"Here is the first lesson about the Adirondacks, captured in
Gary Randorf's magnificent photos. It is not only alpine
granite -- in fact, of the park's six million acres, only about
eighty-five, scattered on top of the tallest mountains, are that
gorgeous pseudo-Arctic. Aside from the touristed High Peaks, the
Adirondacks comprise millions upon millions of acres of Low Peaks,
of beavery draws and bearish woods, of hills and hills and hills,
countless drainages and muddy ponds... The second point about the
Adirondacks, a glory carefully revealed in the words and pictures
of this book, is that it represents a second-chance wilderness and,
as such, a hope that the damage caused by human beings is not
irreversible. It is metaphor as much as place." -- from the
foreword by Bill McKibben In The Adirondacks: Wild Island of Hope,
Gary A. Randorf offers 100 photographs to illustrate this unique,
comprehensive history and natural history of the Adirondack Park,
the first private-public partnership in the United States dedicated
to the protection of a wilderness area. Situated in northeast New
York, this regional park of six million acres represents a unique
blend of public wildlands intermixed with commercial forests,
farms, mines, private parks, prisons, scattered homes, dozens of
villages, and a year-round population of 130,000. The ongoing
attempts over the last century to make the Adirondacks a park have
made this region a "striving ground" for living with the
land, rather than outside or above it. Much of the strife is over
finding a right relationship to the land, treating it not as a
commodity to be exploited but as a community to which all living
things belong and upon which alldepend. Today, the Adirondacks
regional park with its six million acres "represents a
second-chance wilderness" -- as Bill McKibben writes in his
foreword to this book. The concerns of this park are the same
concerns that apply to all of America's parks, recreational
areas, and
Gary A. Randorf captures not only the look of the Adirondacks, but also the feel. -- Neal Burdick Explorer Randorf has a great understanding of this special place... Randorf's exceptional photography provides a stunning glimpse at the Adirondack peaks... The reader is then led gently into the notion of retreat and wilderness, and presented with the age-old Adirondack question: Can development and wilderness coexist? -- Mike Brennan New York State Conservationist Beautifully illustrated... this book recounts the history of the Adirondack Park... Serves as a travel guide for those wishing to visit. Northeastern Naturalist 2004
Gary A. Randorf is senior counselor to The Adirondack Council in Elizabethtown, NY, and a free-lance photographer and writer.
Inhaltsangabe
Contents: Foreword by Bill Mckibben Paths in the Forest A Forest Forever A Sense of Place Beside the Stilled Waters Will the Forest be Unbroken? Park Profile
