Early Environmental Thought and New York City

In this class we have touched on some ideas that Americans formed about the environment in the 1800s. The most prominent and pertinent of these to the Adirondacks is the association between tree density and temperature. We have had multiple readings that have talked about a concern regarding rising temperatures in response to logging, which seems to be true from a 21st century scientific understanding but not as simple as these Adirondackers understood the relationship. Regardless, people who lived in New York realized that logging came with negative consequences and felt the pressure to limit these consequences, which often had to do with water quality and thus the health of New York City. I have tried to grapple with the issue of whether this overarching concern for New York City was good or not. The quick answer, and the answer that I have arrived at, is yes. Though it was ultimately a concern for the city that led to the preservation of the Adirondacks, that concern for the city brought about the protection of a wilderness the size of which is unparalleled in the rest of the United States, and that fact is beyond reproach.