The Adirondack Park Agency has an opportunity to correct a serious mistake at its November board meeting. Unfortunately, the agency's history suggests it will forgo the opportunity — and instead take one more step to keep most members of the public out of one of the Adirondacks' most beautiful lakes.

In September, the APA voted — for the first time — to classify a lake as a "wilderness." But the agency allowed a commissioner whose term was no longer valid to vote, and so the decision was invalid. Now a revote is necessary, and it is scheduled for the agency meeting on Nov. 12 and 13.

Why does any of this matter?

New York state owns 3 million acres of public land in the Adirondack Park — all paid for with tax dollars. The state now owns or controls (through the most restrictive classification available) 75 percent of ALL of the land in the Adirondacks, public and private.

When the state buys land, it does so, it says, to benefit the public. One of the principal benefits is expanding access to recreational opportunities for all of the people of New York. Emphasis on ALL.

But a clear pattern is developing of the state systematically and quietly restricting public access to public land. These steps exclude ordinary New Yorkers who might want or need to use a motor fishing boat, a snowmobile, an ATV, even a motorized wheelchair to get to the most remote back-country areas. The vote to classify a lake as a wilderness for the first time is a major step toward less access for all but the most able-bodied canoeists and kayakers.

The lake in question is Lows Lake, which straddles the St. Lawrence-Hamilton county border. Once Lows Lake is classified as a wilderness, motorized vehicles will be banned, under New York law, with the possible exception of those owned by the people who own land on the lake.

Lows Lake is beautiful and serene, but it is not a wilderness in any sense of the word:

  The lake is not natural. It is a feat of engineering, artificially created with earthen dams.

  A road runs along most of the 9-mile-long lake. Roads are banned in wilderness in New York state.

  Much of the land around the lake is not classified as a wilderness. It is a mix of public and private properties. Private lands are banned in wilderness in New York state.

The APA is under relentless political pressure to create this phony wilderness from some members of the Adirondack Mountain Club, the canoeist-kayaker lobby, who want the lake to be free of any motor noise that might detract from their members' enjoyment. An agency charged with pursuing the public interest appears to be buckling under pressure from a politically influential, private organization to restrict access to most members of the public for the benefit of private interests.

Last year, the APA also took steps to reduce snowmobile trails in the Adirondacks. One commissioner suggested Adirondackers take up snowshoeing. More recently, the Department of Environmental Conservation banned the time-honored, neighborly, and environmentally friendly practice of leaving a rowboat and oars near Forest Preserve lakes so that they did not have to be portaged in each time — a harmless concession to people who have difficulty carrying a boat long distances.

All of this leads to making the Adirondacks an exclusive preserve for the rich, the powerful, the athletic and able-bodied.

As baby boomers' knees and backs age, their owners still will want access to the outdoors. Our disabled neighbors want and deserve improved access to the Adirondacks. Young families with small children deserve an opportunity to explore the wilderness. The APA can help achieve this by rejecting the proposal to create a Lows Lake wilderness — and at the same time demonstrate some political independence from the environmental pressure groups that presume to control state policy in the Adirondacks.

Frederick H. Monroe is executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, 117 Blythewood Island P.O. Box 579, Chestertown, New York 12817