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Chair’s Report
April, 2009
Chair: Tom Ortmeyer
I hope to see many of you at the Mud Season Potluck on April 19. The program on the Cranberry Lake 50 should be very interesting; details are elsewhere in this issue.
The club is sponsoring two events in our area: the club’s National Trails Day event on June 6 in Cranberry Lake, and a trail work day on Azure Mountain on June 20. The club website (www.adk.org) has details and signup instructions for these two events.
Several of us were at the Catamount Lodge during the Colton Winter Festival, talking to beginning snowshoers and leading several short trips around the Catamount Forest. Our thanks to Ruth and Joe McWilliams for inviting the chapter to participate in this event. I was talking with Mary Jane Watson there, and was somewhat chagrinned to learn from her that the Raquette Boreal Unit Master Plan has been published - it actually was dated December, 2006. As memory serves, this was not long after the land classification was completed. I have since talked to others who had not been aware of this, which did make me feel somewhat better about missing it.
In my opinion, the UMP is disappointing in that it provides little if any new access to the state lands covered by the document. It does do a good job in recognizing the need for enforcement on these lands. The plan to add a parking lot at Jamestown Falls is also welcome, as is the attention to the sections of the Raquette River in the unit.
The plan states that interest in hiking is limited. It talks more about mountain biking opportunities, and states that the Potter Brook Road, a private right of way to the state lands, will be designated as open for mountain biking. In summary, while allowing for future changes in access, the plan elects to maintain the status quo, where the primary access to the main parcel by the public is by boating across the Carry Falls Reservoir. There certainly are some who feel that this is appropriate, and that the remoteness of the areas around the Jordan River should maintained. I’d be interested in hearing your opinions on this issue.