Update - May 22, 2004

Friends,

How long did you think our maturing forests would be allowed to slumber
into old age un-accosted by NY state foresters? Yeah, well contrary to what
we've been led to beleive... not that long.

In the April 20th update (found here:
http://www.planputnam.org/highlands/updates.htm) I made some predictions
about what the DEC might be planning and I'm still willing to bet I'm
right-on the money here. So, our little slumber party is over and it's time
to get active again to save our forests from the DEC logging project, no
matter how down-sized their project may be this time around.

As I wrote then:

"The state will still need to "improve" the historic Cole's Mills trail to
accommodate, if not tour busses, then logging trucks and they'll still need
to clear a large staging area and drag logs through the forest and move
trucks across a year-round stream a few hundred yards from the West Branch
reservoir - and the logging equipment (euphamistcally known as
"harvesters") will create new trails which are *proven to be avenues for
invasive plants*. Even if the State sets up a public/private partnership
for the manual removal of invasives the state !planted! (See the January 22
update at: http://www.planputnam.org/highlands/update_012204.htm) we'll be
working forever just to keep up! "

and

"One writer told me that it is important to "open the forests" so that game
bird species like the woodcock will have habitat once again, habitat that
is rapidly disappearing thanks to sprawl and the natural maturing of
forests. The writer claims that clearing the forest will be good for these
animals and while that's most certainly true, it is only temporary. For, as
the forest begins to thicken again with new trees that will grow when the
forest is opened to sunlight, the animals that prefer open forest will move
on again. Does this mean constant "management"? (see the question about the
one-legged duck).

The solution to the writer's concerns and that of an organization like the
Audubon is for them to stop development on abandoned farmland in the
Highlands for these lands *do* provide the open habitat they claim they are
looking for and to keep those lands open."

Volunteers will be needed to post signs and hand out flyers, "watch" the
forest by physically camping in it (which is legal to do), and a phone tree
will be needed so that when trucks begin to roll we can call out the troops
in a hurry to stop them from doing damage to Mt. Nimham.

You should write to your local reps, the Kent Town Board, County
Legislators, Assemblymembers Galef and Stephens, Senator Vincent Leibell,
DEC Commissioner, Erin Crotty and the Governor. (please cc:
forests@PlanPutnam.org) and tell them that these forests mean more to us as
recovering ecosystems than they do as plantations and open-air laboratories.

Email addresses and contact information is here

So that's it for now... Your actions today can save these forests for tomorrow.

Notes:

Mt. Nimham, which sits on the shore of the West Branch and Boyd's
reservoirs, is in the Croton system (i.e. East of Hudson) yet only through
an administrative trick is considered West of Hudson:

Paragraph 130 ­ Forestry Management Program
Requirement: The City shall fund programs and projects intended to promote forestry practices in West of Hudson that protect the City's water supply against runoff and other pollution. The City shall enter into an agreement with WAC to administer and disburse funds (up to $500,000) for approved programs and projects.

Yet, the MOA says:

"(32) East of Hudson Watershed means West Branch, Boyd’s Corner,
Bog Brook, East Branch, Croton Falls, Diverting, Titicus, Amawalk, Muscoot,
New Croton, Cross River, Middle Branch and Kensico Reservoirs, Kirk Lake,
Lake Gleneida and Lake Gilead, and their respective drainage basins."

So, why Mt. Nimham?

Update!

Friends,

Since sending my note the other day many of you have written to re-assert
your support for moving the "model forest" off Mount Nimham and onto more
appropriate lands in the area. And, you have asked what you can do to move
this message along to the powers that be in Albany.

It's simple:

Last year we generated more than 120 letters and dozens of phone calls and
emails to the DEC and to local politicians asking them to support our
position and - to date - that support has held solid. I don't know what the
future holds but thanks to persistent rumors and a confirming phone call I
received today, I do know the DEC is preparing a new offensive against the
citizens and those you've written to before need to hear from you again.

The most important people to write are here:

Commissioner Erin Crotty
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233-1010
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/about/emailform.html

Kent Town Supervisor Bil Tulipane
Kent Town Hall
531 Route 52
Kent Lakes, NY 10512
1 (845) 225-3943

Governor George Pataki
Office of the Governor
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
Ph: (518) 474-8390
Fax: (518) 474-1513

State Assembly: Sandra Galef
Ossining, NY 10562 - 4802
Ph: (914) 941-1111
Fax: (914) 941-9132

State Senate: Vincent Leibell
1441, Route 22 - Suite 205
Brewster, NY 10509 - 4357
Ph: (845) 279-3773
Fax: (845) 279-7156

While there are no mature forests on Mount Nimham (or most of Putnam County
for that matter) just yet - there will be, if we win! We have found
evidence of trees exceeding 150 years old inside the proposed model forest
area and these have been recorded for future use. On DEP properties there
are pockets of truly old forests and these need to be allowed to grow and
spread onto surrounding properties, many of them DEC lands proposed to be
"treated".

After 40 years of environmental education and awareness you have come to
value what little forests we have left as natural eco-systems and you've
come to realize that nature moves on a time scale all its own and most
importantly, that man *cannot* improve on nature no matter how hard we try.
Examples of those "improvements" abound around us and they are mostly
abject failures.

Write the people listed above, call them too, and tell them that this
community stands steadfast in its determination to gift our future with an
intact and mature, old growth forest that stretches across the Highlands.

Look, it's not hard for the DEC to do this for they manage hundreds of
thousands of acres for old growth across New York State. It won't cost the
taxpayers a dime and there will be no loss in local revenue or jobs if the
model forest project is moved elsewhere and "even-aged stand management" is
no longer practiced in the Highlands on Public lands - including DEP
properties in Putnam County (on which some logging is already being
practiced and the desire for more is quite strong!).

Instead, we will gain significantly from the benefit of the simple
knowledge that we've managed to save a bit of a natural environment - smack
in the middle of the urban sprawl that engulfs us - and THAT is something
we can be proud of and that future generations will thank us for.

Why the DEC steadfastly disagrees is beyond comprehension.

Sample letters and additional addresses can be found at:

http://www.planputnam.org/highlands

Stay Tuned!