The Down-State Effect

The last line of this chapter from Jeanne Robert Foster’s poem “State Land” reads, “But my heart spoke: I must preserve this land” (133).  Although this portrays the preservation of the Adirondack Park as a nostalgic and sentimental effort, as with the creation of the park, preservation and conservation efforts were in actuality political.  They were efforts to protect the park for the benefit of the rest of the state.  

In fact, it seems that much of the conservation efforts in the park were created because of the drought and subsequent fires that occurred at the turn of the century.  Many of these fires were the result of intense logging, and it was though these dangers that loggers suddenly too interest in taking better care of the land.  There was a realization that the uncontrolled exploitation of the Adirondacks could potentially destroy what made the region vital to the welfare of the rest of the state.  This was especially true for New York City, which had recently opened up Ellis Island to the reception of immigrants and was welcoming more people than ever.  Though of course the Adirondacks were themselves affected, the power to implement real change in the region could be attested to the effects that the droughts and fires had on the parts of the state outside of the Blue Line.   Over the next few years, measures were taken to control and limit exploitation of the Park.

In 1902 the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks was dedicated to increasing state purchase of private lands in order to expand the forest preserve, and thus have increased control over land abuse.  By 1910 the Forest Fish and Game law required lopping on all cuts, measures that were full accepted, substantially decreasing the threat of fires.  In 1915 the forever-wild protection of the forest service was approved, partially in response to the ramped forest fires.  Therefore, the protection and conservation of the Park was not environmental for the sake of preserving the wilderness as something with its own intrinsic value, nor was it nostalgic.  The Park was protected for its political and economic value to down-staters.