Building a Diverse Support Base for the Adirondacks

            Over 90% of the Adirondack Park’s year-round population is white and an overwhelming majority of the visitors who come to the park each year are white as well. The extremely homogenous Adirondack Park is out of sync with the population trends of the rest of New York State, which is rapidly becoming more diverse. In order to garner enough public support to protect the park and its environment, it is necessary that a large portion of the state has experienced all of the wonderful things it has to offer so they have motivation to advocate for its wellbeing. The park’s current support base is primarily an aging white population, so if the park’s population fails to change along with the rest of the state, its future could be in jeopardy.

            Recently, many community members have spoken up about the lack of diversity in the Adirondack Park and have taken action to make a change. Numerous organizations came together to host a symposium the subject in 2014 entitled “Towards a More Diverse Adirondacks.” The organizers hoped the event would expand the conversation about diversity in the park to new community members who had not been involved in the past. Through a full program of speakers and discussions, as well as a keynote speech by Amy Godine, (a scholar focused on the ethnic and social history of the Adirondack Park who wrote the article we read entitled “Hidden History”) the symposium achieved this goal and served as a kick-off event for the movement.

Moving forward, there are many proposed ideas for gaining support for the Adirondacks from a diverse population. Adirondack Almanack writer Jeff Jones suggests that community members tap into the huge population of diverse incarcerated individuals and their families who come to the park to visit them in prison. While these individuals get to see the park during their trips to the prisons, their experiences are certainly no the same as someone vacationing in the park. If community members are able to provide them with a welcoming and positive experience in the Adirondacks, they could gain a whole new group of supporters and visitors for the park while giving them access to the benefits of spending time in nature.

            The efforts to bring more diversity to the Adirondacks remind me of similar initiatives by small, rural colleges such as Hamilton to increase diversity within their student bodies. While the efforts of the administration are strong and they are definitely making progress, our student body’s population is still not incredibly diverse. I think the efforts in the Adirondacks are incredibly important because you need to start somewhere in order to induce change, but I think it is likely that the Adirondacks will mimic our school’s pattern of slowly adding diversity over a long period of time. Though the progress may be slow and hard to see in the near-term, I think the strong effort displayed by the community is a hopeful sign for the future of the Adirondack Park.

Sources:

http://www.adirondacklifemag.com/blogs/2014/08/07/imagining-diverse-adirondack-park/

http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/08/adirondack-diversity-symposium-slated-for-august-16th.html

http://www.esf.edu/nfi/diversity/symposium.htm
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2015/02/recognizing-the-adirondacks-hidden-diversity.html#comments

Go through the trench, not over it!

I delicately tip-toe along a semi-submerged branch with my heavy backpack threatening to throw off my balance.  I leap onto a rock and almost fall backward, but catch myself on a tree near the edge of the track.  With no more protrusions in range, I gingerly test the ground with my toe, judge it solid, and step forward—it doesn’t hold my weight.  I sink into the trail to my knees and bang my shin on a submerged rock… for the fifth time that day…

So this is mud season…

While hiking during the mud season may promise hard-core adventures, such excursions not only endanger oneself (and make one miserable in the process) but also harm the environment through erosion and vegetation destruction.  Mud season in the Adirondacks is exactly what the name implies: a whole lot of mud.  Between the melting snow pack and unpredictable weather, water enters the soil at too great a velocity and in too great a volume to be absorbed by the forest, so in many cases (especially along hiking trails where the soil is already more impermeable than in other less intensely traveled areas) the water simply sits on the surface.  

Many hikers try to circumnavigate muddy trails by walking along the side of the trail, or taking short detours up through the trees, but this is exactly the wrong response.  During the spring, young vegetative shoots begin to penetrate through the mud to absorb the sun in the absence of a dense canopy (or in the case of conifer dominated stands, in disturbed sites along the edges of trails).  Hikers avoiding the muddy patches tramp on the juvenile plants at their most vulnerable moments.  Without significant root systems or protected tissue, the plants do not survive the encounter.  This event especially becomes a problem above 3,000 ft where more than just the seedlings suffer from shallow rooting.  A study by E.H. Ketchledge et al. (1985) found that minimal human foot traffic in fragile alpine environments can permanently damage plant communities.  Further, avoiding the trails causes problems with soil erosion, especially on steep trails.  Every time a hiker attempts to avoid the worst of the muck by going around it, he or she widens the trail and, consequently, the disaster area.  Go through the trench, not over it!

While forcing hikers to go through the mud may seem to perpetuate deep mud pits, containing the worst of the erosion within the trail is less environmentally damaging than spreading the mud to the rest of the forest.  When the weather (and mud) is especially bad, the DEC will often voluntarily close trails to the public to protect the fragile environments.

Thus, with April and mud season upon us, try to find other methods of recreation in the Adirondacks.  Don’t spread the mud.

 Photo Source: Taken by Emily Snider on the Dusky Track in NZ (same origin as the anecdote at the beginning of the post)... They have mud season there, too!

References:

http://www.adirondack.net/hiking/spring-hiking/

Crane, Dan.  "Mud Season: Sloshing through the Wet Trails."  Adirondack Almanack.  http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2011/04/mud-season-sloshing-through-wet-trails.html

Ketchledge E.H., R.E. Leonard, N.A. Richards, P.F. Craul, A.R. Eschner.  1985.  Rehabilitation of Alpine Vegetation in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.  U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Nature, Art, and the Appeal of Ecotourism

Over Hamilton’s Spring Break, my parents and I ventured out of this brutal winter, down to The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.  Returning to Disney World as an adult was a particularly interesting experience for me, as I found myself appreciating the parks as more than just a ‘magical place,’ as it is designed for the younger visitors, but rather as a piece of art.  Walt Disney Imagineering, the engineering and design firm at Disney, is charged with creating everything at the parks and the remainder of the resort.  My trip to Disney taught me an interesting lesson on art inspired by the wilderness, and, although Disney might seem to be an unexpected place for such a revelation, I found my observations to provide clarity on the importance and meaning of art in nature.

All of the Disney parks designed by the Imagineers are quite fantastic, though on this family trip to Disney, I found myself particularly interested in the design and philosophy of the Animal Kingdom Park.  As the name might suggest, this park’s intention is to combine flawlessly the animals in their “natural habitat” with an amusement park.

As my dad and I went to ride the rollercoaster Expedition Everest, a $100,000,000 ride designed to be a scaled replica of Mount Everest, I overheard a number of vacationers making the same observation: Animal Kingdom does not look like a park, it looks like the wilderness.  Disney Imagineers are famous for making the fake look convincingly real, and many think that they accomplish this design ideology best when recreating nature, and it is their artistic representations of nature, which draws the masses to Animal Kingdom.

Throughout our course on the Adirondacks, I have come across countless accounts of visitors to the Adirondack Park commenting on how inherently special the wilderness is.  In William Murray’s Adventures in the Wilderness, he encourages people to come to the wilderness in order to escape their normal, city lives, because he feels there is something immensely powerful about being in the Adirondacks, and more broadly, in nature.

I was particularly interested to see that this natural, human tendency and yearning for the wilderness is still applicable in a situation where the ‘wilderness’ is not the wilderness at all, but rather a fabricated replication of nature.  In observing this phenomenon at Disney, I realized that this human response is no different than being drawn to an intricate painting of a beautiful flower, as opposed to the actual flower itself.  People are fascinated by the Animal Kingdom Park because it is the Disney Imagineer’s detailed, exquisite, artistic depiction of nature.

As we learned in class through the Murray and McKibben readings, people are drawn to the Adirondacks for their natural beauty.  I was fascinated to learn that there is such an inherent human love of nature, that even when it is merely an artistic representation, people feel an instant connection to the natural wonder of the wilderness, whether real or artificial.

Backyard Bird Count

As we learn more about various aspects of the Adirondack park that make it the popular place it has become, I have grown to appreciate this region even though I’ve only visited the park two times. However, despite the many characteristics that make the Adirondacks a special place, I cannot help but find myself slightly behind those who have grown up hiking in the park. My childhood hikes took place at Fort Washington State Park and Valley Green, two parks very close to my house. As I glanced through the various articles in the Adirondack Almanack detailing the newest park news, I came across an article that brings the Adirondacks a little closer to home. According to the Almanack, this February more that 100 birdwatchers participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), a worldwide program which is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. Information gathered by birdwatchers around the world allows scientists to track the health of bird populations in thousands of locations. My sister is an avid birdwatcher so I have many memories of hiking to various locations in our area to participate in this backyard bird count. Although our hunt took place hundreds of miles away from the Adirondacks, I feel like my participation in this event makes me feel a little closer to the conservation efforts occurring in the park.

This year’s bird count in the Adirondacks resulted in many observations which are useful for estimating the health of various populations. However, when analyzing this data scientists had to keep in mind that this winter was particularly cold and snowy in much of the northeastern United States and Canada, reducing the number of reports. Keeping this factor in mind, the count still produced results which give an idea of the population trends.

The Adirondack Almanack featured information on a few species which had significant increases in population size in recent years. The Snowy Owl breeds in Arctic regions worldwide and is frequently sighted during the Backyard Bird Count across the Great Lakes states, Northeastern U.S., Atlantic Coast, and southern Canada. The GBBC showed that the winter of 2013-2014 was a very successful breeding year for these birds, reporting large numbers across the Great Lakes states. This year’s report shows a similar greater surge in owl sightings. Populations of winter finches, including Grosbeaks and Pine Siskins are also increasing according to the GBBC. Pine Siskins were reported on about 10.5% of GBBC, compared to 1.2% of checklists in 2014. 

Although GBBC participation levels range in different parts of the world, I find it very exciting that so many people can come together to provide an insight on the health of thousands of bird species. It’s reassuring to know that such a significant number of people continue to care about these animals are various factors threaten their populations.

Source: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2015/03/great-backyard-bird-count-sets-species-record.html#more-52423

Luminism

The Hudson River school art movement reflected America’s need for tranquility in nature in the mid-1800s, but John Frederick Kensett took that tranquility to a higher, spiritual level with Luminism. The main characteristic of a luminist painting is the light source or rays of light, so the sky usually takes up a large percentage of the painting. This light, as Patricia Mandel points out, symbolizes God’s presence in nature, and how being immersed in a natural setting can bring people closer to their spirituality. This bright light creates vivid colors that make the natural settings in the painting appear to shine. Just like in the Hudson River school, the natural and anthropologic objects are detailed and realistic, but there are also a stronger focus on colors and shading. Today, there are modern artists, like the Adirondack-native, Anne Diggory, who are keeping John Frederick Kensett’s movement alive.

Anne Diggory only paints landscapes. However, she calls all of her paintings “hybrids” because she paints on top of her own photographs or other artists’ paintings. With her hybrids, she combined the 19^th century landscape movement of the Hudson River school, specifically luminism, with the modern art of landscape photography. In luminism, the objects and the sky are usually framed parallel and in a geometrically organized way. Anne Diggory turned this idea on its head with her painting Shoreline Reflection. Diggory started with Kensett’s painting Lake George, which she laid on top of a photograph she took of the same location. Then she painted on top of this print. Diggory brings modernism and luminism together in this painting by not making the painting geometrically pleasing; her photograph is vertical and Kensett’s painting is horizontal, and as she layers paint on top of these things, you can see all of the layers in her painting.

"Lake George"

"Shoreline Retrospection"

It amazes me when artists come up with unique ideas because humans have been making art for so long, I don’t know how anything can be original anymore. With her hybrid paintings, Diggory combines the modern art movement with the Hudson River school movement of tranquil landscape paintings. With Diggory, Kensett’s Luminism is still alive.

http://hybridvisions.diggory.com/12-shoreline-retrospection/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/314949/John-Frederick-Kensett

Film: A Catalyst for Change in the Adirondacks

     We have, through the blog and class discussions, looked into the art forms that have drawn inspiration from the Adirondacks. These have included various forms of writing, paintings, and photography. Another art form worth considering is film, which has become especially influential. Films give significance to certain events and the locations in which they take place. The street that I may have crossed on my way to school, for instance, suddenly becomes infinitely more important once it appears in a film. When applied to the Adirondacks then, film has the power to give the towns, land, and people further significance.

     Take, for instance, the movie The Last of the Mohicans (1992). Both through the explicit mention of places like Fort William Henry and the setting that creates the feel of the movie, The Last of the Mohicans brings attention to the Adirondacks. The filming locations themselves, though, are in North Carolina (the wildlife shown in the movie would likely reveal this - namely something like the species of trees). A movie like The Good Shepard (2006), on the other hand, uses Great Camp Sagamore Lake and takes it out of context. The association with the Adirondacks isn't clear to the common viewer, but the film certainly impacts the area. By hosting the likes of Robert Deniro, Matt Damon, and Angelina Jolie, the movie brings the region revenue and outside attention.

Great Camp Sagamore Lake (used in The Good Shepard)

     In my last post I discussed the role of buses and accessibility to the economy of towns in the Adirondacks. As I ended the post, I wondered how less accessible towns might increase the number of people that visit the area. It wouldn't make sense for bus companies to service these areas without a return on their investment, but the lack of buses takes away potential visitors. I now realize that art, especially film, has immense power that can certainly help poorer areas of the Adirondacks. Place a famous actor on a failing farm, for example, and things suddenly start looking up. A careful and deliberate use of art for this kind of purpose could have an immenseeffect on regions both within and beyond the Adirondacks.  

Sources:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343737/locations?ref_=tt_dt_dt

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104691/locations?ref_=tt_dt_dt

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/l/Last-Of-The-Mohicans-locations.html#.VRtx5vnF98E

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Sagamore_Camp,_Long_Lake,_NY.jpg

http://www.apnmag.com/winter2012/subpages/fanitzi/film.html

The Adirondack Prison Economy

To an environmentalist, tourist or even the average New Yorker, Adirondacks means retreat, serenity and wilderness-an inspiring example of a society strong and wise enough to leave its land alone. But to those that served in its prisons and to their families, the Adirondacks and upstate New York are tainted by the impacts of an antiquated and reactionary law.

In 1973, New York began its own war on drugs. That year, Governor Nelson Rockefeller pushed through the state legislature a bill that would set minimum sentences for convicted drug dealers and users. Under Rockefeller, the state’s prison population went from twenty thousand to a peak of seventy three thousand in the ‘90s. To meet this new demand, prisons were built in New York’s “Siberia”- the Adirondacks and the towns around the blue line. These prisons needed staff and the locals needed employment and New York’s Corrections Department soon became the region’s largest sole employer. Towns quickly became dependent on this prison economy for stable, middle-class employment-as has been the case across the country. Not only was the morality of such economic programs abhorrent but also environmentally destructive, directly counter to the purpose and preservation of the park and largely forgotten in its history. Simply put, prisons should not be employment programs and some should not be arrested and transplanted to others can have jobs.

I was not surprised to learn about the inmate surge. I saw Taxi Driver and I heard stories of New York City in the ‘70s. I knew the national war on drugs had failed and I knew that America holds 25% of the world’s prisoners. But what did surprise me was that, despite being a New York native and enrolled in a course on the Adirondacks for half a semester, I had never heard or really thought about the Adirondacks region as a prison colony. I had always heard about people being sent “upstate” like how in movies criminals are taken “downtown” but I certainly didn’t know that the Lake Placid Olympic Center was constructed with the aid of these inmates.

As with other booms, New York’s prison economy peaked and has since declined-resulting in a reduction from seventy three thousand to around fifty five thousand prisoners and with it the closing of many prisons. The loss of jobs that followed the closures has done no favors to the towns’ locals, the environment, and certainly none to those interned.

Map: http://cdn.adirondackexplorer.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/prison-map.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/nyregion/closed-new-york-prisons-prove-hard-to-sell.html?_r=0

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/17/3568232/the-united-states-had-even-more-prisoners-in-2013/

  

Our Responsibility to the Environment

What exactly do we owe the environment? Every person might answer this question differently, but its significance will always be the same: destroying the planet means endangering the human race. A lot of people are comfortable with the idea that things will work themselves out because humans have always found a way to survive, but the planet will soon face irreversible changes that even the human race is not immune to.

Last semester, I came across the following image online, and it stuck with me:

Please note that, unfortunately, I do not have the original source for this photo because I saved it on my phone several months ago from a blog post on Tumblr. However, this quote has been attributed to Dr. Guy McPherson, who is a professor from the University of Arizona.

The quote used in the picture directly relates to issues such as fossil fuels and carbon emissions, which affect the climate in areas like the Adirondacks. Even though the economy is important, it will not mean anything if the human race goes extinct because the earth is no longer inhabitable. At some point, the environment has to come before the economy since it affects human, animal, and plant health as well as their quality of life. When the air and water are polluted and the climate is out of control, then the economy will not be very important. The economy is only important when there is an earth to regulate, and we owe the environment more than bare minimum. Species cannot just survive on the earth, they have to live, and in order to live, the environment must be taken care of.

Even if the planet will not be in immediate danger within someone’s generation, that does not necessarily mean they have any less responsibility to the planet than the following generations. It is the responsibility of older generations to leave the planet in the same—if not a better—condition as they experienced it. This responsibility is innate, and it cannot be taken away. The responsibility does not begin once the destruction starts; it begins as a preventative measure to protect the planet that allows life to exist in the first place.