Environment DEC
From the November 2006 issue
Camp Leasing Preserved on Former Champion Lands in Franklin County
Governor George E. Pataki announced an agreement to allow the continued leasing of recreational camps on the former Champion lands in Franklin, Herkimer, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. As part of the agreement, Heartwood Forestland Fund III, LLC, owner of a conservation easement on these lands, will transfer 2,698 acres of valuable wildlife habitat in the Deer River corridor to the state.
Governor Pataki said, "I am pleased that we have been able to rework the agreement to permit the continued leasing of hunting and recreational camps on these lands. This will benefit north country communities and visitors because it will maintain a long-standing tradition and provide the state with more than 2,600 acres of important lands in the Adirondacks."
Win/win Situation
Under the agreement, Heartwood will retain the right to lease 220 campsites located on the 110,000 acres of forest lands on which the state acquired a working forest easement in 1999. The company will transfer 2,698 acres of land to the state in two parcels adjacent to the state's existing Deer River holdings.
A 2,145-acre parcel within the Adirondack Park will be added to the State Forest Preserve as part of the recently classified Deer River Primitive Area, and a 553-acre parcel outside the park will become a new state forest. These parcels will provide access to a previously inaccessible, detached, Forest Preserve property and will be open to the public for hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor recreation.
The 2009 hunting season will mean
the opening of an additional 139,000
acres to public hunting
According to the terms of the 1999 agreement with Champion, the leased camps on the easement property acquired by Heartwood were to be removed by 2014. The new agreement would provide Heartwood with the discretion to permit the camps to stay in one-acre areas after 2014. Following completion of the 2008 deer-hunting season, the entire 139,000-acre property will be open to public hunting, except for the one-acre camp areas.
