EPA press release on Williamsburg youth job training, Dec 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document K

A ^12 Million Plan to Save The Forests by Buying TTiem ies said that conservation efforts By WINNIE HU cially struggling paper and pulp ’were especiaUy needed in areas near WHITE PLAINS, Dec. 22 - The companies are closing aging mills in 'rivers and lakes in the Northern For­ Open Space Institute, one of the lat­ the Northeast, consolidating their est. He said developers and second- est conservation groups in the North­ holdings, and selling off. vast tracts of home owners have been drawn to east, has set aside $12 million to help forestland that they have owned for waterfront property, carving out pn- land trusts protect some of the larg­ decades. In the past four years, these vate refuges that displace the wild- est.and best-known forest areas in companies have sold nearly one-fifth life “There is a need to protect those the Adirondacks, the Green Moun­ of the land in the Northern Forest to lands,” he said. “It’s important to tains of Vermont, and the White financial investors and other timber keep some of the tall pine trees as Mountains of New Hampshire. companies, and to a much lesser nesting sites for bald eagles and os­ The money will be awarded to se­ extent, conservation groups, accord­ preys.” lected land trusts in the next three ing to the institute’s statistics. The Open Space Institute,_a non­ years, and can be used only for prop­ But conservation groups have in- “ erty in. what is known collectively as creasingly sought to acquire these profit group endowed with money the Northern Forest^ a 26-million- lands, or the development rights to from the Reader’s Digest fortune, acre stretch of wilderness that takes them, to prevent the new owners raised the $12 million from two New roughly the shape of a barbell from chipping away at the Northern York City philanthropies, the Doris stretching from New York to Maine. Forest These groups say they want Duke Charitable Foundation and the About 4 million acres of that is to protect wildlife habitats and pub- Surdna Foundation, and plans to sup­ already included in state and federal access to recreational areas, and plement that with money from pri­ parks, the single biggest chunk being i’^st as important, to ensure that vate donors. It has formed an adviso­ New York State’s 2.6-miUion-acre working forestland continues to be ry board of forestry experts and con­ stake in the Adirondack Park. “sed for commercial timber har- servationists to review and select This week, the institute announced vests. Though the timber industry proposals from land trusts. that the first $1.4 million of that steadUy declined in the North­ The institute’s director of the money would be used to help three east, it remains- a vital part of the Northern Forest Protection Fund, groups buy a total of 62,854 acres of economy in many rural towns and privately owned land in the Northern villages. Forest The grants include $400,000 “This is a one-time opportunity,” to the Nature Conservancy for 26,500 said Joe Martens, president of the acres in the central Adirondaeks, Open Space Institute. “The land is and another $400,000 grant to the for sale now and a lot of these trans­ Trust for Public Land for 13,910 actions are going to determine the acres in northern New Hampshire fate of the Northern Forest for a long that will link two sections of the time to come.” White Mountain National Forest David M. Smith, a professor emer- The institute’s focus on the North- itus at the Yale University School of em Forest comes when many finan- Forestry and Environmental Stud­

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