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Updated
May 14, 2006

Letter from the Nature Conservancy

May 2, 2006

The Honorable Denise Sheehan
Commissioner of Environmental Conservation
New York State Department of
     Environmental Conservation
625 Broadway
Albany, New York  12233

The Honorable Elliot Spitzer
New York Attorney General
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224-0341

The Honorable Gerald D. Jennings
Albany City Hall
Eagle Street
Albany, New York   12207

Dear Commissioner Sheehan, Attorney General Spitzer, and Mayor Jennings:

It has just been brought to The Nature Conservancy’s attention that this past Thursday (April 27, 2006), an engineering/environmental consulting firm working on behalf of the City of Albany bulldozed several roads into dedicated Albany Pine Bush Preserve Land, on conservation land located directly west of the City’s existing Rapp Road landfill.  It is our understanding that the City undertook these activities as part of its site exploration work for the proposal to expand the existing City of Albany landfill into this part of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

As the attached pictures show, the road clearing damaged Preserve land, land that the Conservancy, the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, and others feel supports globally endangered, high quality Pine Bush habitat.  Although the land in question is owned by the City of Albany, it was dedicated to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve through a resolution of the City Council in 1991.  The dedication process for lands within the Pine Bush Preserve’s geographic area is established under the state legislation that establishes the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and its Commission, and this legislation states that lands dedicated to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve are to be managed for the protection of pine barrens habitat and the plants and wildlife resources that live within the Preserve.  In addition, all activities on dedicated Preserve lands by the Commission and Commission members (including the City of Albany) must be consistent with the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Management Plan, which has been prepared and adopted by the Commission pursuant to the above-referenced legislation as well. 

The Conservancy views the City’s recent actions as flaunting, whether inadvertently or not, the state legislation that created the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and its Commission.  Assuming that the Albany Pine Bush Preserve is public parkland, then without appropriately enacted alienation legislation, the City should not have acted to advance its landfill proposal on such lands through these preliminary land clearing and on-site testing activities.   Additionally, the area impacted by the City’s activities is known to support  wild blue lupine plants.  It is unclear if the City analyzed whether its land clearing activities did or could have potentially impacted two state protected species – the Karner blue butterfly and the frosted elfin butterfly – which are sometimes found in association with wild blue lupine. 

We ask that the following steps be taken in connection with the City’s recent activities:

  1. The City must immediately cease any non-conservation activities on dedicated Albany Pine Bush Preserve land.
  2. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Attorney General should independently determine whether the City of Albany’s actions were in compliance with (i) the state legislation that created the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and its Commission, (ii) the State Environmental Quality Review Act, (iii) the prohibition on antithetical uses of public parkland without the prior enactment of appropriate alienation legislation, and (iv) other applicable state law and regulation, and should respond accordingly.
  3. The City should restore the recently damaged Pine Bush habitat, in consultation with the Albany Pine Bush Commission as to appropriate restoration techniques.

In closing, the Conservancy wants to stress that it has long maintained a positive, constructive, effective working relationship with all members of the Albany Pine Bush Commission, including the City of Albany.   However, we are truly concerned about the effect of the City’s recent actions on the integrity of the state legislation that created the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and its Commission, and on the integrity of the state parkland alienation process as well. 

We urge that the City move quickly to remedy this situation, and that clarification as to the parameters within which the City can and cannot act on City lands dedicated to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve in such a situation be forthcoming from the Department of Environmental Conservation and Office of the Attorney General as soon as possible.  Our position on this issue is as set forth above.

Sincerely,

Jonathan C. Kaledin

New York State Counsel

Attachments

Cc:       Lynette Stark, Deputy Executive Commissioner, NYSDEC

            Steve Schassler, Region 4 Director, NYSDEC

            Glen Bruening, Executive Chamber

            Ruth Leistensnider, Esq.

            Mr. Willard Bruce, City of Albany           

Tabas/Birle/Tepper/Beers/Dolan/King, The Nature Conservancy

 

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