How can one place on earth be surrounded with so much beauty? The beautiful mountains, freshwater lakes, and large forests call many visitors into the Adirondacks region. The increasing beauty of the Adirondack Park, brings loads of visitors coming to visit this breathtaking destination. Yet, the increase in visitors has some negative effects on the nature within the park. Over the years, it is apparent that the Adirondack Park is being overused. The trail damage, erosion, vegetation damage, and polluted waters are all indicators that the Adirondacks are being overused. Since the Adirondacks is so beautiful, more people come to experience the beauty resulting in overuse of the park.
https://www.adirondackcouncil.org/page/overuse-in-the-adirondack-park-298.html
Over the years, there has been a steady increase in the number of visitors coming to the Adirondacks with an estimate of 12.4 million people visiting in 2017(Adirondack Council). To that note, there was an increase of 500,000 visitors from the previous year in 2016(Adirondack Council). At this rate, there could be a steady increase of visitors within the next 10 years which may cause a whirlwind of issues in the near future. Not only that, roughly 70% of visitors tend to visit the Adirondacks during May-October which causes an excessive amount of people visiting and overusing the park during a short span of time (Adirondack usa). This causes excessive stress and overuse to the nature within the park.
As expected, hiking within the Adirondacks is very popular. Since, there is a large number of people hiking everyday within the park, it results in a great deal of trail damage and erosion. Many of the trails within the park are unable to withstand the constant large amount of foot traffic each day. The Adirondack Council even noted that there are certain areas of the park that have at least 2.5 feet of soil loss because of the increased foot traffic. This causes soil erosion on the trails which results in the soil breaking down, and increasing the turbidity and sediment within nearby water(Adirondack Council). Obviously, this also harms the plants and wildlife within the area. For example, there are many species and vegetation within the Adirondacks that have the potential of becoming extinct due to the destruction of their environment. Additionally, trail widening is also occurring within the Adirondack Park. As more hikers venture off trail for the occasional pee break or lookout, it causes for the vegetation to be destroyed. As more vegetation is harmed, it pushes the trail to widen. For example, some parts of the Adirondacks have trail widening that is so severe that separate trails have emerged. Certain trails within the park have increased by 25 feet over the past 30 years (Adirondack Council). The increase in visitors is significantly harming the nature of the park. It is crucial that these issues are addressed in order to stop the destruction of these beautiful trails.
As we can see, the overuse of the Adirondack Park is a significant issue. However, there is no single solution to fix these issues. There are many restoratives, clean-up crews, and protection measures being put in place to lessen the harm of the visitors. Yet, it is still a hard challenge to balance…is the increase of visitors enjoying the beauty of the park outweigh the destruction of the wildlife? One may scarily wonder how the increase in the overuse of the park will affect the wildlife of the Adirondacks. One can hope that as our world becomes more environmentally conscious visitors will enjoy the beautiful Adirondack Park while also protecting its nature.
Citations:
“Adirondacks Face Crowding and Overuse Issues, Report Finds.” Adirondacks Face Crowding, Overuse Issues, spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2020/08/25/adirondacks-face-crowding–overuse-issues.
“Adirondacks, Usa.” Adirondacksusa.com.
Council, Adirondack. “Overuse in the Adirondack Park.” Adirondack Council, www.adirondackcouncil.org/page/overuse-in-the-adirondack-park-298.html.
says, Boreas, et al. “Problem Solved?” Adirondack Explorer, 7 Jan. 2021, www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/new-threats-bring-call-for-fresh-look-at-adirondack-lakes.
says, Donald G. Sloan, and Donald G. Sloan. “Assessment Finds High Peaks Trails Are in Poor Shape.” Adirondack Explorer, 8 Feb. 2021, www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/high-peaks-trails.
In many of my blog posts I have come across this issue of overuse while researching my topic. It seems that everyone recognizes, but like you say, no one has a solution. I think the biggest piece of the issue is the concentration of visitors in certain areas like the high peaks region and surrounding major lakes/rivers. So one solution I can think of is trying to promote parts of the Adirondacks that see a lot less traffic. The park is so big, so why not spread the visitors out–or at least try to–in order to reduce the concentration.