PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:                              Contact:

Thursday, May 13, 2010                                   Neil Woodworth,                                                                        (518) 669-0128

 

Park Preserve Status Needed to Protect Allegany SP

 

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) testified today in support of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation’s (OPRHP’s) proposal to designate nearly 85 percent Allegany State Park as park preservation areas.

Under state law, park preservation areas must be maintained in a near-wilderness state. The Park Preservation Area designation provides the best possible protection against private-sector oil and natural gas exploration in Allegany State Park. The park is vulnerable because it sits atop the Marcellus shale formation and the state does not own the subsurface mineral rights to much of its 65,000 acres.

“Of all the issues addressed in this voluminous draft Master Plan, the park preservation designation is the most vital,” said Neil Woodworth, executive director of ADK. “Questions about recreational trails and the development of facilities become secondary when the fate of the park as we know it is at stake. Will Allegany State Park remain one of the Northeast’s greatest natural treasures or will it become a gas-drilling field? That is what’s at stake here.”

Allegany State Park is the largest park in the OPRHP system and a popular destination for ADK members in the western part of the state. Allegany boasts spectacular scenic beauty, vast stretches of mature forests and a wide variety of flora and fauna. The park attracts about 1.5 million visitors a year and generates more than $60 million in economic activity each year for the region.

“Allegany State Park certainly qualifies for a system of park preservation areas under Section 20 of the Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law,” said Allison Beals, ADK’s conservation director. “We’re pleased that OPRHP recommends the park’s special scenic, ecological and geological qualities be preserved under this designation, while providing the public with recreational opportunities that are compatible with protecting the natural character of the area.”

The Adirondack Mountain Club, founded in 1922, is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to protecting the New York State Forest Preserve, state parks and other wild lands and waters through conservation and advocacy, environmental education and responsible recreation. ADK has 28,000 members and 25 chapters, including chapters in the Buffalo, Rochester, Ithaca, Binghamton and Syracuse areas.