ALBANY - New York officials have signed conservation easements with a lumber company to protect more than 84,000 acres of timberlands in the northeastern Adirondacks from development.

The state paid $10.8 million last week to the Lyme Timber Co., of Hanover, N.H., that will provide some public recreation access as well as ongoing logging in the Sable Highlands according to certified conservation standards.

Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Yancey Roy said it followed through on a commitment the state made almost four years ago in January 2005.

“Also, an important part of the transaction is that it keeps an important timber operation going in the North Country,” he said.

This fall, the state bought 20,000 acres of adjacent timberlands, including 3,820-foot Lyon Mountain, from The Nature Conservancy for almost $10 million, opening it for public use.

The nonprofit conservancy bought that land in 2005 from Canadian lumber company Domtar Industries, while also helping arrange the sale of the nearby land to Lyme.

That was part of the same multiparty deal negotiated under Gov. George Pataki, who led efforts to protect a million acres of open space across New York.

That included several forest parcels in the Adirondacks, some purchased and added to the state Forest Preserve, where logging is banned, and others covered by easements.

According to Lyme's Peter Stein, their model is to use forest practices that allow for timber harvest while preserving forest ecosystem functions such as clean air and water, soil stabilization and recreation.

“It's not as simple as cutting that's equal to or less than biological growth,” he said.

“Our business model at Lyme is to make investments in forestland properties where usually a nonprofit conservation group or public agency covers some of the values that are present on that property,” Stein said.

In 2004, a deal was struck by the Pataki administration with International Paper for conservation easements on 257,000 acres of forest and wetlands in nine counties.

Under later conservation easements, logging by Lyme, which bought most of IP's Adirondack holdings, was to continue through “sustainable forestry” practices including selective harvesting and planting of trees.