Johh Laundre's stirring new report on the Adirondacks being able to successfully house up to 350 Pumas is starting to get into the hands of organizations like ADIRONDACK WILD which is calling for the Adirondack Park to put wildlife recovery front and center in all of its on-going management plans,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, including Eastern Cougar.Recovery------ a keystone predator species like the Cougar could prove critical to controlling white-tailed deer populations and help mitigate the impacts of deer over browsing of our native vegetation

ADIRONDACK WILD
Contact: Dan Plumley, 518-576-9277 

or Dave Gibson, 518-469-4081

Taylor Pond Wild Forest Management Plan Sets a Low Ecological Standard 

Keene, NY – Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve today gives the Taylor Pond Unit 

Management Plan a low grade. The plan affects over 50,000-acres of Forest Preserve and 

Wildlife Management Areas connecting Lake Champlain with large Wilderness Areas to the in 

the Adirondack Park. The NYS Adirondack Park Agency is considering a decision today to 

deem the plan compliant with the State Land Master Plan during its meeting in Ray Brook. 

"While we appreciate the significant effort that has gone into this plan to date, we do not believe 

the Taylor Pond Plan meets a sufficiently high standard in assessing and analyzing ecosystems 

and the opportunities to enhance the region's biological diversity," said Adirondack Wild's Dan 

Plumley.

"The Taylor Pond region combines a tremendous mix of Forest Preserve tracts, wildlife 

management areas, private farm and forest lands, and rural communities, biological diversity and 

cultural heritage in profusion," Plumley added. If there were ever a chance to broadly evaluate an 

area for its wildlife and ecological integrity as well as its recreational opportunities, this is it. 

Yet, neither agency has come even close to realizing this potential."

Based on Adirondack Wild's reading the UMP fails to address a big opportunity to 

make ecological connections with other parts of the Park or to recognize and protect 

the area's significant biodiversity - despite State Land Master Plan requirements that 

each unit plan should assess biological resources, conduct analysis of ecosystems, 

recommend management of important ecological areas, and recommend strategic 

additions to a unit where justified.

"This UMP is a large amalgamation of information, and does a reasonably decent job 

assessing specific recreational opportunities. It does a poor job assessing the important 

conservation context of this region which connects Lake Champlain to large 

Wilderness Areas to the west," added Adirondack Wild's Dave Gibson.

For example, the UMP does not recognize, much less comment upon efforts to create a Split 

Rock Wildway which would create wildlife habitat connections between Lake Champlain, the West Champlain Hills, an immensely rich area of plant and animal biodiversity, and the Jay 

Mountain Wilderness Area to the west.  Private agencies like the Northeast Wilderness Trust, the 

Eddy Foundation and Champlain Area Trails others have devoted much time and effort 

negotiating land protection and trail access opportunities within a Split Rock Wildway, yet those 

efforts are only half-completed. Unfortunately, this UMP does not recognize their efforts as open 

space partners, much less their overall conservation significance.

Second, the plan does not address wildlife recovery, including the Eastern Cougar.

Recovery of keystone predator species like Cougar could prove critical to controlling 

white-tailed deer populations and the impacts of deer overbrowsing of our native 

vegetation when the impacts of current warming trends accelerate.  

In fact, the UMP pays very little heed to climate change at all, despite the fact that 

Lake Champlain has not frozen over in years. All Adirondack UMPs should take 

climate change into account in its analysis of ecosystems, human recreation use, and 

potential for such use to exceed carrying capacities.

According to comments submitted to the DEC last June by the Northeast Wilderness 

Trust, needed steps to complete a Split Rock Wildway include acquiring conservation 

easements on major holdings in the area, including Shirley Forest Industries, the 

largest unprotected property in the Wildway, at more than 4000 acres, creating a 

revolving loan fund or land acquisition endowment to secure critical properties that go 

on the market, including any sizable lands around Coon and Boquet Mountains, 

fostering farming with the wild principles and ecological forestry standards for 

working lands in the area, and completing the footpath system that will link local 

villages and enhance the recreational economy.

Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve is a not for profit, membership-supported 

organization which advances New York's "Forever Wild" legacy and Forest Preserve policies in 

the Adirondack and Catskill Parks, and promotes public and private land stewardship consistent 

with wild land values through education, advocacy and researc