For more than 50 years, the 36,000-acre Whitney Park has been the top land protection priority in New York State. The landowner says he’s selling for the top price and wants to make a deal soon. This land needs to be purchased by the State of New York and added to the public Forest Preserve. Whitney Park would be a paddling paradise. Whitney Park has 22 lakes and ponds and over 100 miles of undeveloped shorelines. If the state could acquire the Whitney Tract, the Adirondack Park would rival Algonquin Park in Ontario and the Boundary Canoe Waters in Minnesota as a world class paddling destination. The Whitney lands are bordered by the William C. Whitney Wilderness Area on its northern boundary. The majority of Whitney lands border public Forest Preserve on its south and east.
There are two private in holdings totaling over 400 acres with shoreline frontage on Forked Lake and Plumley Pond at the south end of the property. In the 19th century, the lakes and ponds of the Whitney tract were popular as important links in historic canoe routes that were open to the public for decades. Little Forked Lake, Salmon Lake, Moose Pond, Flat Fish Pond, Slim Pond, and Stony Pond, among others, were parts of popular canoe routes documented and written about by George Washington Sears under the pen name “Nessmuk”. If purchased for the public Forest Preserve, these canoe trails from Little Tupper Lake to Stony Pond and Slim Pond could once again be opened to the public. Additionally, the historic canoe route from Little Tupper Lake to Rock Lake to Little Salmon Lake to Salmon Lake could be recreated and opened to the public more than 100 years after it was closed off.
Please contact Governor Cuomo and ask that the state purchase the Whitney Tract and add it to the Forest Preserve
By mail :
The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
By phone: 518-474-8390 : Office hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Leave a comment on the Governor’s website https://www.governor.ny.gov/contact
Please send me a copy of your correspondence to Governor Cuomo at dapadk@gmail.com
If you have questions please contact David Pisaneschi at: dapadk@gmail.com or 459-5969.