The Bones of the Adirondacks

How exactly did the Adirondacks recover so quickly from such destructive logging in the 19th century?  Whenever I hike through the park, I notice how all of the trees seem to have the same circumference trunk.  While some of these were reseeded naturally, 18,000 acres of the trees in the Adirondacks were planted by members of the Civilian Conservation Corp from 1933-1942 (Adirondack Explorer, 2012).  This national program was developed at the height of the Great Depression in order to provide jobs for young, able-bodied men.  These legions of men developed the infrastructure of many national parks and forests that we still use today.  In doing so, these men brought environmental conservation to the forefront of American thought and made nature more easily accessible to the increasing number of tourists.

During the nine years the Civilian Conservation Corps was in operation, the 220,000 men who worked for the program in New York State not only planted trees in the Adirondacks, but they also built fire towers and developed better ways at combatting forest fires (Adirondack Explorer, 2012).   Programs such as this protected the burgeoning forest preserve from natural and man-made destruction, and ensured a quick recovery from the degrading logging practices of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Source: http://rockrivertimes.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Civilian-Conservation-Corps.png

The Civilian Conservation Corp also opened the Adirondacks to the general public.  By building roads and hiking trails, vehicles could easily access the park's interior and people could climb mountain summits without the need of a guide.  The workers also established campsites to support the growing visitor population, built dams for recreation and a constant supply of water, and stocked lakes with fish for the enjoyment of the tourists (Civilian Conservation Corp Stories).  

The men of the Civilian Conservation Corp laid down the modern bones of the Adirondack State Park.  Without their hundreds of thousands of hours of manual labor, the park would look much different today.  There would be fewer trails and organized recreation sites, and even fewer trees without the protection these men provided to the forest preserve.

Sources:

Podskoch, Marty. "Civilian Conservation Corps Stories." By Marty Podskoch. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://cccstories.com/>.

Podskoch, Marty. "Adirondack Civilian Conservation Corps Camps - Adirondack Explorer." Adirondack Explorer. N.p., Jan. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://www.adirondackexplorer.org/book_reviews/adirondack-civilian-conservation-corps-camps>

Thank you to the Hamilton College Writing Center for reviewing this document. (4/24/15)