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As state lawmakers convene in Albany for budget season, Forest Ranger Scott van Laer testified before a joint state legislative panel on the need for more rangers.
RAY BROOK | The campaign to increase the number of Forest Rangers who patrol the Adirondack Park has taken center stage in state budget hearings.
Scott van Laer, a Forest Ranger and union delegate, implored lawmakers last week to authorize staffing increases as the High Peaks struggles to adjust to a tourist influx, and with it, an uptick in search and rescue operations.
“Please give us the staffing and funding to carry out our mission,” van Laer testified at a joint Environmental Conservation hearing held by the state Assembly and Senate. “The time for decisive action is now.”
At present, there are 134 Forest Rangers and command staff across the state, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), including 9-10 that have some patrol responsibilities in the High Peaks Wilderness.
Van Laer is requesting the total number statewide increase by 40, which would accommodate the state land added under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, some 130,000 acres, including Boreas Ponds.
The governor earlier this month proposed a $175 billion spending plan for the 2019-2020 fiscal year that begins April 1.
But aside from adding five employees to staff the upcoming visitors’ center at the Gateway to the Adirondacks at North Hudson project, the executive budget proposal does not contain new funding for Forest Rangers.
STATISTICS SUPPORT
Van Laer has spent much of the past year asking local governments to pass resolutions of support.
Approximately half of Adirondack towns have signed on, as well as the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages.
“None of the (towns) I approached ever voted it down,” van Laer told The Sun.
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Van Laer, who is stationed in the High Peaks, has been meeting with local governments to make the case for boosting ranger levels in the wake of increased visitation and search and rescue operations.
Statistics back up the PBA of NYS’ campaign, he said.
“Between 2005 and 2015, the number of hikers registering at the Van Hoevenberg Trail soared by 62 percent to over 53,000 per year,” van Laer testified.
The number of hikers to Cascade Mountain doubled to more than 33,000 during that same period.
The popularity has led to skyrocketing search and rescue incidents.
Rangers now average a search and rescue incident daily, he said. That’s roughly double the number during the 1970s when there were 10 more rangers patrolling DEC’s Region 5 than there are today.
At the same time, territory covered by rangers has roughly doubled to 53,752 average acres from 28,516 in the 1970s.
A 2017 DEC report revealed Forest Rangers conducted 177 search missions, 147 rescues and 22 recoveries in 2017.
“Considerable time and effort is spent preparing for search and rescue missions,” acknowledged the report.
Eighty-two percent of search operations occurred on state land. Most were resolved in one or two days, but several incurred “thousands of hours of search time,” the report stated.
As a result of the constant state of readiness, traditional emphasis on education and stewardship has decreased, contends van Laer.
“If any agency needs more personnel, we do,” van Laer testifed. “The statistics overwhelmingly support such a conclusion.”
The strained resources has also hampered the practice of dispatching Forest Rangers to fight wildfires in other states, a development that makes rangers less prepared for events in New York state, he said.
LOCAL SUPPORT
Rangers also train local emergency service agencies and volunteer groups to support them during rescue operations.
But the practice has side effects.
“Our volunteer EMTs support rangers on rescues,” said Keene Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson. “When they’re out in the woods with rangers, they’re not in Keene covering our residents.”
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“The time for decisive action is now,” said van Laer.
State lawmakers representing the Adirondack Park support increased staffing.
Assemblyman Dan Stec (R-Queensbury) pledged to discuss the issue personally with DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos last week — “I pressed him on ADK Ranger staffing & (Lake George) sewer plant funding needs,” Stec wrote on Twitter — and environmental groups are also exerting pressure.
Kevin Chlad, director of government relations for the Adirondack Council, testified more than 12 million people are visiting the Adirondacks every year as a result of state-driven promotional efforts, up 2.4 million from 2001.
“Ultimately, our New York State Rangers, land managers and planners need your help in preserving the waters and wildlands of the Park, with additional staffing, non-personal service funding and capital funding,” Chlad said.
DEC DEFENDS LEVELS
The 2017 DEC report revealed that rescue missions accounted for 14 percent of how Forest Rangers spent their time. Land patrol and enforcement constituted 46 percent; administrative work, 18 percent; and fire management activities, 13 percent.
In response to van Laer’s testimony, DEC defended current staffing levels.
“DEC is committed to ensuring that Forest Ranger staffing remains at historically high levels, and there are currently more DEC Rangers than at any time in its history,” said a spokesperson in a statement.
The state agency has added 26 new rangers to their ranks in the last two years, including 10 in 2007, 16 in 2013, 17 in 2016 and nine in 2017, the first time in a decade DEC held back-to-back academies.
Recent graduates have been concentrated in the Adirondack region.
Historically, there were 100 Forest Rangers in 1947, 110 in 1952, 111 in 1958 and 117 in 1973.
The state agency is currently in the planning stages for the next Basic School that will train a new class of Environmental Conservation Police Officers and Forest Rangers, said the spokesperson, who did not offer precise numbers.
DEC also acknowledged an increase in acreage stewarded by Forest Rangers and the uptick in rescue operations. But rangers “are trained to adapt to changing conditions, which they have effectively done to manage for these increases.”
“Our Forest Rangers are an elite force of highly trained specialists valued for their response to emergency situations in and out of the woods,” said the spokesperson. “They patrol 5 million acres of land and go above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis to help the public safely enjoy the outdoors and protect New York’s natural resources.”
SEGGOS COMMENTS
Van Laer’s testimony comes three months after the campaign got a blast of publicity when then-Essex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Randy Preston publicly needled Seggos at a launch ceremony for the state-run Frontier Town campgrounds in North Hudson.
“My focus has always been to increase their numbers, make sure their ranks are healthy, that they have all the equipment they need, the resources they need, the leadership they need,” Seggos told reporters afterward.
Seggos acknowledged record usership at state parks and DEC facilities, but pushed back that stewardship and land management had fallen by the wayside.
The governor’s mission has been to “tear down silos” not just between agencies, but also within each department, he said, leading to a collaborative approach to problem-solving and land stewardship.
Oftentimes, this sees Environmental Conservation Officers assigned to road work and enforcement, tasks previously assigned to Forest Rangers, he said.
“We’re not asking any one agency, any one division, to solve all the problems of the Adirondacks,” Seggos said.
