ALBANY — The herculean effort to rescue a Canadian hiker in the Adirondacks was impeded because forest rangers were unable to use access roads that had been rendered impassible due to the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s wilderness-restoration policies, according to two rangers who led the search.
Leo Dufour, a 22-year-old college student from Vaudreuil-Dorion, a Montreal suburb, had set out to hike 4,340-foot Allen Mountain on Nov. 29 and was reported missing on Dec. 1. Forest rangers and personnel from other state agencies searched for Dufour for over a week in perilous conditions as winter descended across the North Country. Officials scaled back the search on Dec. 9; Dufour’s remains were discovered by hikers last month.
Two forest rangers told the Times Union that DEC decisions “kneecapped” their chances to find Dufour. There is, they said, widespread discontent across the 153-person forest ranger force about how the department weighs search-and-rescue concerns against conservation priorities…