The Beauty of Regrowth Forests

During class on Wednesday we discussed how the majority of the Adirondacks are not virgin forests, but regrowth forests that have been restored after human’s use of the land. While browsing through the daily Adirondack Almanac news journal I read an article by a man named Dave Gibson, a conservationist and writer deeply interested in the Adirondack region. His article was a personal story in which Gibson and his wife purchased the lot next to his home to save it from being logged, subdivided, and sold to developers. This lot was largely logged in the 1850’s, but has since recovered. Gibson has fond, personal memories of the lot behind his home. He states:

“To me, the hill is of last ice age, 10,000 years passed.  It is a humbling hill that puts humans in our proper place and perspective. The top of the hill was owned by our neighbor and it would have been bulldozed away for housing.  Soon we will own it. We want this hill and the forest on all sides of it to continue on the path of recovery, and of shared memories, an inspired statement of hope that others may add to in future. Our goal is that it outlasts us and becomes what it wants to be.”

This passage struck me as very similar to McKibben’s view of the regrown forests. Bill McKibben states that one of the amazing parts of the Adirondack wilderness is that “no place on the planet has restored itself so thoroughly in the last century” (McKibben 120).  He believes the forest’s ability to persevere over human destruction shows the true power of nature. Both of these environmental writers also know that we must use the forest’s resources in a sustainable way. However, I agree with Gibson in that if we have the capability to halt the logging and developing of a regrowth forest, even though it is not a virgin forest, we should. A virgin forest is remarkable for the fact that it has been saved from human interference. However, these regrown forests McKibben and Gibson write of are remarkable in a different way. They allow us to see how environments change and adapt to our interference and eventually return to a state we call wilderness.

Link to Dave Gibson's article: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/09/conserving-land-a-personal-story.html?utm_source=Adirondack+Explorer+%26+Adirondack+Almanack&utm_campaign=55dae8c4c1-Adirondack_Almanack_RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b49eb0d11b-55dae8c4c1-47315509