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Several years ago, I moved back to my childhood home in the Adirondacks. Although my career led me into different paths, my degrees were in environmental science, and I've always been interested - and active - in environmental advocacy. What I learned shortly after arriving was that "environmentalist" was a dirty word. If you talked to the residents, you found that they were deeply concerned about environmental issues. Acid rain, mercury from coal, water pollution, invasive species, wildlife conservation, and health of the forests were all things they cared about. So why would "environmentalist" have such a negative meaning? Because of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) and various environmental advocacy groups.
Last month the Glens Falls Post-Star had a series on some of the problems, which show why this attitude exists. |
The first article is called Under attack by the protectors. It details the four year struggle with the APA by a retired forest ranger over his property on the Saranack River.
Then, after four years, the enforcement action went away, along with the letters laying out the laws they had broken, along with the $2.9 million in fines, along with their hearing date at the Park Agency to determine their guilt and their punishment.
The second article in the series details another case, this one on Silver Lake.
But APA staff took issue with work he did on a road that cut through a wetland on the property so Douglas worked with APA staffers and reached a settlement under which he agreed to remove some fill and narrow the road.
But, he said, even as he was doing the work in the spring of 2007, the APA notified him it was opening a new enforcement proceeding against him over the road.
In his long fight with the APA over the road, what astonished Douglas the most was the APA's claim that he hadn't just worked on the road, he had built it.
The road, called the Island Road, had curved down through his land for longer than Douglas could remember, from decades before the creation of the APA in the early 1970s.
These are just two of a number of cases. In talking to various county and town officials over the years, along with people from other state agencies, I've heard a litany of complaints about the APA. Not that it exists, but that it's frequently arbitrary, capricious, and overstepping its authority. Something that's approved one day is disapproved the next. Actions get tied up for years in wrangling over details.
One of the other suspicions - and a frequent complaint- of the residents of the Adirondack Park is that the agency is overly influenced by outside environmental groups. At first, this might seem to be just touch paranoid, a result of resentment over the actions of the agency in the past. The problem is that there's more than a hint of truth in this suspicion:
Stiles is himself one of several current and former Park Agency commissioners who previously worked for the Adirondack Council, an environmental organization based in Elizabethtown, which has been accused of having undue influence with the APA. Two other current APA commissioners previously served with the Adirondack Council.
Then there's this:
The e-mail to APA enforcement officer Doug Miller has had the name of the sender blacked out. The e-mail has a commanding tone, with the writer seeming to issue Miller orders about how to proceed on the LeRoy Douglas case.
Matt Norfolk, Douglas' lawyer, believes that Brian Ruder, chairman of the board of directors of The Adirondack Council, wrote the e-mail.
I highlighted the disturbing parts. There's has been a long-standing perception on the part of many residents and officials in the Adirondacks that the Adirondack Park Agency is unduly influenced by advocacy groups, or(worst case) controlled by them. Stories like this show that there is some basis for those perceptions. Whether or not they are currently involved with the Adirondack Council, the presence of so many former members serving as commissioners is cause for concern. Particularly disturbing is the tone of the e-mail - the president of the Adirondack Council is apparently giving orders to an APA enforcement official.
Incidents like this are cause for serious concern. The picture painted is of a state agency out of control, one that is controlled by advocacy groups instead of the State. It's drawn the attention of various officials:
"The APA is actually legislating laws under the guise of regulations," Little said. "They enforce them with a vengeance."
Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward has introduced legislation in the last several years that she hoped would rein in the enforcement power of the APA, but it has faltered in legislative committees.
"The basic reasons the park agency was put in place and the statutory authority that they have I don't think anyone has a problem with," said Sayward, R-Willsboro. "But they reach out of their statutory authority."
The Attorney General's office may also weigh in:
Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward of Willsboro said recent negative publicity about the Adirondack Park Agency is drawing attention on a state level and she thinks the attorney general's office "is getting interested in this issue."
The Adirondack Park Agency was created with a laudable purpose in mind. They create land-use plans for the Park, to ensure that the environment was protected and preserved. It hasn't been paid much attention to outside of the Park, and that was a mistake. The picture painted of an agency that writes its own rules, and is apparently colluding with various advocacy groups is disturbing. What may come of this remains to be seen, but it highlights the need to always keep an eye on what our state agencies are doing, and sometimes, to rein them in. |
