Allegany State Park has no master plan. This magnificent park is 100 square miles of hills and forest on the Pennsylvania border just 70 miles south of Buffalo. A half million of us go to play there every year. Allegany deserves not only a plan but “Forever Wild” protection in the State Nature and Historical Preserve.

We’ve been arguing about this Allegany Master Plan for 20 years. Ten years ago, the plan would have allowed 90 percent of the park to be logged commercially. We shouted that down, and now Commissioner Carol Ash has a no-commercial- logging policy for all state parks.

But up on Beehunter Trail, National Fuel still holds 5,000 acres of park cut up with roads and gas storage wells. This year the Marcellus Shale gas bonanza threatens the park. The mile-deep Marcellus wells have mammoth wellheads and demand huge quantities of water.

On June 24, somewhat belatedly, the state Office of Parks sent out a press release that it is, again, going to try to pull together a master plan for Allegany. The office seems mindful of the hullabaloo over the last attempt so it is starting cautiously from scratch without a plan. State officials first will host two informational meetings to gather ideas from the public.

Their caution may also explain why the announcement was not widely picked up by the media and the timing of these meetings is so obscure. They were scheduled just after the Fourth of July in the middle of the summer holiday.

Whether they really want to hear us or not, let’s show up Wednesday from 6:30 pm until 9:00 p. m. at the Salamanca High School Auditorium and Thursday from 6:30 p. m. until 9:00 p. m. in Bulger Hall on the campus of Buffalo State College.

Let’s tell the commissioner that the park needs better drinking water, the cabins need paint and repair, the woods don’t need to be cut up with any more trails and that traffic on the existing trails needs to be kept chiefly on foot.

The beautiful old Red House Administration Building needs fire protection. We cannot afford to lose any more historic relics as we did the Red House Inn and Town Hall. The natural and cultural history of the park needs a fuller telling. Give hunters all the help they need to keep the deer herd from consuming the woods. Let’s keep major collections of people in the developed areas and out of the woods, no more National Muzzle Loader Rifle Encampments to trample the wild section. No saw mills. No shotgun ranges.

Allegany State Park, with its 100- year-old forest, its 350-year-old old-growth forest, its ancient Indian sites, its vulnerability and its place in our hearts should have the same protection under Article 20 of the State Park Law as Zoar Valley. Make it part of the New York State Nature and Historical Preserve Trust.

Larry Beahan is a long-time champion of Allegany State Park.