As we report today, the state’s decision to halt all new land purchases in the Adirondack Park leaves local green groups holding some pretty big bags.<\/p>\n
The Adirondack Nature Conservancy is sitting on nearly 70,000 acres of the Finch, Pruyn lands, not to mention $80 million in debt. <\/p>\n
Annual carrying costs for all that acreage: roughly $3 million. <\/p>\n
Some of that is offset by timber harvesting and other revenues, but it’s still a massive and unexpected drain.<\/p>\n
Critics of these deals say the moratorium is a common sense decision given a budget deficit that totals more than $60 billion over the next five years.<\/p>\n
State Senator Betty Little says it also offers a chance to re-evaluate whether the state needs more forest preserve land, especially at a time when Governor David Paterson is slashing stewardship money and staff.<\/p>\n
Supporters say one of the landmark conservation deals in the Northeast in the last half-century is at risk of slipping away. <\/p>\n
One fascinating wrinkle here is the extraordinary, back-of-the-napkin way that these deals get done. <\/p>\n
The Nature Conservancy bought these lands — 161,000 acres — without a contract with New York state, with little more than a handshake. <\/p>\n