A proposal to thin the forest surrounding a popular park in southern Saratoga County has some neighbors concerned. Time Warner Cable News' Matt Hunter reports from Clifton Park.

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. – Among frequent users of Clifton Park's Kinns Road Park, the praise seems to be universal.

"I think Kinns Road Park is really a special park,” said town resident Paul Rutherford, who says he visits about three times a week with his dog, Sam. “It actually gives you the feel of walking through the Adirondack Park."

"It is beautiful; it is secluded,” said Angela Baris, who took a walk Friday with her 9-year-old golden retriever. "It just makes me feel good to be here."

Stretching over 64 heavily wooded acres, the county-owned parcel and its trail system have been managed by the town since the 1970s. A county proposal to thin the forest of anywhere between several hundred to a few thousand trees has drawn the ire of residents like Rutherford.

"When you start indiscriminately cutting other things down, all of a sudden now you are opening up the entire area and you are losing that feel," Rutherford said.

Rutherford and a few dozen others are part of a social media push to urge county leaders to leave the forest alone, but not all park users believe thinning is a bad idea.

"It has really overgrown,” Barris said. “I have been coming here for 22 years and you can see the difference; you can feel the difference."

Red ribbons now mark many of the pines that could potentially be felled. While he's in favor of chopping down dead trees that could pose a threat to people and parked cars, Town Supervisor Phil Barrett is hopeful the county will leave trees deeper in the forest in place and not sell them to a timber company for revenue.

"This is a park, it has been a park for decades, and it should be managed as a park," Barrett said.

Reached by phone Friday, Saratoga County Planning Director Jason Kemper said that, when the county acquired the land roughly 70 years ago, the main intent was to use it for reforestation, with recreation being an allowed secondary use. Kemper also said that, with discussions ongoing between town and county leaders, the ribbons were placed on trees to help elected officials visualize a potential plan, but that no decision about forest thinning will be made until spring at the earliest.

“Hopefully, a decision will be made in the near future that will benefit all parties," Barrett said.

With the forest to remain as is through the winter, the park's users remain split on the best way to manage its future.

"It's hazardous," Barris said. "When you are walking through, if there is wind, you can hear creaking."

"Let's not treat it like a forest project because then it becomes a logging site and that could be devastating to the area," Rutherford said. “Let’s treat it like a park.”