The Adirondack are special. It's a place where Appalachian forests of the south run headlong into boreal forests usually seen further north. And these forests overlay a landscape still raw from the last ice age.
The human history of the Adirondacks is equally unique. Native Americans certainly hunted and traveled through the Adirondack Region, but the rugged, swampy, valleys of the central Adirondacks were a poor place to live year round. European colonists had barely penetrated the region by the turn of the 19th century. By mid-century, however, the great forest attracted the attention of those who could turn trees into riches and industrial-scale logging pushed in from all sides. A period of intense resource exploitation in the closing decades of the 1800s led to widespread environmental degradation including human-caused forest fires that burned large areas.
As the 19th century came to a close New York State took an action that may be unique in human history. In 1894, New Yorkers voted to set aside large blocks of land in the Adirondack region as a forest preserve to be left "forever wild". Having seen how easily these protections could be pushed aside by powerful interests, the "forest preserve" would be further protected by inclusion in the New York Constitution. After that, land added to the preserve could not be sold, and the forests could not be cut.
Today, the Adirondack Forest Preserve, and the Adirondack Park Agency that manages it, represent a grand and on-going experiment in public policy. The unique landscape, combined with the long-term protection of over three million acres of publicly held land, makes the adirondacks unique. This is not like other places.
My name is Kent Stanton and I've created this project to learn more about the Adirondack region that I hold so dear. I was born in Tupper Lake, and after several decades living in other places, I currently reside in Long Lake. In addition to working on this project, I enjoy hiking to places that others rarely visit. You can read about some of those outings on my blog at: Hike Long Lake .
Work done by these authors has informed my thinking. Errors or omissions are mine alone.
Barbara McMartin and Bill Ingersoll
The Great Forest of the Adirondacks
Fifty Hikes in the Adirondacks
Discover the Southern Adirondacks
Discover the Northwestern Adirondacks
Discover the Central Adirondacks
The Adirondack Atlas (Jerry Jenkins and Andy Keal)
Eastern Old Growth Forests (edited by Mary Byrd Davis)
Forests and Tress of the Adirondack High Peaks Region (E.H. Ketchledge)
Forest Forensics (Tom Wessels)
Geographic Information Analysis (David O'Sullivan and David J. Unwin)
Scale and Geographic Inquiry (Eric Sheppard and Robert McMaster)