State to buy Hemlock, Canadice lake land from Rochester
ALBANY — The Paterson administration is completing deals to buy land around the last two undeveloped Finger Lakes from the city of Rochester.
The Department of Environmental Conservation says current dedicated funds will be used to buy 3-mile-long Canadice Lake and 7-mile-long Hemlock Lake, which have supplied drinking water to Rochester for 135 years.
The state also plans to buy 1,220 acres near Belleayre Ski Center in the Catskills and conservation rights to 89,000 acres of central Adirondack timberlands. Gov. David Paterson has proposed a 2010-11 moratorium on other pending land buys.
Prices were not disclosed Thursday.
Conservationists have lobbied the state for years to acquire the heavily wooded lands around Hemlock and Canadice lakes for a park or nature preserve. The lakes are in Livingston and Ontario counties, about 25 miles south of Rochester.
The administration of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer gave priority to the land purchase, and state Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis visited Hemlock Lake in October 2007. The city and state exchanged appraisals of the property.
