Blurred Lines

After learning of the lawsuit filed against writer and editor Phil Brown for trespassing and canoeing through private property I became curious about legal battles with the law concerning this land. It seemed curious to me, that an area that so greatly emanated the value of freedom, could have so many lawsuits and restrictions.

In 2013 a case was filed against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Adirondack Park Agency for preventing the maintenance and construction of new trails within the forest preserve. Protect the Adirondacks argues that the expansion of snowmobile paths disturbs the park, imposing negative ecological impacts on the environment. This claim holds some validity for those fighting the case. The paths needed for snowmobiles to run through the park aren’t really “trails”, but more like roads, expanding to widths of 12 feet or wider.

More importantly, however, they believe that through the construction of these large paths, the park is also permitting the use of large mechanical snow grooming machines on certain snowmobile trails. This is a key component of this case; PROTECT emphasizes that the lawsuit is not about eliminating the use of snowmobiles on the the Forest Preserve, but that it is about eliminating motor vehicle use that might further harm the trails and create noise disturbances for those living in the area.

Overall, this is a hard case. The line between environmental preservation and allowing what is beneficial to the development of the Adirondacks is often blurred in this area. By creating new paths for other types of motor vehicles, the park is working to attract other types of tourism and business that could bring more people to the area. This would bring the beauty of the Adirondacks further into the eye of the public, and perhaps the mindset of natural preservation could be spread outside the park and into the rest of our country Yet, this potential economic and social progress comes at a price. Mckibben would claim that this invasion of the land reflects our hyper individualism. Is the use of motor vehicles really worth the sacrifice of what we consider the last remnants of undisturbed wild? Can’t we learn to appreciate the land for what it has to offer, without imposing on it with our own establishments? We must learn to decide what is more beneficial to us, the economic expansion of this land, or maintaining it’s preservation and purity as the last remaining forms of wilderness.

http://www.protectadks.org/2013/02/protect-begins-major-new-lawsuit-challenging-the-states-network-of-class-ii-community-connector-snowmobile-trail-network-based-on-wide-road-like-trails-and-grooming-with-large-tracked-groomers/

http://www.nysnowmobiler.com/news/327-a-win-for-snowmobilers-in-the-adirondack-park