Update: June 6, 2025
Dear AWA Supporters:
In a memo released today, the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) announced that it has listened to all our shared comments and concerns about some of the proposed State Land Master Plan amendments.
The definition of “motor vehicle” will NOT be altered to permit motorized vehicles in Wilderness Areas. This is a huge victory. A redefinition of “motor vehicle” could have fundamentally changed the traditional definition of Wilderness. In the updated redline version of the State Land Master Plan, the definition of motor vehicle is as follows:
“a device for transporting people, supplies or material, incorporating a motor or an engine of any type for propulsion and with wheels, tracks, skids, skis, air cushion or other contrivance for traveling on or adjacent to land and water or through water. The term includes such vehicles as automobiles, trucks, jeeps, motorbikes, dirt or trail bikes, any type of all-terrain vehicles, duffle carriers, snowmobiles, snowcats, bulldozers and other earth-moving equipment and motorboats, but does not include wheelchairs.”
AWA supports public wheelchair access on any foot trail in the Forest Preserve, including battery-powered wheelchairs, as defined in the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) ACT, Title V, section 508. In that section the ADA defines a wheelchair as “a device designed solely for use by a mobility impaired person for locomotion, that is suitable for use in an indoor pedestrian area.” We added italics for emphasis: that phrase makes it clear that larger devices designed for outdoor use, devices that would destroy the Wilderness aesthetic and damage wilderness ecology, are excluded. The definition of wheelchairs in the SLMP will now reflect that.
As always, we at AWA are humbled and appreciative of your support. We could not do our work effectively without your voices too; that is the importance and beauty of a grass-roots organization like ours. The APA received over 950 comments about accessibility, the topic of which these definitions fell under. Those are your voices. And you were heard.
December 3, 2024
Dear AWA Supporters:
The Board of Directors would like to extend our deepest thanks to you. Because of your support and shared advocacy for our values, AWA was able to not only submit our official comments to the Adirondack Park Agency concerning their proposed amendments to the State Land Master Plan (SLMP), but also include several hundred petition signatures from you calling for no motors in Wilderness.
We know from experience that petitions like this help the cause: the voices of many people in alignment motivate policymakers to look more closely at how they can respond to public concerns with compromises or alterations to their proposals that, while often seeming to be modest compromises, can in fact make a big difference. For example, the APA could respond to our pressure (and that of other environmental organizations who are in broad agreement about the threats of motorized access) by deciding not to alter the definition of “Motor Vehicle” in the SLMP. The other proposed additions concerning Other Power-Driven Mobility Devices (OPDMDs) could remain, allowing a reasonable acknowledgment of the need to accommodate requests for access to the Forest Preserve, but if the Motor Vehicle definition was left unchanged, the SLMP would still prohibit those devices in Wilderness areas. That would be a huge victory.
Together, we will see how the APA responds to public comments, and what revisions to their proposed language they will offer. You can be assured that AWA will stay on top of this process and continue to do what we can to advocate for Wilderness. However, we could not do our work effectively without your voices too; that is the importance and beauty of a grass-roots organization like ours. We are grateful for your support.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors
Adirondack Wilderness Advocates
