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LONG LAKE - The debate regarding management of one of Adirondack Park's most scenic waterways continued Monday night at a passionate public hearing in Long Lake.

Located in Hamilton and St. Lawrence counties southwest of Tupper Lake, Lows Lake is considered an integral part of one of the top flatwater canoe routes in the Adirondacks, and some say the nation. It is also a reputable bass fishery that attracts sportsmen every summer.

For two years, controversy has been centered on allowing commercial floatplanes to land on its water. This spring, the state Adirondack Park Agency decided that floatplanes won't be allowed after 2011, a decision commissioners said they based on language in the State Land Master Plan.

Now the debate is centered on whether Lows Lake should move from a classification of primitive to wilderness, and whether its water and bottom should also be part of that equation.

Currently, the lake, water and bottom, is part of a proposal that would classify 12,545 acres as wilderness, the strictest land classification in the Park. Lows would become part of the adjacent Five Ponds Wilderness Area.

Nearby Hitchins Pond, its water, the Bog River and some surrounding land are slated to become wilderness. The two dams on the Bog River and several private roads would be classified as a primitive area.

Of about 30 people in the audience, about 20 spoke at a public hearing at the Long Lake Town Hall, the second of three hearings scheduled on the issue. The first was held Monday afternoon in Wanakena. The third is at noon Monday in Albany.

Proponents included representatives from the newly merged Protect the Adirondacks!, the Adirondack Council and the Adirondack Mountain Club, along with canoe maker Peter Hornbeck and photographer Gary Randorf.

Opponents included Local Government Review Board Executive Director Fred Monroe, Long Lake Town Supervisor Greg Wallace, Franklin County Federation of Fish and Game Clubs representative Bob Brown and Property Rights Foundation of America President Carol W. LaGrasse.

Hornbeck, owner of Hornbeck Boats in Olmstedville, spoke in favor of the proposal.

"There's a perception out there that if land goes into the Forest Preserve and it becomes wilderness, it's the kiss of death for the economy," he said. "I don't think it is. If (the Forest Preserve) didn't exist, I really wouldn't have a business."

But Hornbeck was in the minority. About two-thirds of the speakers were against the proposal. Some, like Brown, questioned the proposed classification of the lake bottom. He wondered if other lake bottoms throughout the Park would be classified next and if this would result in the loss of riparian rights for property owners.

"This is precedent setting," Brown said. "The implications of this are enormous."

Speakers also questioned how an area with two dams, private roads and Remsen-Lake Placid railroad tracks running through it could be truly wild.

"It makes a mockery of the definition of wilderness to even be considered for wilderness," Monroe said.

Speakers also questioned the state's right to classify water, which would be a first in the Adirondack Park.

APA spokesman Keith McKeever said no other lake bottoms are classified and that the proposal to classify the water was made "to be clear the area is going to be managed as a wilderness area," an action that he said was necessary because there are two private properties on the lake.

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State Land Master Plan issues

At the heart of the debate is the State Land Master Plan. In its description of Lows Lake, it says that the "preservation of the wild character of this canoe route without motorboat or airplane usage ... is the primary goal for this primitive area."

APA staff, environmental advocacy organizations and supporters of the classification proposal have used this language as the basis for their arguments for eliminating floatplane use of the lake and moving toward a wilderness designation.

Critics have said the State Land Master Plan is outdated and also that language within the document points toward allowing the current primitive designation to remain until the state buys the remaining private properties on the lake.

Those lakeside properties include the Sabattis Boy Scouts - who have a pontoon boat and another motorboat - and a private residence. The Sabattis Land Company has land on the Bog River.

"They do say in (the State Land Master Plan) that they want it to become ... a wilderness area for everything we're hearing about: for a canoe route, for wilderness protection," Wallace said. "But it says in here, when the inholdings areas are acquired, they will consider reclassification. They are not acquired."

The Boy Scouts' property has not been bought by the state and may never be. But APA Natural Resource Planner Matt Kendall said that about 6,000 acres of land that surrounds the Boy Scouts' property has been purchased in recent years and now connects the Five Ponds Wilderness with Lows Lake. When the State Land Master Plan was written, this wasn't the case.

"When it was referring to the private inholding, it was referring to all (that) land," Kendall said. "Since then, this land has been purchased and classified, so now (the Lows Lake Primitive Area) is adjacent to the Five Ponds Wilderness."

Private inholdings are not totally unheard of in wilderness areas. The Adirondack Mountain Club's John's Brook Lodge exists on a 3.5-acre piece of property in the High Peaks Wilderness; so does the Ampersand Lake property and other private camps.

Tupper Lake resident and former APA chairman Jim Frenette called for a balance between protecting the land and the people.

"The answer lies in the decision makers recognizing the essential importance of both our human resources and our natural resources," Frenette said. "An acceptable solution is out there, and I would encourage those involved to discover it for the benefit of all of us."

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Contact Mike Lynch at (518) 891-2600 ext. 28 or mlynch@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.

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(Two items in this article have been corrected: McKeever originally said many other lake bottoms are already classified but later corrected this, saying no others have been. Also, instead of about 20 people in attendance at Monday's hearing, there were about 20 speakers of about 30 in attendance. The Enterprise regrets the errors.)