[HN Gopher] On the Idea of an Adirondack Mountains National Park
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       On the Idea of an Adirondack Mountains National Park
        
       Author : rntn
       Score  : 40 points
       Date   : 2022-04-09 08:08 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.adirondackalmanack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.adirondackalmanack.com)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | Spooky23 wrote:
       | I think New York has done something unique and positive with the
       | Adirondack Park, but I could see how this strategy would make
       | sense in the mid 60s.
       | 
       | At that time, New York was projecting 30-35M residents by 2000.
       | They were planning for industry expansion in big centers like
       | Buffalo, Utica, Syracuse, etc. They didn't see the post-Vietnam
       | nadir and the policy changes driving migration of industry to the
       | South and eventually Mexico and China coming.
       | 
       | Making the Central Adirondacks a Federal problem would ease the
       | ability to keep the timber, paper, iron mining and downstream
       | steel industries vital on the periphery. Those industries were
       | the backbone of the Lake Champlain corridor including canals,
       | railroads, etc. (ie lots of jobs) With the hydroelectric
       | potential of the St Lawrence and easy to exploit hydroelectricity
       | in Quebec, there was a lot of potential for development.
       | 
       | Reality wasn't in alignment with that vision, and ultimately what
       | happened was probably for the better. The Adirondacks are
       | depopulating and becoming a worse place to live, but the natural
       | resources are protected.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
           | Spooky23 wrote:
           | It's hard to build and you're competing with big money
           | people. As population drops, basic infrastructure (stores,
           | schools) start to go away.
        
       | rntn wrote:
       | https://mountainlake.org/a-wild-idea-full-documentary/
        
         | rntn wrote:
         | The video seems to be no longer available online. The
         | discussion about the way the Adirondack park system was created
         | is well worth watching if the above program airs on your local
         | PBS station..
         | 
         | Below is an older 2 hour PBS documentary on the Adirondacks:
         | 
         | https://www.pbs.org/video/wned-tv-documentaries-adirondacks/
        
           | ghaff wrote:
           | Interestingly, a couple of the large state parks in the
           | Northeast (Adirondack and Baxter) have arguably held the line
           | on development more than national parks have in general. Not
           | that there's a lot in the way of national parkland in the
           | Northeast--although efforts are still underway in Maine in
           | addition to the existing Acadia.
        
             | rntn wrote:
             | As someone who spends a lot of time in the mountains of
             | western North Carolina, to the southeast of the Great
             | Smokies National Park, I found this discussion on the
             | possibility of creation of an Adirondack national park here
             | really enlightening.
             | 
             | I am very impressed with the achievements of the Adirondack
             | Park Agency..
             | 
             | In WNC, there are many national forests, which serve a lot
             | of recreational activities, but also other uses :
             | 
             | "National forests, on the other hand, emphasize not only
             | resource preservation, but other kinds of use as well.
             | Under this concept of "multiple use," national forests are
             | managed to provide Americans with a wide variety of
             | services and commodities, including lumber, cattle grazing,
             | mineral products and recreation with and without vehicles.
             | The national forests are managed by forest rangers with the
             | US Forest Service (USFS) under the Department of
             | Agriculture."
             | 
             | https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/np-versus-nf.htm
             | 
             | The land that is truly wilderness, as the Adirondack Park
             | Agency has achieved, even though the pressure of NYC is
             | much more than the pressure of Atlanta, Charlotte,
             | Knoxville, etc, is more than in the Great Smokies National
             | Park.
        
       | lianna-vba wrote:
       | Then vice president Teddy Roosevelt was on a hiking trip in the
       | Adirondacks when he received word that president McKinley had
       | been assassinated. It's crazy how back then the VP could be so
       | hard to track down. In fact, I believe the night FDR passed away
       | VP Truman had ditched his secret service agents to head to the
       | bar.
       | 
       | https://www.adirondack.net/history/midnight-ride/
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | More generally, the idea that people really _should_ be on the
         | communications grid has been normalized in a lot of circles. I
         | see a fair number of people, including here, rather
         | uncomfortable about the fact that someone may not always be
         | able to reach you or that you may not be able to call for help.
         | 
         | (Of course, if you talk about government VIPs, satellite/staff
         | mostly does provide an always on-call ability. And for others,
         | there are increasingly reasonable satellite options available
         | as well.)
        
           | rntn wrote:
           | Even in the eastern US, there are many remote areas where
           | there is no communication coverage except for satellite.
           | 
           | While I think a lot of people should be a lot more
           | comfortable being out of communication range (and proper
           | planning, packing emergency gear, spares, etc can greatly
           | help), in recreational areas that are not so remote, the
           | spread of low band 5G (basically extra 4G+ coverage) really
           | makes the ability to work remotely (even more) valuable..
        
             | ghaff wrote:
             | > the spread of low band 5G
             | 
             | Also StarLink. A couple of years ago I really wouldn't have
             | been able to work from my dad's place in Downeast Maine.
             | Now I could if not always reliably.
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | If I was prez, there'd be a lot more national parks. There'd also
       | be "greenways" connecting them.
       | 
       | I'd also make national parks out of sensitive marine areas, where
       | no fishing or motorized boats would be allowed.
        
         | ironrabbit wrote:
         | Curious, are there benefits of greenway connections compared to
         | allocating the same amount of green space elsewhere?
        
           | rntn wrote:
           | Here is a good summary of the largest efforts to make
           | corridors worldwide :
           | 
           | https://www.planetcustodian.com/important-wildlife-
           | corridors...
           | 
           | Here is a good (but old) recap of the (lack of) research into
           | their efficacy :
           | 
           | https://www.biologydiscussion.com/articles/benefits-of-
           | conse...
        
           | TSiege wrote:
           | Allowing safe, uninterrupted movement of species. All
           | ecosystems would be (almost) entirely connected to their
           | neighbors, human settlement has upset this and its causing
           | fragmented struggling ecosystems
        
         | rntn wrote:
         | There are some grand efforts in this direction..
         | 
         | https://y2y.net/
         | 
         | Personally, I would love to see a corridor like this from the
         | Great Smoky Mountain National Park through the Nantahala
         | National Forest and right down the Savannah River basin with
         | all its dams, to - and including - the Georgia and South
         | Carolina barrier islands, from Charleston to the Florida
         | border..
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-10 23:01 UTC)