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:
- The City must immediately cease any non-conservation activities
on dedicated Albany Pine Bush Preserve land.
- 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.
- 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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