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Rural Means Free

Andy | April 2, 2024

There are many state lands away from big cities that are relatively unrestricted in their use. They are so free only because they are largely unknown by the public and the lack of use means they can be used extensively without serious environmental damage.

The wear and tear by a few pickup trucks, quads, and horses seem minimal compared to the damage we see in far more restricted urban areas. I am inspired by Rural America and how little us humans have destroyed it compared to the big cities.

People can pollute more per capita and do far more damage then would be permissible if more people where out here. A truck can tear up a muddy trail pretty badly, but many people walking on one trail can do far more damage as witnessed in the Northern Catskills. People who live out here can have dirty diesel tractors, big gas-guzzling pickup trucks, and burn trash without significantly compromising their clean air or their quality of life. We could only wish that to be the case in the big city.

My biggest fear is what will happen when the cities expand further and further out into the country. What will happen with a new class of people coming out to enjoy the land? More people will ultimately mean more rules, less, freedom, and certainly no camping or four wheeling. The area won’t be as beautiful as farmsteads and forests get replaced by McMansions enjoying the mountains. What once was empty roads is increasingly becoming houses.

You just have to fear what it will mean when people come out here and settle the land. Outsiders will start demanding that we change, and that we start following their orders. Rural America might ultimately be the Pine Bush of the future a seriously compromised area that only is preserved for historical memories of the great beauty. Life in Rural America is nice now, but how will it be when country ain’t country no more.

What Wilderness Means to Me

Andy | April 1, 2024

I am often very critical of efforts to deem public lands as wilderness, as a form of statutory or constitutional protection of the lands, forever condemning motorized uses, and severely limiting other uses of the land, especially if the land has previously been farmed, logged, or otherwise changed by man. Certainly there are some unique parcels that should be preserved in such a pristine state, but many others are just wild lands to be used by man and nature alike.

I really do not like the legal definition of wilderness. I don’t think it captures my view of the forest lands I belove, the real wilderness in my imagination. Wilderness is the state of being wild and natural, largely uncontrolled by society’s social structures. It’s a land where man is free to use, largely without the control of government dictating how it is to be used except for minimal standards to protect its quality for future generations. Wilderness is a place where you go to get away from it.

Wilderness is any wild location in a rural area. It could be a hobby or even a professional farm, run by it’s operator. Or it could be any forest privately or publicly owned. It could be a hunting camp. It could be a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, or a state forest. It could be a wild forest in Adirondacks, a National Forest, or some other wild land. It could be a state truck trail or a back-country location. It does not have to be road-less or totally untrammeled by man, just wild and free without excessive government control and oppressive populations.

… wilderness is a place to escape, a place to get away from it all.

When You Are In The Country?

Andy | April 18, 2022

There seems to be a magic line that separates the country from the cities. There is a point where you get far enough from the city, where farms aren’t surrounded by suburbia or concerned with the suburban way of life. There might still be long distance exburbian commuters out in these parts, but they are essentially rural and free of the control of the big city.

There are several things that come to mind when you are truly in a rural place:

Speed Limit as 55 MPH. The state speed limit starts in almost all non-hamlet parts of rural towns. If the vast majority of roads in the town can be driven essentially as fast as you dare, then your in a rural place.

No Local Police Enforcing Local Laws. Rural communities may still have their own code inspectors and assistance from state police, but there is not the police presence that exists in the big cities. There simply is not the crime in the country, and lots of people leave their keys in their ignition.

Agriculture Not a Quaint Part of the Past. In most truly rural towns agriculture is not just a quaint hobby of people, but is a professional occupation of a number of citizens. In many rural towns there are far more hobby farmers then professionals, but the agriculture preformed on both farms is different then closer to suburbia, and often involves big animals.

People Burn Their Trash. While fewer and fewer people still have burn barrels, particularly in exurbian areas, in truly rural areas the vast majority of people still take their trash out back and burn it. Trash pickup simply is incompatible with the way of life of Rural America.

Big Pickups and Quads. People out in the country are more likely to own pickup trucks and quads. There is a need for vehicles that can haul things, and there is a culture that supports the pickup truck way of life. And people like playing our in nature with their snowmobiles and quads. Not to mention it’s fun to chase cows around on the quad.

Large Segments of Population Don’t Go to the City. The exburban and suburban commuter regularly drives to the city, rural people do not. There may be some exceptions, and most people do come together in a community regardless of where they live, but more often then not it’s a small city of less then 30,000 people.

In other words, a large segment of the rural population is wild and free, and not controlled like people in the big city. They aren’t limited in their possibilies or their land, or how they must live their life.

The Other 9/10ths of New York State

Andy | May 11, 2016

A breakdown of land uses of New York State looks roughly like this:

60% forested lands
24% farmed
8% residential uses

6% water bodies
1% industrial uses
1% commercial uses

Not that you would necessarily realize that from looking at a map or even driving on a highway system. Interstates have put a state of mind in humans that the only places that really exist are those nearby the interstate and that have formal exits on the controlled-access highway. There are actually places between Albany and Syracuse, not that you would know from driving except maybe if you studied the exit signs.

In these places, little towns and cities people live. Many of these areas are highly dependent on various industries or government, but they continue to exist. Lots of areas are farmed and lived on, but they may not appear in one’s psychological view of the world. Particularly in Western New York, it seems that the land looks a lot more closed in then it really, with road frontage dominated by residential housing, that overlooks vast quantities of land that are actively farmed or are forested.

There is a lot of New York that exists outside of the cities, on back roads, rarely explored except by the locals. There are too many back roads for one ever to see in a life time, but it’s important to see at least part of the landscape not on the main street.

Luke Bryan – What Country Is

Andy | February 6, 2014

Our Urban State

Andy | May 13, 2013

A while back I showed off the population of New York State in 2010, based on every town’s population. We looked at population density of various towns, and how it’s very dense in a few towns, and very spread out in most of state. Today, let’s look at a map of the developed areas of NY State.

Roughly 10% of the state is urbanized… the rest of state is rural.

So what goes on in the rest of state? About 24% of the state is farmed — lots of cows, corn, alfalfa and hay, but an even bigger portion is essentially wildlands, covered with water or forest lands.

It’s not to say people don’t live in other areas — they do. But small rural houses and farm steads are just footnotes, in a largely wild, forested or farmed landscape that makes up most of New York.

Why I’m Thinking Of Going Back to College Eventually

Andy | May 2, 2012

For the past couple of months I have been looking at going back to school eventually to some formal training in geographic information systems, or computers more generally. I have a bachelors of arts degree in Political Science, and what I view to be a pretty good liberal arts education. I read a lot, and are always looking for new information and facts.

But what I lack is any kind of technical training or knowledge. I am a generalist at everything I do. I understand big picture things, and have a vast knowledge of how political systems work, but no specific technical knowledge. I would like to be an expert as something fo ronce, have soe real skills, and not just be a generalist at everything I do.

I like my job and it pays really quite well. I like having the money and a very nice truck for getitng out of town on the weekends. I like having the ability to travel and experience things. It sure is nice to able to catch the bus in on snow and icy and days, and keep my truck nice. And hell, I like my run down apartment.W In many ways I sould be happy about things.

But I really aren’t that happy. I don’t really like living that much in the city, not having much place of my own. I may live on te outskirts of urbanized area in Delmar, but it’s nothing like a rural community. Albany is nothing like a small city, it’s problems seem greater and impossibly difficult to address. Politics and policy are so much more complex in the big city…

I really want to escape the city, move out to rural hinderlands, in a state with a lot more freedom then NY State. I don’t want to work my whole life to pay taxes, and have restrictions on everything I do. I want to be able to shoot guns off my porch, burn stuff in my backyard. I want land, I also want to be able to get to similiarly great public lands to hunt, fish, and camp.

Albany is fine for now. I need to save a lot more money up for college. I probably can’t seriously think about going back to school, and moving to a more rural community until I have $20,000 or $30,000 in the bank. But then I want to have the freedom to disassociate myself from the big city, live out in the country, and live only in the sphere of a small city where people are far more connected to the land, and not dominated by clueless urban folks.