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Lyme Adirondack Forest Company In August 2006, The Lyme Forest Fund Limited Partnership (LFF) purchased 276,000 acres in New York’s Adirondack Park from The International Paper Company (IP). The property is comprised of tracts ranging in size from 600 acres to 40,000 acres scattered across nine counties and 34 towns within the Park. The parcels are in the north, south, east and west, ringing the high peaks found in the center of the Park and covering about ten percent of the Park’s privately owned forest land. Forest Management. The property is operated through a subsidiary of LFF - the Lyme Adirondack Forest Company (LAFCo) - and is third-party certified as sustainably managed under the terms of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. LAFCo will continue to manage under these guidelines and will work to encourage the growth of higher value sawtimber and veneer grades in order to promote long term value accretion. Under the terms of the purchase, LAFCo will sell pulpwood to IP’s Ticonderoga, NY mill pursuant to a 20 year supply agreement. Conservation Easement. LAFCo has assumed a working forest conservation easement sale agreement with the State of New York and The Conservation Fund. The first phase of the easement sale, covering approximately 40,000 acres, closed in 2005. LFF will close on an additional 178,601 acres of easement in late 2006 or 2007. There is a further 33,000 acres over which negotiations with several local towns are ongoing. The easement will restrict subdivision and further development on the property, provide for certain public recreation rights and require sustainable forestry operations that protect water quality and wildlife habitat and ensure the long term maintenance of the forest resource in an environmentally sound manner. Traditional leases for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreational activities will be maintained.
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