My father gets cold before I do and I get hot before he does but we can't talk specifically about "comfortable" without reference to the height of a little bit of liquid in a graduated tube. Our different perspectives on the intangible concept of "comfortable" can then be discussed from a common vantage point -a standard measure or reference to the common ground between our viewpoints. Some kind of standard measure like the thermometer is also necessary to better appreciate a common perspective in achieving what we mean by sustainable development.
Properly managing the Adirondack Park to achieve sustainable development is difficult partly because there is no agreed upon goal or standard by which to measure proper management and success. The July 15, 1995 blowdown that seriously affected over 120,000 acres in the Cranberry Lake - Five Ponds Wilderness Area offers one dramatic and controversial example this year. Other storms of controversy are blowing through the Adirondacks as the Department of Environmental Conservation seeks to complete a long awaited High Peaks Unit Management Plan and Wal-Mart seeks to establish a beachhead within the Park. There is no question that all the various perspectives have their valid viewpoints yet balancing the competing interests and concerns is nearly an impossible act because there is no way, at present, to determine the overlapping vantage point of common ground. Sustainable development, like temperature, needs a standard indicator to measure a variant of Gifford Pinchot's "greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time," generation after generation to come.
There is progress toward establishing a measure to use as a common yardstick. Serious efforts to quantify the concept of sustainable development are on-going, particularly in the physical and biological sciences, and generally accepted biogeophysical indicators of sustainability are expected reasonably soon. One of the proposed indicators of sustainability measures an ecosystem's productivity; its ability to capture solar energy and convert it into living tissue. Despite significant progress in this area, coupling biogeophysical indicators of the life support system's sustainability to the much less tangible social, economic, and political aspects of "development" has yet to be successfully accomplished. The social sciences are struggling with the meaning of "development" and subjective quality of life factors are proving to be far less amenable to a set of generally accepted objective measures. Even the widely known and respected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) economic indicator is terribly flawed and deceiving, leading many to challenge the entire concept of coupling economic growth with progress (see, for example, "If GDP is up, why is America down?" in the October, 1995 issue of The Atlantic Monthly).
Obviously, considerably more transdisciplinary research is required to understand how natural and social systems interact in order to establish a standard of sustainable development. Yet there are very few areas left where the planet's natural systems are sufficiently intact to warrant close study as it interacts with one of our many diverse socio-political systems. Most of those few remaining natural areas are located in politically and economically unstable cultures making them inappropriate or even too dangerous at this time for intensive study. In sharp contrast, the Adirondacks are ideal for the study of the natural-social system relationship. Not only does the Adirondacks have an largely intact and protected ecosystem, it is located in a stable and information-rich social system ideally suited for social science research. It is here that a transdisciplinary research effort could, most productively, lead us to a generally accepted indicator of sustainable development. Eventually, it is hoped, the measure of sustainable development will be as meaningful to everyone as the amount a colored liquid expands or contracts in a graduated tube. It would provide a standard by which to measure our decisions and to speak specifically about our different perspectives from a common vantage point.
AJES is dedicated to promoting sustainable development within the region and serves as the platform for a forum of ideas and perspectives. We have seen in these pages articles from environmental and property rights advocates, religious leaders, wildlife managers, government officials, academics and private consultants. In this issue we continue the tradition with Edward Comstock Jr. reminding us of the significant contribution private preserves have made to the Adirondacks' history of stewardship. Michael Wilson expands on the idea of the Adirondacks as a cultural landscape by exploring the recovering wilderness of the Bog River. Richard Sage Jr. tells of a major change in the Adirondacks' biological community that has occurred almost unnoticed by the general public. Dean Lefebvre returns in this issue with his perspective on the important role of local governments in the Park. Howard Aubin responds to several articles published in the Spring issue (AJES v2n1). William Burch shares his perspective on the "curiously courageous Adirondack Research Consortium that boldly plans to go where few academics have gone before." And Phil Terrie reminds us that the contests about the Adirondacks derive from how different groups, with varying resources and power, express their understandings of and hopes for what the Adirondacks as a region is, what it has been, and what it is good for.
Gary Chilson
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
President, Adirondack Research Consortium
Editor, Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies
Paul Smith's College
Paul Smiths, NY 12970
ph: (518) 327-6377 or email:chilsog@paulsmiths.edu