There are probably not two different public lands in the Northeastern United States that are more different then the Adirondack Park and the Allegheny National Forest.
The Adirondack Park’s Forest Preserve is one of the country’s largest wild forests, which basically is a wilderness area with very limited roads and motorized recreation or activity. Over half of the forest is totally free of motors of all sorts, from cars, trucks, boats, ATVs, and snowmobiles, to even generators used up at camp. No trees can ever be cut in Adirondack Forest Preserve, most uses and recreation are limited to current uses, and only are to become more restictive in the future. All use is strictly controlled by detailed regulations created by the State Department of Environmental Conservation and AdirondacK Park Agency, and public use is very restricted.
View Larger Map
The Allegheny National Forest has extensive road system, is extensive logged, and used for oil and natural gas production. It offers extensive developed recreation, including dozens of campgrounds, several ATV trails, hundreds of miles of truck trails and other roads, boat launches, and basically any other use one can imagination for a public lands. It literally has more oil and gas wells then all other USDA-administer National Forests across the nation, combined. The land is largely on a grid, and where it’s not, the land has many roads following natural contours. Wilderness areas are a relatively small portion of the area.
Which philsopohy of land management is better?
Environmental purists would prefer the park, because the landscape is more prestine, and vastly less trambled by man. Man-made uses, such as roads and roadside-campsites are limited largely to near roads, and wilderness areas have limited trails, with only a few lean-tos and backcountry campsites.
Conservationists in many cases would prefer the Allegheny National Forest. They would note the diversity of land uses, and that while it’s a largely wild landscape, with people primarily coming to visit, it also provides our economy with valuable products, such as timber, oil and gas. Recreational activities like all-terrian vehicles, scenic driving, and camping are offered, far more extensively then in New York Forest Preserve.
View Larger Map
I sometimes cringe when I look at the aerial photographs of Allegheny National Forest, or study the road maps. It looks like the entire ecosystem and forest is engineered. You can see the impacts of oil and gas drilling, and timber production — both which require a lot of roads, that don’t exist in Adirondack Park.
View Larger Map
However, due to lack of roads, and lack of facilities in most of Adirondack Park, use of land is largely limited to areas within 5-10 miles of existing public roads. A lot of true backcountry is too far back to pratically expect most people to ever go. Some activities — like ATV riding on public lands is non-existent. Camping activities are fairly restricted to designated spots along roadsides, at state campgrounds, and certain back country locations.
While there is a lot to like about having some wilderness areas — like the Adirondack Park, when you review the regulations and policies the state has created for the goverence of the park, you have to wonder if they have gone too far. Some true wilderness areas are wonderful, but are there too much wilderness? Do restrictions on development of public lands leave too much restricted?
I don’t know. The Adirondack Park is a delight, a great wild space, but it does seem sometimes that are state goes too far in restricting public use, and walling off all the lands from ever having any timber cut, or any new facilities developed under public demand.
One thing that\’s always bothered me a bit is that no matter how hard one tries, we are always stuck in the present. The present is forever lasting, we can not travel back in time or into the future. We can see cause and effect, and realize there is something called time but never really experience it or control it, because there is no time but the present.
Driving home the other night, I realized how strange time really is. I was 5 minutes from home, and I was so tired. Yet, I felt I could be driving forever, as there was no escaping the present, no matter how hard I tried. I knew I would be home in 5 minutes, but that didn\’t mean I was home. I could have been driving forever.
</>
There is that funny thing called the future and the past. We remember the past, and can often forsee future events. Certainly if I had decided to doze off or take my hands off the steering wheel, I could perdict what would like happen. If I crashed, I probably could remember back to what happened on the sleepy night, but there would be no turning back the car from crashing.
The relationship of present to the past and future is often pretty clear in our minds. Yet, it seems strange when you really think about those other times, when you know there is nothing but the present, a time that will stretch on for enternity. We will never escape the present.