statewide

State Land Acreage By Classification

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All figures are in acres except where noted. Table updated April 2011. Reprinted from the DEC Website.

Inspiration Point

Land Classification Region
1		 Region
2		 Region
3		 Region
4		 Region
5		 Region
6		 Region
7		 Region
8		 Region
9		 Catskill
Park Total		 Adirondack
Park Total		 State
Total		 Percent of Total
State Land and
Conservation
Easements
State Forest 16,056 758 31,763 102,248 58,354 221,924 200,419 55,581 99,121 – 16,264 ** 786,224 17%
Forest
Preserve 		Wilderness – – 89,352 53,482 954,601 206,151 – – – 142,834 1,160,752 1,303,586 28%
Wild Forest – – 75,588 60,368 938,664 ** 367,123 – – – 135,956 1,305,787 1,441,743 31%
Primitive – – – – 31,309 15,704 – – – – 47,013 47,013 1%
Primitive Bicycle
Corridor		 – – 15 283 – – – – – 298 – 298 0.006%
Canoe – – – – 18,989 – – – – – 18,989 18,989 0.4%
Intensive Use – – 4,104 1,542 21,591 1,828 – – – 5,646 23,419 29,065 0.6%
Administrative – – 392 0 *** 384 7 – – – 392 391 783 0.02%
Historic – – – – 531 – – – – – 531 531 0.01%
Pending
Classification		 – – – – 259 111 – – – – 370 370 0.007%
Under Water*
(Unclassified)		 – – – – 17,395 6,534 – – – – 23,929 23,929 0.5%
Detached
Parcel		 – – 1,382 4,141 1,441 4,318 – – – – – 11,282 0.2%
Total Forest Preserve – – 170,833 119,816 2,001,313 601,776 – – – 285,126 2,597,267 2,893,738 61%
Wildlife Management Area 6,007 – 12,021 18,518 6,524 ** 46,371 49,562 41,462 17,178 407 *** 2,755 ** 197,643 4%
Conservation Easement 108 21 7,264 7,286 488,463 336,783 436 – 10 9,437 769,579 840,371 18%
TOTALS: 22,171 779 221,881 247,868 2,554,654 1,206,854 250,417 97,043 116,309 294,970 3,385,865 4,717,976 100%

Blue Ridge and Blue Mountain

Notes from the DEC.

* Certain lake beds are considered Forest Preserve, despite some level of private ownership adjacent to the lakes. These underwater lands are not classified. For the purposes of this table, however, lakes and ponds that are completely surrounded by Forest Preserve have been classified the same as the adjacent land.

** Where State Forests and Wildlife Management Areas exist within the Adirondack Park, the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan also classifies these lands as Wild Forest. However, since these lands are not Forest Preserve, State Forest and Wildlife Management Area acreages within the Adirondack Park were NOT included in the Wild Forest category.

*** Where Wildlife Management Areas exist within the Catskill Park, the Catskill Park State Land Master Plan also classifies these lands as Administrative. For calculation purposes in this table, however, Wildlife Management Area acreage within the Catskill Park was NOT also included in the Administrative category.

Is Local Government Pointless?

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There are something like 965 towns, cities, and villages in NY State, along with 64 counties. All of them have elected officials, and civil servants providing mostly state and federally mandated services.

Autumn

The question is why do we even have local government anymore?

Nobody questions that the services of counties and towns are important, but in many cases they duplicate what the state currently does. Few governing decisions are made locally anymore. Most local government decisions are made with significant state involvement or influence, in the form of state regulations, state permitting, or in many cases actual laws passed by the state.

Local governments have a lot less freedom to make decisions that many pretend. All are highly dependent on state to go along with them. Most so-called local decisions are essentially decided at the state level. Local governments like to pretend they have significant control and power, but the reality is as creatures of state, and due to economic competition by surrounding towns, they are essentially powerless to decide their futures.

Albany in July

Local government is an idiom of an earlier era before modern communication techology, and modern transportation. Local government is from an era of horse and buggies. Local government tends to be stocked with well-connected political families and patronage. Local government tends to be totally ineffective, in an era when regional and indeed nationwide planning is needed, when any local decision can have vast impacts far beyond it’s own borders.

In a modern technocratic era, local decision making makes little sense, and squanders important public resources.