molson_golden2002 Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20070202/1028151.asp The tall trees and spectacular landscape in and along the gorge at state-owned Zoar Valley will remain undisturbed, according to the state's final management plan for the area. The long-awaited proposal for the nearly 3,000-acre Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area, released Thursday by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, calls for special protection of the gorge and a 300-foot buffer zone around it. Environmentalists, who have waged a spirited campaign to protect an area that contains some of Western New York's oldest and tallest trees, were generally pleased. "All in all, a good job," said Larry Beahan, forestry chairman for the Sierra Club's Niagara Group, who said the plan "will provide excellent protection for a Western New York treasure." The plan calls for splitting the main portion of Zoar Valley, which runs along the Erie County-Cattaraugus County line, into a special protection zone in and along the gorge and the rest of the area. Both areas "will be managed for passive recreational use," according to the plan, with access limited to foot and water traffic. The DEC will ask the State Legislature to place the protection zone in the state's Nature and Historic Preserve Trust, which land stewards say is akin to giving the land the "forever wild" status afforded the Adirondacks and the Catskills. "It's the highest possible level of protection designation in the New York State land system," said Jim Howe, executive director of the Central and Western New York Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. "As I understand it, this means there can never be any building on this property," he said. "It will never be exchanged for other lands. It's a significant level of protection for the area." The plan does not eliminate tree cutting in the area, as some had hoped, but it does state any cutting "will not be for the purpose of managing for commercial timber value." It says that any tree cutting will be confined to areas outside the protection zone. Specifically, it mentions the desire to convert forests of conifers planted years ago "to natural forest stands or grasslands." For the first time, the DEC defined "old growth forest" and will use that definition in future plans. An old growth forest, the state said, involves such factors as an abundance of trees at least 180 to 200 years old in a contiguous forested landscape, limited human disturbance since European settlement, an uneven canopy and an absence of multiple-stemmed trees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 all the trees wil be dead in the next 10 - 20 years , global warming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molson_golden2002 Posted February 4, 2007 Author Share Posted February 4, 2007 all the trees wil be dead in the next 10 - 20 years , global warming Nevermind then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdh1 Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 all the trees wil be dead in the next 10 - 20 years , global warming DOOMED Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 how old do !@#$ing trees get ???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meazza Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 how old do !@#$ing trees get ???? They get pretty upset when you ask them that question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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