Thanks Phil! And some thoughts.

First off, I’d like to thank Phil Terrie for talking with us about the Adirondacks. It is an incredibly special experience to be able to listen to someone who has been so involved with the Adirondacks for so long. He knows those woods more intimately than most of us ever will. And to think that he wasn’t born in the Adirondacks—that he actually grew up in the south and, by happenstance, moved to the woods after college to work at a camp… and that he immediately fell in love with the place. I hope that wherever I end up, I’m equally infatuated with the place.

I wanted to recap a little on our discussion, with the hope that writing some of his points down will help me digest them a little.

I think one of the most important things Terrie emphasized was the difference between the Adirondack Park and the Adirondack Preserve. In class, we’ve used these terms almost interchangeably (well, at least I have). But the park and the preserve are vastly different, and the distance between their meanings lays the foundation for most of the land use controversy that surrounds the Adirondacks.

As Terrie explained, a park is not a wilderness, whereas a preserve is.

The Adirondack Park is defined by “the blue line,” which circumscribes the area in which the state of New York has a particular interest. Within this area, however, we’ve got this patchwork of land that is more complex than simply “wilderness” and “park” or “private” vs. “public.” Each of those subdivisions are further divided by how protected those spaces are. On one of the maps Terrie showed, we saw highly protected wilderness, slightly less protected wild spaces, and privately owned areas including towns like Tupper Lake. Each of these different spaces comes with its own set of rules—and its own set of aficionados that lay claim to that space and want different rules and regulations for it.  

For example, there are no motors allowed in “highly protected” places—and yet, other publicly owned land allows for snowmobiling and ATVing. When and where are these activities appropriate? What makes some land more “wild” than others (and therefore worthy of more stringent regulations)?

On another note, after talking with Terrie, it seems very clear to me that Michael Foxman’s plan to develop Tupper Lake will fail.

The fact that Mr. Foxman plans to sell the less desirable plots to wealthy people in search of Great Camp land seems utterly ridiculous. None of the “great camp” plots are on the water, making them far less valuable. Since building is the most expensive aspect of creating a Great Camp, it seems to me that people in search of such a place would want the invest in valuable land to match the luxury of their vacation homes.

Regardless of the viability of Foxman’s plan, a development on such a large scale seems totally incongruent with the surrounding towns and wilderness. It is obviously easy for me, as an outsider, to criticize it—but I have to say, I don’t think his plan will benefit the citizens of Tupper Lake, or the Adirondacks as a whole.