Adirondack Park case study
Adirondack Park case study
The Adirondack Park is located in northern New York, and at six million acres it is larger than Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Parks combined. Geologically, the region is an extension of the Laurentian shield in Canada; the area sits on a high plateau of ancient rock. The region is home to the “46 High Peaks” that are above 4,000 ft, the highest point in New York state (Mt. Marcy), as well as more than 10,000 lakes and ponds and many miles of rivers and streams. The region is comprised of five major watersheds and drains into the Hudson, St. Lawrence, and Mohawk Rivers, as well as Lake Ontario. The region is upstream of millions of people, and concerns about protecting water quality were a critical factor in decisions to protect the area through state statute at the end of the 19 th century.
The Park was created in 1892 by New York State. Its boundary has expanded over the last century, and the amount of land within it owned by the state (the Forest Preserve) has also expanded. But the Park remains a mosaic of public and private land, presenting an interesting model of park management and giving rise to unique issues and challenges in terms of balancing the needs of people and ecological protection.
With about 3 million acres of constitutionally-protected state Forest Preserve land, the Adirondacks has important ecological and recreational resources. The Department of Environmental Conservation's Regions 5 and 6 oversee the management of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Their management of state land is guided by the State Land Master Plan, which the Adirondack Park Agency created and uses in overseeing the protection of state land and the balancing of ecological and recreational values and uses.
The region has a fairly cold, wet climate. Summer average temperatures are between 60 and 70 degrees F, and winter averages are between 10 and 20 degrees. Annual rainfall is around 40 inches. These numbers, however, are simplistic representations of a large area; you can access climate data, more detailed information, and information about climate change in this region through the main CARA website.
Approximately 140,000 people live inside the park boundary year-round, and many more hundreds of thousands live in the area seasonally or visit as tourists. Approximately half of the park is privately-owned land that sees a variety of uses, including residential and commercial development, forestry and logging, mining and industrial uses, and agriculture. Land use on private lands is regulated by the Adirondack Park Agency and is informed largely by the classifciations defined in the Land Use Development Plan.
For more information abotu the cultural and recreational aspects of the area and additional links to sites of local interest, click here.
***Note: Although this page describes the Adirondack Park in particular detail, the Adirondack region encompassess much of northern New York, and many of the climatic and social phenomena considered in the Adirondack case study are relevant to and informed by areas outside the park itself.