“It seemed too good to be true,” said Charles Canham, an emeritus forest ecologist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, Dutchess County.
Based on that, the forest owner would simply clear-cut the entire 6,400 acres and put the money in the stock market or some other financial vehicle.
That is unlikely to change, meaning there’s little hard justification for paying people not to clear-cut forests that weren’t going to be clear-cut anyway.
When asked their opinions on the Alcove Reservoir deal, several never called back or didn’t want to comment, since it involves a major environmental group they often are allied with – the Nature Conservancy.