An Ode to Kate Field

Kate Field (1838-1896)

In her lecture entitled “Among the Adirondacks,” 19^th century American journalist, Kate Field, showed her passion for the Adirondacks and her identification as a forest preservation advocate. Field based her lecture on her experiences in the Adirondacks in the summer of 1869. Distinguished from her affluent contemporaries, she was not a vacationer at a luxury Adirondack resort. Instead, Field and her companions opted to camp, hike, fish, and hunt just like her sportsman counterparts. Her unconventional behavior generated criticism, especially from those who believed that women were unable to appreciate the wilderness and its sports. Although Field belonged to the social and cultural elite, she challenged 19^th century norms by established her own career as one of the first women reporters for the New York Tribune, New York Herald, and Atlantic Almanac. In 1889, Field even started a weekly journal called Kate Field’s Washington, which was circulated in Washington D.C. 

Field’s fondness for the Adirondack region motivated her to write and lecture about the Adirondack’s forest’s value. Field saw the proliferation of the logging industry as a misuse of the forest. As opposed to cutting down trees, Field encouraged the public to bring tents and camp in the park. Evidently, Field placed emphasis on the recreational value of the Adirondack Park. She even wrote that the Adirondack Mountains “were intended by Nature to be the Eastern pleasure-ground of the United States.”

While I highly admire Field for advocating wilderness preservation, I believe that one must be mindful of her anthropomorphic and utilitarianism perspective. Firstly, by “anthropomorphic” I mean that Field places human pleasures at the center of her argument for forest preservation. Her focus on the recreational value of the park seems to ignore the intrinsic value of the forest itself. Secondly, I use the word utilitarianism because Field promoted:

The great good of the greatest number is, I believe, the true democratic platform, and if several hundred men think that the life-giving principles of the North Woods was [sic] instituted for the benefit of a few guns and rods, they are sadly mistaken. (“A Babe in the Woods: Kate Field And Preservation,” Adirondack Almanac).            

With regard to egalitarian access to the Adirondack Park, I agree wholeheartedly with Field. I do believe that the park should not be exclusive to the affluent. However, I am sensitive to the principles of utilitarianism as a theory. I do not always support the idea that the greatest number is the greater good. In the context of wilderness preservation in general, I am wary that utilitarianism condones the unlimited growth of tourism in the name of economic gains. Nevertheless, I applaud Field for her contribution to 19^th century environmental activism. A strong woman’s voice always belongs in any societal debate.

Sources:

http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2014/03/babe-woods-kate-field-adirondack-preservation.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Field