Dear Governor Cuomo,
As a citizen of New York, I count
myself lucky to live in a state with both world class city and
wilderness life. I have, for my whole life, had a deep appreciation
for the Adirondack Park. The more I learn about the intricacies of
land within the Blue Line—the unparalleled puzzle of ownership and
usage, the coexistence of wonders of natural and human origin—the
more I am intent on making sure the future of the park does not undo
all that we have achieved to date. We cannot watch the Adirondack
Park gradually lose the wild character that defines it, but must make
the most of our opportunities to expand on it. Preservation of
wilderness in the Adirondacks should not only be a legacy, but should
be an ongoing part of the park. The purchase of the Boreas Ponds is
an exciting opportunity to fulfill our responsibility of preservation
in the park.
I urge you, Governor Cuomo, to
designate the Boreas Ponds as wilderness, to expand the Adirondack
High Peaks Wilderness into a continuous tract of protected New York
State beauty at its best. Now is a time of momentous global
awareness of our responsibilities to our planet, of acknowledging
that the needs of our environment are inseparable from the needs of
our world. Now is not the time to make small concessions with big
consequences. The Boreas Ponds area took hundreds of years to reach
its current state; allowing motorized vehicles on it now would be
like buying a beautiful shirt, only to toss it into a churning
washing machine without concern for how much nicer it could look and
how much longer it could last if it were carefully hand washed.
Let's not ignore the instructions on the back of the tag. The Boreas
Ponds tract deserves to be officially declared as wilderness.
Sincerely,
Hannah Lasher
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