rural

The Lights of the City from Wakely Dam

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The other night around quarter to midnight, I walked out across Wakely Dam at the Cedar River Flow in the Moose River Plains of Adirondack Mountains. With a new moon, I expected to see very dark skies with good views of the stars, and little light pollution in the distance.

While the stars were clear compared to any place around Albany, their was in the distance, across the Moose River Plains and mountains of the West Canada Wilderness, a very distinct warm color light, from the street lights along the hamlets that dot the Fulton Chain of Lakes — Old Forge, Eagle Bay, Inlet, etc. All of these hamlets are 30 to 50 miles away, and due to Wilderness and Forest Preserve, it’s unlikely to be from any source nearer.

Moonlight on Cedar River Flow

Most of the light I saw in the sky probably was from street lights, parking lot lights, exterior building lights on lodges and businesses alike along the Fulton Chain of Lakes. It probably would not have been noticable in a more urbanized area, but due to the fact I was in wilderness and almost complete darkness, it shown brightly across the sky.

It’s unfortunate that it disturbs the views of the stars, despite my remoteness. It is much more unfortunate to think of the energy waste it represents. All those lights are supposed to be lighting a section of street, parking lots, deck, or some specific other purpose. They are not intended to be lighting sky or sending light 50 miles away to an observer standing on the Wakely Dam.

Firetower Cabin

That light did not come from some free source. It came from a power plant that fed electricity in our state-wide electrical grid and sent a small fraction all the way up to the hamelts along the Fulton Chain of Lakes.

While some will argue that their is excess electricity in grid at night or that most of the power locally is generated by hydropower, the reality is electricity on the grid is fungible, and one unit of hydropower here could be used elsewheres to offset the use of coal or natural gas. Even in low energy use times, the grid still relies on a lot of dirty and polluting fossil fuels.

So I ask myself, why is a hamlet 50 miles away, sending energy in the form of light into wilderness? A lot has to do with technological inefficency that wastes energy, even more has to do with energy being so cheap, that it’s affordable to light up lands 50 miles away with wasted energy. Yet, it seems like such a waste.

Can You Live Outside Society?

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While I doubt that it is possible to truly live outside of society in America today, I think it is an interesting subject to explore. To explore living outside of society is to gain a greater understanding of the self and to try to see what the rural life must truly be like. I do not think this essay fully answers that question, but I think it is a place to start with some thought. This essay is based in part of my thoughts gained by meeting a small-scale farmer in Schoharie County.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about living outside of society is the neccessity of land and money to purchase that land. To own your own land, would give you a little piece of the world where you can excerise at least some soverignity over. And if it’s rural and large enough, and you cultivate that land the right way you can turn it into a life beyond society. It is possible through family connections or some kind of donation to gain land without money, but for most of us, we must work for land.

Cooking Dinner

That brings up interesting moral questions: how to make that money, before you quit society? Do you go an immoral, but legal route to gaining money quickly or do you give up a high-profit lifestyle for working a less profitable job, but doing the right thing before gaining that farm? I can not claim to answer that question for you, but it would seem if you are trying to escape an intolerable society it would seem that any means possible might be okay. Then again, you are simply making things worst if you take that attitude.

Second, what land do you purchase? Something that’s very far away from a city, or something near enough that even though you live outside society, you can still participate as you want. Do you get land that’s easily farmable, or do you find land that is more affordable or farther away from the evils of civilzation that you are trying to escape? I would think if your trying to an individual who wants to live outside of society, you would need to have good land that you can grow and produce most if not all of what you need, once you finally quit society. Still, so much of modern society is centered around modern technology, that it is nearly impossible to live completely outside of society as we know it today.

There are many conviences that we rely on in modern society. Corporate agriculture produces food for us cheaply and tastefully, our buildings contain many industrial materials like sheetrock and aluminum roofing, our lifestyle is surrounded by automobiles and power equipment. Few who repudiate society and choose a rural life are willing to give up their truck, their tractor, or their chainsaw. Are you willing to give them up to be more free and more outside of society as we know it today? Yet to live with such items means your dependent on outside sources and influences, such as the need to go beyond yourself to purchase fuel and parts for such machinary.

Colors

At one level, things might be changing to make the individual more indepedent of the oil economy, yet be able to participate in it’s benifits. In the far away future, the farm and it’s equipment will be able to be powered by solar and wind energy, burning hydrogen in their engines. Already, you can see farms that use solar powered electric fences, where a solar cell on a fence post collects electricity that is relased from a capicter when an animal touches the fence. Certainly, this technology requires an outside purchase, as you can’t grow silcon nor steel to make this fence, but instead are reliant on it’s existance.

Maybe the future is promising for a free rural life, but not without still many connections to society as we know it. Thoreau never really escaped the society of his era, and it seems even more impossible today. We rely on technology to such a high degree, that we have to accept it in running our household, our homestead, or farm—you actually end up living in society. At best we can choose to live a partially isolated life in rural America, but we are tied to all that makes urban society so evil. People in rural Montana still have to live under government, obey laws, act a certain way. The moral of the story is you live inside society so you have to embrace it in one way or another. Be it living on a farm or in an apartment, your just as much part of a community, though the prior does afford a greater freedom of action.

Rural Means Free

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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.

Looking at the Lake

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

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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.

Across Alder Pond

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.

Route 312

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?

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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.

Forest Road Hardened for Drilling Rigs

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

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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

Distance to State Parks

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.

Craziness at the Early Vote place

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.

Tirnell Mountain

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.