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The hearing on July 25, 2002 went very well. There were about 150
people there, essentially all of whom want to see the trails reopened as
soon as possible. The Trail Conference gives special thanks to all
those who turned out for the hearing. All the officials were suitably
impressed.
The Army Corps of Engineers recommendation
is to open Area A and C unconditionally as nothing significant was
found in either area. Area A is most of Storm King. Area C is the part
that is west of Rt 9W. Area B is where all the unexploded ordnance
has been found. This is roughly everything south of the brook between
Storm King and Crow's Nest. Here the recommendation is to open the
trails but limited to staying on the marked trails which have been
cleared for 25 feet on each side. Any off trail activity in this area
is risky.
 Approx. Area B
The most likely scenario at this point is that Area B will be
heavily posted with warnings to stay on the trail. Until this is done,
neither Area A or C can be opened. Area B will remain closed for a
while yet until all the reports are done and PIPC has time to react to
the final reports and decide whether and when they will open Area B.
There is a comment period on the report that we heard that is open
until the end of August. Please feel free to send them comments. At
that point all the comments (and answers) will be included in the
final report (another few weeks hopefully).
The Corps recommends that Area B have further search and destroy
done for the whole area, not just the trails, so that it can be opened
to hunters and those wishing to go off trail. Area B is a traditional
hunting area. There also needs to be further work done on fire breaks
around Area B as even after a thorough cleaning, there might remain
deeply buried ordnance that could explode in a fire. The additional
work is estimated to cost between $5-7 million dollars. It is
currently not in the budget. Political pressure is likely to be needed
to get money allocated for this work. Congresswoman Sue
Kelly, in whose district Storm King lies, has already started the
political process. Please thank her and encourage her to continue the
fight for the needed money.
The Trail Conference has volunteered to help with
the posting of the signs. The crews also need to clean up the trails
which have had no maintenance for 3 years. Some of them have been
severely damaged by the bulldozers used to fight the fire in 1999.
Most are expected to be overgrown. We hope to get early access to
start this work. If you would like to volunteer for this work, please
contact our Volunteer Projects Director, Josh
Erdsneker.
Stay tuned to this page for information about actual trail opening
dates.
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