NARROWSBURG, NY — Different maps in the Upper Delaware River Management Plan show different boundaries for the same area.

Depending on which one is deemed accurate, more than 400 heavily forested acres of the Masthope Mountain Community in Lackawaxen Township could either remain within the boundary or be removed from it. The original and then controversial boundary was characterized as “a line drawn on paper,” and has never been surveyed.

A recent GPS (global positioning system) study by the National Park Service (NPS) revealed the mapping errors in the 1988 plan.

NPS Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River Superintendent Kris Heister illustrated the problem in a slideshow for the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) on May 7, where she sought UDC concurrence of the problem.

Discovery of the errors brings up several questions. As Lackawaxen delegate John McKay noted, the township zoning within the boundary differs from neighboring zones.

Property has been bought and sold over the intervening decades. How would a change in the boundary impact property values and uses?

“Someone should contact the owners,” UDC Chair Al Henry said.

The plan underwent lengthy review before it was approved by Congress.

Heister did not believe correction of the boundary to remove the impacted acreage would be considered a significant amendment that would trigger a new plan review.

She suggested that Lackawaxen Township “take the lead,” in reviewing the boundary.

“We need to do some research,” Henry said in considering the UDC’s position.

In other business, the UDC approved its fiscal year 2016 budget and committee work plans, various multi-year cooperative agreements and operating programs; heard of New York State Conservation Partnership Program grants of $22,750 and $8,460 to the Delaware Highlands Conservancy; heard the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation report a 50% increase in reported bear complaints; approved a total of $4,072 to the towns of Highland, Lumberland and Tusten and Lackawaxen Township for river-edge trash cleanup; and viewed Town of Deerpark assistant historian Norma Schadt’s program on creation and maintenance of roadside historic markers.