Logging In The Adirondacks

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During the years after the Civil War, the state's business community began to fear that unchecked logging in the Adirondacks could, through erosion, silt up the Erie Canal and eliminate the state's major economic advantage. They were informed by George Perkins Marsh's seminal 1865 book, Man and Nature, which made the connection between deforestation and desertification. The Adirondack (top) and Catskill parks within New York. Five years afterward, surveyor Verplanck Colvin beheld the Adirondacks from the summit of Seward Mountain during his mission to map the region. The idea of preserving the lands in some sort of park occurred to him then and there, and after he returned he wrote to his superiors in Albany that action needed to be taken…show more content…
But the following year New York held a constitutional convention, and the language of the law was written into the new state constitution with added words to close every loophole the Forest Commission had found. This section, Article 14 of the 1894 constitution and every one since, is often referred to as the "forever wild" section even though those two words do not appear next to each other in the text. “ The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed. ” Since amending New York's constitution is a deliberately cumbersome process that requires the approval of both Assembly and Senate in successive sessions of the legislature, followed by public approval at the next general election, this put a severe damper on any efforts by the Forest Commission to placate the loggers while still claiming to be honoring the…show more content…
[edit] Administrative Use This classification applies to a limited number of DEC-owned lands that are managed for other than Forest Preserve purposes. It covers a number of facilities devoted to research, some prisons, and state fish hatcheries in both parks. Most Administrative Use areas are located close to public roads and are generally in fairly developed areas of their respective parks. [edit] Land classifications specific to Adirondack Forest Preserve lands The categories below are currently not used in the Catskills. [edit] Primitive Area A Primitive Area is one that has much the same characteristics as wilderness area, but has some significant obstacles to receiving that status. It may have structures that cannot easily be removed within a given timeframe, or some other existing use that would complicate a wilderness designation. The designation is also applied to areas of less than the minimum area that have environments sensitive enough to require wilderness-level protection. For most practical purposes, then, there is no difference between a primitive area and a wilderness area. [edit] Canoe
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