The Nov. 30 article "Are 56,326 words just too much?" cites those who feel amendments to Article 14 of the state constitution protecting our "Forever Wild" Forest Preserve are "prosaic" and burdensome on voters and affected communities.
Why not authorize state administrators or the Legislature to approve small changes to "Forever Wild?" I say no.
New York's constitutionally protected Forest Preserve (Adirondack and Catskill) contains 85 percent of all protected wilderness in the East. It is fully taxable by local taxing districts, spreading those taxes among all New Yorkers.
It supports a few hundred millions of dollars annually in all forms of recreational tourism. It harbors billions of dollars annually in ecological services, including preservation of a clean, unfiltered water supply for 8 million New Yorkers and removing carbon from our atmosphere thanks to its vast northern hardwoods. It harbors wildlife and old growth forests found nowhere else in the state, and to an extent nowhere else in the Northeast. It is a place of physical and spiritual renewal for millions.
Governments around the globe in need of clean air and water, vast forests, conserved soil and abundant wildlife are understandably jealous of our Forest Preserve.
Every time New Yorkers vote whether an important public purpose is to be served in locally amending Article 14 reminds us of its central purpose and promise: That the lands of the state constituting the Forest Preserve "shall be forever kept as wild forest lands."
Governors, state administrators and legislators subject to every form of economic and political pressure are powerless to amend Article 14 without majority citizen support and should remain so.
To vote on site-specific amendments is neither a prosaic act nor a burdensome action for any New Yorker. It is a privilege and a high responsibility to be the world's only citizen watchdogs of "Forever Wild."
DAVID GIBSON
Ballston Lake
Partner
Adirondack Wild:
Friends of the
Forest Preserve