Wednesday’s meeting at the Saranac Town Hall was at full-capacity. I think every chair in the building was being used for this informational meeting introducing the NYS DEC’s Interim Recreation Management Plan for the Sable Highlands conservation easement Public Use Areas and Linear Recreation Corridors. Simply put, NYS has purchased conservation easements on privately owned land and is charged with the implementation and management of public recreational use.
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Tags: atv·bike·camp·clinton county·conservation·dec·fish·franklin county·hike·hunt·map·sable highlands·saranac·ski·snowmobile
A new draft plan for recreational uses of the Sable Highlands in the northeastern Adirondacks includes proposals to construct camping sites, improve old and create new hiking trails, enhance fishing access and open two new mountain biking routes, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Regional Director Betsy Lowe announced today.
The Sable Highlands Conservation Easement Lands consist of approximately 84,000 acres of land in the towns of Ellenburg and Saranac in Clinton County, and Bellmont and Franklin in Franklin County.
“The plan outlines extensive and varied recreational opportunities, including motorized recreation, on the Sable Highlands Conservation Easement Lands,” said Regional Director Lowe. “DEC is pleased to have worked with Chateaugay Woodlands and the Nature Conservancy in developing public access on these lands, while protecting the natural resources and retaining timber management jobs.”
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Tags: atv·bike·camp·clinton county·conservation·dec·fish·franklin county·hike·hunt·sable highlands·saranac·ski·snowmobile
Bear harvest numbers in all three of New York State’s bear hunting ranges increased in 2008 – with new records set in the Allegany and Catskill ranges — Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced today.
“Bear populations in the state’s two southern ranges have been increasing in number and expanding in distribution over the past decade, and that is reflected in the record setting totals for 2008,” Commissioner Grannis said.
Statewide, hunters took 1,295 black bears, a 16 percent increase from the 1,117 bears taken in 2007. In the Allegany bear hunting region of central and western New York, hunters took a record 193 bears, far surpassing the previous regional record, 120, set in 2007. Similarly, hunters took 520 bears in the Catskill bear hunting range in 2008, topping the 2005 regional record harvest of 494 bears.
Harvest increased in the Adirondacks as well, with a total of 582 bears taken in 2008 compared to 544 taken in 2007 and 318 taken in 2006. Hunters reported taking 18 bears in the 13 Wildlife Management Units that were opened for bear hunting this year in central and western New York.
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