Protection Plan

It was the early 1970s, and the recently established Adirondack Park Agency (APA)—signed into law by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in June 1971—was trying to figure out how it was going to protect and plan for the future of the nearly six-million-acre Adirondack Park. With responsibility for some 2.3 million acres of the state-owned Forest Preserve and 3.6 million acres of private land, all of which had to be inventoried, examined and classified, the APA was understaffed and underfunded.

Into this developing drama strode two new players, whose appearance on the scene both justified the creation of the APA and threatened its viability and effectiveness. Corporate land developers Ton-Da-Lay and Horizon announced plans to carve out lots, golf courses and extensive infrastructure on huge parcels of forested land inside the Blue Line. Ton-Da-Lay proposed developing 18,500 acres in St. Lawrence County, while Horizon was drawing up a massive project for 24,000 acres outside Tupper Lake. If these schemes were built out, the APA would instantly be a failed experiment. The APA and what it represented—the idea that protection of open space and appropriate development on private land, along with rigorous safeguards for a publicly owned wilderness, was possible—was on the line.

The drama began in June 1971, when the New York Assembly approved a fiercely debated bill; the opposition, heated but unsuccessful, came largely from Adirondack legislators who feared its impact on the local economy. The