Whiteface Mountain, seen from Connery Pond in Lake Placid.

If a private developer illegally and unconstitutionally cut down trees to carve a race course into protected state land, that builder would and should be in a mountain of trouble.

But what happens when the developer is the Olympic Regional Development Authority?

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Facing a tight deadline ahead of a mountain bike competition held Oct. 3-5, the public authority constructed a race course on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack State Park without approval from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

As detailed by James Odato in the Adirondack Explorer, the DEC says crews improperly toppled at least 32 trees, violated the authority's stormwater discharge........

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