Town of Long Lake - buys land from The Nature Conservancy

[Peakbagr]

A friend from here tipped me off to this:

http://adirondackdailyenterprise.co...and-from-The-Nature-Conservancy.html?nav=5046

 

[Little Rickie]

"Long Lake paid $36,720"

Nice price. I wish I could get a piece of the Adirondacks near Long Lake for that.

 

[roadtripper]

I'm confused. Is this is a good thing? Didn't the land just go from being completely protected to becoming whatever the town wants it to be? Why would the Nature Conservancy EVER sell one of their properties?

Can someone educate me please =)

- Greg

 

[Puma concolor]

What I think is going on here is that the Nature Coservancy bought the property (and a lot of other property) with the understanding that the State of NY would be purchasing it and adding it to the total Forever Wild acreage of the Adirondack Park. The State was big into land acquistion a few years ago but land purchases have taken a back seat since the economy fell on hard times ... so the Nature Conservancy is stuck with all this property it never really intended to keep long term.

 

[Peakbagr]

TNC has receive some fantastic donations to cover the debt service. Puma is exactly correct, TNC never expected to be carrying the property for this long, but DEC commissioner recently announced that he expects to begin purchasing pieces of the former Finch Pruyn land in 2012 with more to come. TNC has some very serious, deep pockets and their nut is currently covered right now.
Why did they sell to Long Lake? Probably 'cause the land really isn't a great fit for the forest preserve situated where it is. TNC is also interested in maintaining good relations with the towns in the ADK and this is a small price to pay for selling land Long Lake really wanted and needed and a good way of building good will with another constituency in the ADKs.
My opinion, for what its worth.