On January 9, 1997, the owners of Whitney Park, a 51,000 acre tract of forests, ponds and lakes near Long Lake, presented a subdivision plan to the Adirondack Park Agency. It called for forty lots to be carved from fifteen thousand acres in the northern portion of the property, on Little Tupper Lake, along a classic Adirondack canoe route closed to the public for the last century. Environmentalists have long considered the estate as one of the Park's crown jewels. On December 23, 1997, Governor George Pataki announced that the state had reached agreement to buy the 14,700 acre tract in Whitney Park for $13.9 million. In October 1997, Champion International Corporation, a Connecticut paper company, announced plans to sell 144,000 acres in the northwest corner of the Park. The state has previously expressed interest in acquiring a portion of the land located in Franklin, St. Lawrence, and Lewis counties. In addition to the possible outright purchase of land, New York State is also seriously considering buying development and recreational easements for more than a quarter-million acres of land in the Adirondacks.
In November, 1996, New York voters approved the $1.75 billion Clean Water/Clear Air Bond Act, of which $150 million was earmarked for the conservation of open space. Even with these resources the state is unlikely to be able to purchase all the Adirondack land that will become available in the coming years.The state will have to make some difficult decisions about how and where those funds can most effectively be spent.Nor does state ownership solve all problems. The state occasionally creates environmental difficulties as well as solves them. Pollution from a state fish hatchery has been implicated in recurrent blooms of blue-green algae on Upper Saranac Lake. The Department of Transportation was recently ordered to clean up an illegal dump it maintained near Warrensburg. Salt used on state highways routinely kills vegetation and pollutes surrounding waters.
