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The Adirondacks: Experiment in Conservation SUNY ESF – EFB 797 (1 credit) UVM – NR 385 (1 credit) Adirondack Ecological Center State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry Huntington Forest, Newcomb, NY Feb. 20-22, Apr. 2-4, 2004 |
The Adirondack Park affords an opportunity to study the co-evolution of natural and human-made landscapes, the unique flora and fauna of a United Nations defined bioregion, and a case for sustainable development of national and international significance. This graduate course will immerse a small group of students in a place-based study of Adirondack ecology, economy, and integrated management. Students will explore the (1) physical and ecological landscape of the Adirondacks as a basis for understanding how humans have been influenced by and have affected this ecosystem, (2) efforts to regulate human impacts on the natural system through the formation of Adirondack Park and the Land Use Plan, and (3) lessons gained from the implementation of the Park regulations over the past 30 years to current national and international discussions of sustainability. The course will include presentations by speakers from agencies and organizations in the Adirondacks, as well as student presentations, individually and in groups.
Coordinated by:
Bill Porter, Professor of Wildlife Ecology
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Jon Erickson, Associate Professor of Ecological Economics
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont
The seminar is organized into four sections, following the means to ends spectrum illustrated below. Our approach will be to enlist students and experts to prepare overviews addressing questions in each of four areas. A series of 30-minute presentations will be made on Friday evening and Saturday, with an intent to evoke discussion. We will then collectively summarize our thinking in written form on Sunday morning before departure for home. Groups of 2 or 3 students will take a series of questions, do the library research and prepare PowerPoint presentations.
First, we want to explore the biophysical bounds of the system, the features of the physical and ecological landscape. These define what is possible (the ultimate means), and the region’s carrying capacity and the natural capital that allows human communities to prosper and form ties with the regional, national, and international communities.
Second, we want to explore the duality between nature and humanity. How has the landscape influenced human activity and, in turn, how has human activity influenced natural communities? As the ultimate means are put to human use, they become intermediate means, the goods and services that meet human wants and desires. In the Adirondacks, this is a story of forest products, wildlife management, outdoor recreation, and the homesteads and industry that support the 105 towns and villages of the Park. The intermediate means are also experiential: the arts, crafts, and architecture of the region’s cultural landscape and heritage.
Third, we want to understand the institutional mechanisms for managing the interface between humans and the natural environment. Along the ends to means spectrum, the role of institutions is to connect the human dominated landscape and economies with the intermediate ends of society, including economic vitality, social welfare, and environmental sustainability.
Finally, we want to apply the lessons of the Adirondacks to the current national and international discussion of sustainability. We want to distill the insights they provide about the ultimate ends of the Adirondack experiment, the well-being of its participants.
The Biophysical Context
- What were the (geologic, hydrologic, climatic, plant or animal) conditions that greeted the European colonizers and what were the natural forces that shaped them?
- How have these systems responded to or been influenced by the stress imposed on them over the past 150 years?
- What is their current condition?
- What is the general chronology of the transformation from natural resource to human made good or service?
- In what ways have the permanent and visiting populations of the Park citizenry altered the environment, and in turn how has the environment shaped Adirondack culture, community and sense of place?
- What are the trends, current state and future of the use and activities being discussed in this chapter?
- What are the tensions between the natural environment, its exploitation, and the culture that has evolved around its use?
- How do these tensions help define the institutions and mechanisms needed for their resolution?
- What elements of the political economy evolved to impose control and limits on the system?
- What was the legal hand that was dealt to local residents and government agencies, and how did those in positions of responsibility play that hand?
- What are the conflicting or complementary perceptions of how to balance development and preservation?
- What have been, and are today, the major challenges to Adirondack institutions of regional development and conservation planning?
- What was the perspective on Adirondack Park promoted by the organization that you investigated?
- How effective was that agency or organization in promoting this vision and, at the same time, working with other agencies and organizations to blend differing perspectives into practical policy?
- How did the agency or organization adapt through time?
- In hindsight, what could the agency or organization have been done better?
- What key lessons do these experiences in the Adirondack Park suggest as we look to the future?
- How has science, technology, and management been used to respond to the stresses and changes of the Park?