Moose River Plains UMP

Subject: Fw: Moose River Plains UMP sent by Bill Lloyd 1st NYSMLA President

FYI, forwarded from Dave Corr :

As you know I attended the UMP Hearing in Inlet on 8/16/10. I addressed them and had a great deal of support. All 27 of those that spoke were of the same ilk. I got to start off behind the town of Inlet Spr.

There were a few good things in that they want to add a snowmobile connector to Raquette lake. And they want to add a new intensive use area but just along part of the road.

The bad parts are that they will continue to not be able to monitor the invasive, heritage strains, acid rain etc in the wilderness areas. They want to close another 4 miles of raods from the Otter Brook Trail to Squaw.. They want to reduce the number of camping sites from 174 to 83 which will be better "suited for the wilderness experience". In the future though,there "may be the capacity for up to 150 sites". In addition they will take nearly 15,000 acres into wilderness which would represent 25% of the MRP. I have attached a copy of the comments that I made.

I urge everyone that you know or might be interested at all to write to Keith Rivers, NYSDEC Region 6, 7327 Rt 812, Lowville, NY 12885 (ph 315 376-3521)

IF YOU CARE AT ALL ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE MOOSE RIVER PLAINS THEN WRITE TODAY!!!!! THE DEADLINE IS 8/30/10
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Moose River Plains UMP 8/16/10

I am here this evening to address the proposed changes to the Moose River Plains Recreational Area. A name that was designated in 1963, when the land was first acquired. At the time the DEC Commissioner Wilm announced the acquisition was in response to the “heavy demand for water oriented recreational areas”, He further stated that there is “considerable frontage on the Main and Middle Branches of the Moose River”. And that the “several well kept woods roads leading to the interior of the parcel provides excellent public access”. Lastly he stated the “lakes and terrain around it are ideally suited to the establishment of this form of recreational facility”.

Now we are to ignore the last nearly 50 years and simply merge another large piece of the MRP to be wilderness… I hope not.

The last version of the proposed UMP map shows that the intensive use areas are to exclude the area from Limekiln gate as well as the section from Otter Brook to Squaw Lake. In reality, at the last Public hearing hear in this very same room, the public was assured by forester Eric Kasza that the WC UMP map was incorrect and that the road from Squaw Lake to the Moose River would not be closed. But that was not true and we, the public, were lied to. You can understand why you can have a serious credibility issue in many peoples mind.

It amazes me that there was not sufficient money neither to keep the MRP open, nor to maintain trails this year but there is money to remove campsites?? The gate to lock dam is still closed as of about a week ago. 16% of the local economy is based on the MRP and yet the effort is to condense will only reduce the overall usage, detract from the quality of the area, and adversely impact the local economy.

It seems every UMP that I have seen continually restricts access for the young, old, older or disabled. I would like to take my grandchildren to some of the areas in the MRP as I did my children and my father did with me.

I urge you to not take the Sly Pond areas and trails, maintain the access from Limekiln Lake thru to Indian Lake and also maintain the access to Squaw lake and beyond to the Moose River as we were originally told. I am in favor of providing the snowmobile connector.

Thank you for this opportunity to express my position.

Dave Corr
Corr Road
Inlet, NY