When I came to the Adirondack Park 11 years ago, my first impression was of a lop-sided battle over conservation.<\/p>\n
Pro-development advocates were disorganized, poorly funded, and often — let’s be frank — flaky as pie crust. <\/p>\n
Green groups, meanwhile, were organized and well-funded, with a coordinated message and direct ties to Governor George Pataki.<\/p>\n
Pataki, a Republican, adopted their mission to expand the Park’s forest preserve, proudly trumpeting his successes during his final state of the state address. <\/p>\n
When Eliot Spitzer was elected governor, environmentalists had every reason to expect their influence to grow.<\/p>\n
Spitzer had a long track record of using state law and litigation to pursue polluters.<\/p>\n
He appointed Peter Bauer, one of the most controversial green leaders in the Park, to serve on one of his transition committees. <\/p>\n
He also chose Pete Grannis, a lawmaker with a long track record of environmental activism, to head the Department of Environmental Conservation.<\/p>\n
But four years later, the tide has shifted dramatically.<\/p>\n
Spitzer was ousted over a sex scandal and his successor, David Paterson, has showed little interest in green issues.<\/p>\n
Speaking privately, environmentalists say Democrats in the legislature also have little passion for spending money on land conservation.<\/p>\n
The recession has also hurt green groups directly, forcing two long-standing organizations — the Residents Committee and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks — to merge.<\/p>\n
The resulting advocacy group, Protect the Adirondacks, is still struggling to reorganize.<\/p>\n
Bauer, though still influential in the Lake George region, has taken a much quieter role. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, groups opposing the environmental agenda have gotten smarter, louder, and better at pushing their message.<\/p>\n
The Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages produced a highly influential report — the APRAP study — that showed serious threats to local communities.<\/p>\n
The Local Government Review Board, headed by Fred Monroe, hired a PR firm to help spread the message that land purchases are part of the problem.<\/p>\n
The Board’s members and allies have pelted green groups and state environment officials with a series of lawsuits, some of them successful.<\/p>\n
Monroe also managed to prompt the state Attorney General’s office to investigate a 2008 conservation land deal in Clinton County.<\/p>\n
Working with state Senator Betty Little, pro-development advocates have blocked the appointment of environmentalist and businessman Peter Hornbeck to the APA board.<\/p>\n
They’ve also steadily built support for an open-ended moratorium on new land purchases in the Park.<\/p>\n
Of course, environmentalists aren’t out of the game. Three members of the APA board are former members of the Adirondack Council board.<\/p>\n
That’s a lot of influence.<\/p>\n
And the Adirondack Nature Conservancy is still fighting to close a land deal on the former Finch Pruyn timber lands that would add roughly 60,000 acres to the forest preserve.<\/p>\n
They also hope to convince the state to purchase Follensby Pond, near Tupper Lake.<\/p>\n
But as those battles go forward, the debate appears far less one-sided. <\/p>\n
There are now two powerful, articulate and passionate factions in the Adirondacks, engaged in a healthy and spirited fight over the Park’s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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