and unambiguous in his attacks on green groups and New York state’s management of the Adirondack Park.

As other reporters — and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo — pursue the facts of this case, it will be interesting to see how much of the Post’s story holds up.