(Note: Apparently, the addiction to control ALL the land cannot be sated, as you'll see when reading the entire article and totaling up the acreage involved. Note that control of a large part of a river -- WATER -- is also involved.)

March 5, 2003

By Michael Gormley

Associated Press Writer

Albany, New York (AP) The state is interested in buying and preserving as open space at least part of a huge swath of the prime recreation acreage in the northwestern Adirondacks that was put on the market this week.

The 93,000-acre property in St. Lawrence County is part of the state's Open Space Conservation Plan, which includes the state's highest priorities for purchase, said Peter Constantakes, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The property is owned by Hancock Timber Resource Group based in Maine. The property includes large sections of the middle branch of the Grass River and some of its tributaries.

The state, which is facing a multibillion dollar deficit, will consider the opportunity to protect more land from development in the 6-million acre Adirondack State Park, Constantakes sad.

"Those are priority parcels, so when one becomes available with a willing seller, we certainly look into it,'' he said. "We can't make any promises, but we will look into to it to see if it can be preserved. It's something we are interested in.''

A spokesman for the firm didn't immediately respond to a request for comment left on the company's answering machine.

"This are extremely canoeable waters and very highly sought after river corridors,'' said John Sheehan of The Adirondack Council, an environmental group. "We've been asking the state since the late 1980s to protect both shores of the Grass River and add to the forest preserve. This is a huge amount of land.''

The property has no price tag. It is scheduled to be auctioned off in May, Sheehan said.

If the state purchased all the property, it would be the second largest single parcel purchased under the state's open space program, Sheehan said. The state recently purchased 144,300 acres in Franklin, St. Lawrence and Lewis counties from the Champion International paper companies.

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press.

http://cbsnewyork.com/nynews/NY--AdirondackParcel-on/resources_news_html