State estimates it needs to protect about 3 million more acres
By Gwendolyn Craig
To reach the Hochul administration’s goal of protecting 30% of its lands and waters by 2030, New York must conserve about three million more acres, state officials revealed Monday.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation and Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation released a draft plan of how they intend to close the gap within the next 5 ½ years.
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Their estimate of how much land New York has conserved — about 22% — is greater than previous estimates. A 2018 Center for American Progress report used in the so-called 30×30 legislation suggested about 19% of New York’s land is conserved or protected. Protect the Adirondacks, a nonprofit organization focused on protecting the Adirondack Park, estimated 20%.
The benchmarks Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law at the end of 2022, piggyback President Joe Biden’s executive order calling for conservation of 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 “for the sake of our economy, our health and our well-being.”
The goal, nationwide and statewide, is to use conservation to sequester more carbon and help combat global warming, protect biodiversity, conserve wildlife habitat and preserve open space for future generations.
The strategies of how the state plans to do this are out for public comment until Aug. 30. The state will also hold two virtual public meetings before adopting the final plan.
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How to participate
DEC and OPRHP will be accepting comments on the New York State 30×30 Draft Strategies and Methodology (PDF) until Aug. 30. Please submit written comments by emailing 30×[email protected], or by mailing comments to: Jeff Mapes, NYS DEC, 625 Broadway, 5th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-4254.
Stay up to date here: https://dec.ny.gov/nature/open-space/30×30. The state has scheduled two virtual public meetings this summer:
- 1 to 3 p.m. on July 25: Registration link: https://meetny.webex.com/weblink/register/re83410517073bb3d1b0b55125226e6fb
- 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 15: Registration link: https://meetny.webex.com/weblink/register/r92f46e0ac379ec87571210c364051562
“New York’s sustained leadership to invest in and advance natural climate solutions is vital to achieving both our climate goals and our efforts to conserve 30 percent of state lands and waters by 2030,” said DEC Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar in a press release. “Public input on the draft 30×30 Methodology and Strategies document released today will help inform these efforts as New York State moves forward with planning and managing new acquisitions, conservation partnership work, and applicable policies and regulations to meet our goals.”
The DEC has been under pressure by land conservation organizations for not protecting enough property in recent years. During state budget talks this winter, they criticized DEC for adding just 5,000 acres to protected land in 2022, as more than 90 land trusts held about 100,000 acres for the state with a fair market value of $150 million.
RELATED READING: 30-by-30: What counts as protected land?
During a February hearing, former DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos suggested about 28,000 acres would be acquired this year. Shortly after, the state announced a deal protecting about 15,000 acres in the Adirondacks, including the 970-acre Follensby Pond.
Protect the Adirondacks, which released a statewide assessment on lands protected, noted that Republican Gov. George Pataki conserved over one million acres during his 12 years in office, starting in 1995. Since 2011, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Hochul, both Democrats, have conserved about 100,000 acres.
If based on land acquisition alone, it would take a tremendous increase in capital to get to three million acres by 2030. The Environmental Protection Fund, the state’s main source for funding land conservation, contains $400 million. Up to $650 million of the state’s $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 is allocated for open space land conservation and recreation.
But the DEC, Office of Parks and others are relying on other ways to count conservation.
“In addition to state land purchases for the Forest Preserve or state parks or through new conservation easements, we encourage the Hochul Administration to develop a new private forestland protection program based on long-term carbon storage for landowners across New York,” said Claudia Braymer, deputy director of Protect the Adirondacks, in a release. “Today, there are millions of acres of privately owned forests where landowners are eager to protect their lands and help the State meet its climate change mitigation goals.”
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In its draft plan, the state lists existing programs that could help reach goals. The lengthy list includes farmland protection implementation grants, water quality improvement funds and forest conservation easements.
It also suggests developing new programs and models. One involves focusing on “conservation of habitat connectivity, wildlife corridors, and connective pathways.”
Such strategies would “increase habitat connectivity and ecosystem health by eliminating barriers or creating connections … have a great impact on overall ecosystem health and biodiversity conservation.”
That theme supports a wildlife crossing bill legislators passed this session, requiring the state Department of Transportation and New York Thruway Authority to conduct an assessment of such wildlife pathways. The law has yet to be signed by Hochul.
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Top photo: An aerial view of Follensby Pond. Photo by Carl Heilman II, courtesy of The Nature Conservancy
Adirondack policy, in plain speak
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Then why did they not buy Whitney Park????
To reach the 30/30 goal Hockul wants,just start with the alphabet letter a,and buy or take a third of all waterways in the state beginning with the letter a,then b,then c and so on,until you get to z. That seems pretty much the level of thinking in the administration anyway. I know,I know,the state should hire me for 300,000. 00 a year to work for them. I’d fit right in !!!
This news organization has provided great articles in the past.
But please make correction, the state intends to protect 2 million acres either through fee or easement. The draft states that on January 2028 defaulted fresh water wetland areas is set to double, meaning the state will declare 1 million freshwater wetland acres additionally conserved.
Personally I don’t think these wetlands can be considered permanently protected, as wetland permits can be pulled and can allow for negative impacts to existing wetlands. To count towards the 30×30 land and waters must be permanently protected. And as it stands regulated wetlands are well protected but the law allows for negative impacts so long as they are declared and have been minimized as much as possible.