Board Members Present (all via Zoom):

Will Roth

Allison Rooney

Tom DuBois

Dominic Eisinger

Jeremy Haas

Doc Livingston

Kevin McKenzie

Meeting called to order:

The meeting was started at 7:02 PM.   A quorum of the Board was present for the meeting.

Approximately 13 non-Board members attended via Zoom.  Thanks are due to Jeremy for moderating the “Chat” function for public input.

Meeting Discussion:

Will introduced the meeting and thanked the public members for attending.

Will started the meeting with a moment of silence for members Ryan Pooler and Todd Paris, who passed away in 2021.

The meeting then proceeded according to the following agenda:

• Volunteer Stewardship Agreement
  • What this allows us to do; Spanky’s trail work; Deadwater trail work 

• Lobbying for Climbing- Federal, State and Local Government
  • Route 73 Access: Delineators, Chapel Pond Outlet Campground Parking
  • Flatrock Mountain UMP
  • NYS/DEC Moxham Mountain Land Acquisition
  • Eagle Falls FERC Access

• ACC Survey Results- What is important to members?

• ACC Climbing Management Plan- What are we trying to accomplish with this?
  • ACC Fixed Anchor Policy  

• Finances- Current financial state of the organization.
  • Donations!    

• ACC Volunteers- What volunteers does the ACC need?
  • Treasurer and other positions on Board of Directors 
  • Trail work days

Volunteer Stewardship Agreements:

Will explained how those agreements work and described the work we accomplished at Spanky’s and Deadwater.  

Deadwater was cited as an example of a good written plan and good cooperation with DEC.  Will noted that Corrie McGee, the Forester for the Hammond Pond Wild Forest was very helpful.

We hope to spread this model to other areas and units.

Lobbying for Climbing:

Will described ACC’s various lobbying efforts.  

Chapel Pond corridor:

It was noted that the climbing community is the majority user of several of the parking areas there.  We were concerned when the delineators (metal stakes) were installed closing two of these parking areas without any consultation with users.  As of late Fall, the delineators have been removed.  It’s unclear whether they will be reinstalled, or whether these parking areas will remain open.  ACC will monitor the situation.

Also in that corridor, ACC has been tracking the number of cars parked in the “Beer Walls” parking pullout, and DEC has installed a trail counter on the Beer Walls approach trail.  We hope to be able to correlate the data to demonstrate that climbers are a major user group.

The State has repaired the entrance to the Chapel Pond camping area and has installed a “45 mph advisory” sign in the area.

Allison noted that though these seem like small improvements, improvement potential in that corridor is currently limited due to State land boundaries.

Flatrock Mountain: 

This is a small hill on Conservation Easement land in the western Adirondacks, which has a significant bouldering resource.  The DEC Forester for that area is supportive of climbing.  We were able to get positive language supporting climbing written into the newly issued Recreation Management Plan for the easement.  This was another victory for ACC.

Moxham Mountain:

The State has recently purchase land on Moxham Mountain which includes two of the several climbing resources there.  The cliffs historically called Cartoon and Cartahena are on the newly purchased State land, so these are now accessible.  The newly purchased land has yet to be added to a State land unit, but it is expected to be classified as Wild Forest.  We hope to provide input to the language in the appropriate Unit Management Plan regarding climbing.

Eagle Falls FERC Access:

Will described the Eagle Falls cliff.  He explained that while the cliff is on State land, the access route is on land controlled by the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) due to the presence of a hydroelectric dam upstream.  FERC is currently in the planning process for permits which will run for 40 years, so it is important that we get this right.  We have provided our input to FERC to retain public access.  Will noted that the organization American Whitewater was very helpful in this process.  

ACC Survey Results:

Allison provided a top-level view of the input we received from our survey earlier in the year.  The two areas our members feel are most important are Lobbying for Climbing Access and Caring for the Crags.  Of course, there is much more detailed information available in the survey analysis, which we are happy to share with anyone who is interested.  Allison also noted that we are always open to more input from our members.

ACC Climbing Management Plan:

Will discussed the Climbing Management Plan activity.  He pointed out that we, as a Climbers Coalition, are not Land Managers and do not enforce any provisions of a management plan.  But an agreed upon approach to climbing management gives us unity and direction when we engage with land managers.  Will mentioned that the Fixed Anchor portion of the plan has already been approved by the ACC Board.  Allison added that there is already an official moratorium on replacing or maintaining fixed anchors in the Adirondacks, most notably in the High Peaks region.  This creates a hazardous situation for climbers so its important that we have an agreed upon internal policy when we work with the State.  We are continuing to work to finalize the overall plan.

Finances:

Will briefly reviewed ACC’s finances and thanked all who have donated.  He pointed out that this is a completely volunteer organization.  We are currently in good shape; our largest expense is liability insurance, which allows us to continue to operate, and to carry out valuable activities such as trail work.  Going forward, we also plan to improve our website and email, and other similar parts of the operation.

Will stated that we certainly appreciate any additional donations.

Volunteering for ACC: 

All volunteer contributions are extremely valuable.  People volunteering for trail work allows this work to move forward, adds value for climbers, and helps our engagement with the State.  We also need volunteers for the Board of Directors.  Our Bylaws allow up to 15 members, and we currently have 10 members.  Also, specifically, we need a Treasurer.  Will outlined that our finances are very simple, and that the Treasurer position only involves an hour or two of work per month.

Interested volunteers were encouraged to contact Will and/or Allison to express interest.

At the conclusion of the agenda, the meeting was opened to public comments and questions:

A question was asked regarding clarification of the various Moxham Mountain cliffs which are accessible.  Allison explained which cliffs are which and described them.  She indicated that she could provide the member with pin locations for which cliffs are accessible via email.

A question was asked regarding whether ACC could become financially associated with the Access Fund, so that a portion of Access Fund membership dues could be routed to ACC.  Allison explained that ACC membership being free allows to have a large number of members, which amplifies out voice when engaging with land managers.   

A question was asked regarding the trail work schedule for 2022.  Will indicated that our first activity for 2022 would probably be to complete the nearly finished work at Spanky’s, which should require about one day.  No dates have yet been set.

Will thanked all the attendees.

The Annual Public Meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted, Tom DuBois, Secretary