This week the CT/NY Audubon Society released a statement to the media when asked about where they stand with their plans in Zoar Valley. Read their full statement below signaling withdrawal of their plan. This does not mean the fight is over – NYS DEC still has a logging plan for 100s of acres of Zoar Valley forests.

Zoar Valley Coalition and delegates from the WNY Environmental Alliance, Sierra Club Niagara Group, Buffalo Ornithological Society, Niagara Frontier Botanical Society, and a Landowner stakeholders group presented a united front at a meeting with the DEC on January 28 th , advocating strongly against logging in Zoar Valley. Audubon made their statement withdrawing from Zoar the following day, citing grant funding issues.

For now, it sounds like Zoar has been saved from the devastating environmental impacts of Audubon’s 10’ high slash wall enclosure, unless the NYS DEC takes the project on themselves. This was always a completely unnecessary environmental disturbance to Zoar’s forests.

It remains to be seen if the Audubon Society has withdrawn their plans only to resurrect them on another public forest in Western New York. Zoar Valley Coalition will keep our eyes on this.

 We will continue to advocate for the protection and preservation of Zoar Valley as one of WNY’s last remaining wild places. We can win this fight for the future of Zoar Valley!

FULL CT/NY AUDUBON SOCIETY STATEMENT: “Audubon supports sustainable forest management across DEC lands, including the work that has been planned for the Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area; however, due to a change in the USDA Landscape Scale. Restoration grant that funded Audubon staff time in collaborating with NYS DEC to develop the proposed forest management at the Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area, Audubon is shifting its focus to deliver other work.”