The Adirondack Park has captured the hearts
and imaginations of residents and visitors for over 100 years. The great
natural beauty and extreme protection the park enjoys lends itself to the
preservationist philosophy we as a modern society are so fond of. But what
about the people who founded the park? Were they so taken by the beauty that
they took the land and locked it away to be viewed like some exhibit in a
museum?
One of the driving forces behind the
creation of the Adirondack Park was a man named Verplanck Colvin, who was
involved in a state survey of the area in the 1870’s. Colvin recognized that
the logging practices at the time were unsustainable and that the effects were
far greater than just loss of forest cover. He realized that the forests
protect the small streams and springs which eventually make their way through
the Hudson all the way to the ocean. By removing the trees he argued that you
negatively impacted the waterways which were the lifeblood of the New York
economy.
Colvin’s goal wasn’t simply to preserve the
forests and waterways just because they’re there. He believed that by
preserving them we could develop a sustainable way to use the resources that
would last for generations. His utilitarian mindset was shared by many people
at the time but with the adoption of the Forever Wild clause the park began
along the path to preservation.
Today the idea of logging in the
Adirondacks brings a shudder to most people who live in the North-East. This
was pretty obvious when we discussed the uses of the park in class, but we
forgot that there is still some industrial activity in the park. There are a
number of active mines and even more scars left on the land from those that
have closed down. The idea that activities like mining are still somewhat allowed
yet sustainable logging practices like those mentioned in Wandering Home are not is interesting. Maybe our priorities are a
little mixed up, or maybe it’s time to accept that ecotourism and adventure are
the new utilitarian uses of the park to be preserved for future generations.
Wandering Home- Bill McKibben
Park History
Since our conversation in class, and furthermore, after reading your article, I have found myself troubled by the irony of tourism in the Adirondacks. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines ecotourism as, "tourism directed toward exotic, often threatened, natural environments, especially to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife." Are these the goals that everybody has in mind when going to the Adirondacks, or somewhere else "natural" for their family vacation? On a trip I took with my high school to California, we visited Muir Woods. While walking on a beautiful trail, my friend remarked to our teacher how bothered he was by the "maintained" and "unnatural" path, and that he thought it defeated the purpose of going into the wild if the walking surface was not all that different from a driveway. My teacher responded by explaining that having a path such as this was, in the long run, better for the park, as it kept the visitors from eroding the land. However, this interaction made me wonder what damage any form of ecotourism can cause to our environment. Are we making the land less wild by our vacationing within the parks? Can one support both ecotourism, and environmental preservation, unless the point of the tourism is to assist in a conservation project?
ReplyDeleteCITATIONS:
"ecotourism." New Oxford American Dictionary. Eds. Stevenson, Angus, and Christine A. Lindberg. : Oxford University Press, 2010. Oxford Reference. 2011. Date Accessed 5 Feb. 2015 .