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Sunday, April 3, 2016

Governor Cuomo's Questionable Decisions

While we talked about Governor Cuomo’s passion for the Adirondacks in class, one of the lead commissioners of the Adirondack Protection Agency recently accused Governor Cuomo of risking the future of the Park. Richard Booth, a professor who has sat on the APA commission for nearly a decade, is known as the most knowledgeable APA commissioner. Booth was a lawyer for the Agency and the State Department of Environmental conservation during the mid-1970’s and is now a professor of environmental policy and land-use law at Cornell. During the march APA meeting, Booth launched a broadside against new changes being made to the State Land Master Plan, the regulatory playbook that shapes management of the forest preserve in the Adirondacks. Booth stated that Governor Cuomo and his staff are steadily weakening laws that protect the Park’s wilderness and primitive areas.
                  Although Booth admits the recent changes are modest, he believes that they are the first step toward bigger changes and that they demonstrate Cuomo’s manipulation of the APA. Governor Cuomo’s changes allow bicycles in primitive areas for the first time and also allow motorized vehicles to be used by state workers to maintain some trails in the Park. According to Booth, no governor in New York state has chosen to force the Park Agency to weaken the master plan until now.  Booth, and some other APA commissioners, believe that Cuomo’s administration is manipulating the process, forcing the agency towards instituting Cuomo’s changes. Booth also accused Cuomo of controlling the APA’s access to information. Some of Booth’s claims may be tested in court; similar charges were brought against Cuomo when earlier this year, green groups sued the Cuomo administration for their behind-the-scenes influence in the management plan for the Essex Chain lakes.  Although Cuomo is seen as a positive influence on the Park, Booth’s claims, coming from such a leading expert, shed some light on the governor’s possibly detrimental decisions about the future of the Adirondacks.


Sources

Mann, Brian. “Top APA Commissioner Says Cuomo Undermining Adirondack Protections”. North Country Public Radio; March 21, 2016. Web. Accessed April 3rd, 2016.












1 comment:

  1. I'm sure that Governor Cuomo's actions are part of a larger plan to make the Adirondacks more economically productive. However, if he risks the integrity of the natural areas by allowing people to degrade the routes, then he jeopardizes the future economic viability of the Adirondacks. It's also important to note that not every part of the Adirondacks must be an economic center. Rather the lands could be preserved for the sake of preservation.

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