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Raquette Boreal Unit

Summary

The Raquette Boreal UMP encompasses Forest Preserve and conservation easements the State owns in the Towns of Hopkinton, Colton, and Piercefield in St. Lawrence County. The Forest Preserve lands include recently acquired parcels as well as lands previously part of the Raquette-Boreal Wild Forest. These lands have recently been classified into two units; the Raquette River Wild Forest and the Raquette-Jordan Boreal Primitive Area. The easement lands in the unit include the Lassiter easement, which include public recreation rights, the Conservation Fund easement, which include no public recreation rights, and the International Paper Co. easement, which includes limited public access rights for access to the Raquette River.

The unit is bounded on the North by Stark Road, Joe Indian Road and Joe Indian Pond, on the East by the West Branch of the St. Regis River and the St. Lawrence County Line, on the South by State Route 3, and on the West by State Route 56.

What distinguishes this unit are the two rivers; the Raquette and the Jordan, and the low elevation boreal forest that occupies significant portions of the area and borders portions of both rivers. The Jordan in particular is a remote river that has the character of a river in northern Canada, bounded much of its length by boreal (spruce and fir) forest with significant flat water stretches in a meandering channel. The boreal forest habitats on these lands and neighboring private properties continue to have a population of the endangered spruce grouse.

The draft UMP contains:

  • An inventory of natural resources and man-made facilities;
  • An inventory of actual and projected public use, and an assessment of the potential impacts of public use on natural resources and the public enjoyment of the area;
  • An assessment of the physical, biological and social carrying capacity of the area; and
  • A statement of management objectives to address the protection and rehabilitation of the area's natural resources, the control of public use, the removal of nonconforming uses, opportunities for additional recreational use and the need for new facilities.

A partial list of recommended management actions in the draft UMP include:

  • Designating primitive tent-sites in appropriate locations;
  • Identifying alternatives for providing public access, by motor vehicle, to portions of the unit laying east of the Carry Falls Reservoir;
  • Analyzing alternatives for a potential snowmobile trail connection across the unit; and
  • protecting populations and habitat of the endangered Spruce Grouse.

Raquette Boreal Draft UMP (September, 2006):

Entire Raquette Boreal Draft UMP (5.80 mb pdf - This file is very large and may take a long time to download or even cause some computers to crash)

Table of Contents, Acknowledgements, Preface, and Sections I - IV (0.97 mb pdf)

Sections V to VI including appendices without maps (430 kb pdf)

Unit Map with Existing and Proposed Facilities (478 kb pdf)

Unit Map with Hydrology (585 kb pdf)

Unit Map with Potential Deer Yard Habitat (935 kb pdf)

Unit Map with Potential Spruce Grouse Habitat (965 kb pdf)

Unit Map with Historic Deer Yard Habitat (347 kb pdf)

Unit Map with Breading Bird Atlas Blocks (1.23 mb pdf)

Copies are available in electronic format for distribution on Compact Disc from the DEC's Lowville Office and may be requested by calling (315) 376-3521.

or by writing:

Keith Rivers
New York State DEC
7327 State Route 812
Lowville, NY 13367
e-mail : r6ump@gw.dec.state.ny.us