Barbara McMartin narrates the history of Adirondack environmental policy in depth, beginning with the 1970 formation of the Adirondack Park Agency, set up to regulate private development and to oversee the planning of public terrain. Although hailed as the most innovative land-use legislation of its time, it ignited a wildfire of controversy, creating a landscape of conflict. Park residents protested. Government stood firm. Over the decades, disparate groups have sought to shape an effective program to protect Adirondack wildland but cannot seem to work together. This is the first comprehensive account of that ongoing drama: a stirring story of the environmental movement, public action, and government failure and success.

In the land-use controversy, some voices have still not been heard. Catherine Henshaw Knott interviewed residents of the Adirondacks on the complex issues of conservation. Knott concludes that the participation of local people in decision making is the only process that can shift an increasingly hostile cycle toward resolution. 19 photos.

Verplanck Colvin worked twenty-eight years as the superintendent of the Topographical Survey of the Adirondack Mountains, one of the last great frontiers of the East. This collection of essays - compiled by preeminent conservationist Paul Schaefer - reveals Colvin's many perspectives on the Adirondacks. His writings reflect on outdoorsman's appreciation of the wilderness, with a poet's unerring sense for its beauty. One of Colvin's best-known contributions involved sharpening surveying techniques, thus making property boundaries cleared and taxes fairer. And as an early advocate for the preservation of the Adirondacks, he became a force behind passage of the Forever Wild statute of 1885 and the the establishment of the Park itself in 1892.

The author does a thorough job in explaining the beginnings of rustic architecture and why it has a permanent place in the culture. The mix of social background and the history of the early Adirondack camps provides a designers guidebook.

Attitudes about land use, Catherine Henshaw Knott suggests, may reflect profound differences in class, religion, and life experience, pitting urban Americans who see nature at risk against rural Americans whose lives are dominated by nature's forces. She documents the thoughts and feelings of people whose lives are intimately connected to the forest, including loggers, trappers, craftspeople, and guides, as well as tree farmers and maple syrup producers. After describing the key players in the conflict and chronicling battles and bridge-building between stake-holders, Knott concludes that the participation of local people in decision making is the only process that can shift an increasingly hostile cycle toward resolution.

This luxurious oversized volume of large-format full-color photographs captures and preserves the beauty of the natural environment in the Adirondacks, the largest wilderness park in the United States. More than 100 color illustrations.