“Wow, we CAN make a change and help the animals!” – I still vividly remember my first reaction to watching a TV documentary on rehabilitating the Amur (Siberian) tiger population by capturing them and encouraging the mating of the remaining tigers in the area. I was fascinated, and so the wildlife rehabilitation/ refuge projects are what drew my attention to the “conservation” and essentially brought me to choose this FYS. I was excited to find out that the Adirondacks also had its own wildlife refuge, but also shocked to find out it has been temporarily closed.

The Adirondack Wildlife Refuge, run by Steve and Wendy Hall, plays a crucial role and contributes to the conservation of the Adirondack’s “wilderness” as a whole. Although it recently has been forced to close due to several violations of the laws and regulations, the Department of Environmental Conservation should recognise the necessity of having wildlife refuge such as AWR to maintain the healthy Adirondack’s ecosystem in the long-term.

The rehabilitation centers/ refuges of wildlife are critical to the conservation of the entire ecosystem because they help protect its biodiversity. Ecosystems with high biodiversity are generally more stable and healthier, meaning that they are more resilient after the disturbances. Moreover, as listed as one of the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge’s goal, “Wildlife Rescue, Rehab and Release, as well as Public Education,” refuges often function as an education opportunity.

Therefore, facilities like AWR is so important to the area that both values and depends on wilderness like the Adirondacks. However, the refuge came to a close due to the issues such as the inappropriate and insufficient management of the animals, repeated violations of state and federal laws, regulations and licence conditions (Gwendolyn, 2021). These violations have been confirmed for several years, including the time when the two bears have escaped in 2019 and 2021, which shows their lack of intentions to improve and follow the regulations.

In response to the consequence that DEC has finally brought earlier this month, Steve wrote “The DEC always claims that they are protecting the public and the animals, but the real result of forcing us to rehome the wolves, bears, etc. has been the loss of a key educational center for students, as well as an economic benefit to High Peaks hotels, restaurants and other merchants” (Gwendolyn, 2021).

Overall, I think the violations of the Halls must be fairly penalised and they must acknowledge the damage they have done to both the community around and the animals in the refuge. However, I also believe that the DEC must give much more careful consideration. For example, Ahote, a black bear the Halls raised since she was a cub, died after arriving at Maine Wildlife Park, following the closing of the refuge, due to “capture myopathy.” Such non-infectious disease is caused by stress, often seen in relocated/captured animals. Many more deaths across different species after relocation from their “home” in the Adirondacks were confirmed – the harm it does to the animals is evident.

From the case of the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge, we can learn the immense importance of co-operation between non-governmental and governmental organisations in order to be “successful” in conservation. Furthermore, it also highlights the room for improvements for the DEC to take a more considerate action, for example, and the significance of the constant reminder of who/ what we are doing these conservation efforts for.

I mean, what’s the whole point of all this “conservation” thing, if we are killing the animals we are supposed to protect for human’s convenience – right?

Citations:

Gwendolyn, Craig. “Embattled Adirondack Wildlife Refuge Relocates Its Animals.” Adirondack Explorer, 6 Nov. 2021, https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/stories/refuge-animals.

Hall, Steve, and Wendy Hall. “Adirondack Wildlife Refuge.” Index, http://adirondackwildlife.org/.

Out of all New Yorkers and out-of-state visitors, 72% visit the park to enjoy the outdoor activities and 85% of those come for hiking, according to a regional tourism survey. The surge of hikers are raising some concerning issues in the Adirondacks, in which the trails in populated areas are being overused, resulting in erosion, damage on vegetation, and negative impact on wildlife.

However, unfortunately, this is not necessarily good news for the “wilderness”, which the park is supposed to be conserving primarily. According to High Peak Wilderness’ research, visitor number have recently surged to 250% beyond capacity. Crowding leads to increase in demand, and the overuse in certain locations is putting pressure on the park and its natural resources.

Out of all New Yorkers and out-of-state visitors, 72% visit the park to enjoy the outdoor activities and 85% of those come for hiking, according to a regional tourism survey. The surge of hikers are raising some concerning issues in the Adirondacks, in which the trails in populated areas are being overused, resulting in erosion, damage on vegetation, and negative impact on wildlife.

To meet the increased demand in use, a new, sustainably designed trail is being built. However, implementing a new trail, and dealing with overcrowding in general, requires more resources, which is limited in nature. In addition, any newly made trail will degrade overtime, especially with current lack of staffing and maintenance level, leading to a damage on the entire ecosystem built around it.

Taking erosion as an example, it happens when the trail use becomes excessive, soil eventually gets damaged and degrades. Eroding soil can then degrade the nearby waters’ quality and consequently harm the wildlife, plant life and the structure of waterbody.

Furthermore, to satisfy the increased hikers but maintain the feeling of solitude in the great wilderness, the trails have been rebuilt wider and wider and the long lines of cars overflowing from parking lots near trails are further disturbing the resources and wildlife, and hence, the beautiful “wilderness” of the Adirondacks.

The report released by the Leave No Trace Center recommends a better education for “leave no trace” policy and limiting crowd sizes in wilderness areas to combat the growing concerns. Some of the recommendations, such as placing capacity limits, reservations and user fees are already in place for campgrounds and areas used for the day, but interestingly, not in the protected wilderness areas.

Additionally, Adirondack High Peaks Strategic Advisory Group, consisting of 22 members (January 2020), was newly formed by the state to find solutions to overuse and overcrowding issues in the park. “Managed right, this park could welcome many more visitors than the 12.4 million who came in 2018,” said Adirondack Council Executive Director William C. Janeway.

Hopefully, the Adirondacks will find a way out of these rising issues by collaborating with the advisory group and the new policy to maintain the balance of conserving its beautiful wilderness and high quality of life for its residents.

Works Cited

Adirondack Council, n.d. Overuse in the Adirondack Park.
Available at: https://www.adirondackcouncil.org/page/overuse-in-the-adirondack-park-298.htmlA

New York League of Conservation Voters, 2020. Combating Adirondack Park Overuse.
Available at: https://nylcv.org/news/combating-adirondack-park-overuse/

Reisman, N., 2020. Adirondacks Face Crowding and Overuse Issues, Report Finds.
Available at: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2020/08/25/adirondacks-face-crowding–overuse-issues

Sheehan, J. & Council, A., 2020. Leave No Trace Center Recommends 52 Actions to Curb Impact of Crowds on Popular Adirondack Wilderness Trails.
Available at: https://www.adirondackcouncil.org/page/press-releases-16/news/leave-no-trace-center-recommends-52-actions-to-curb-impact-of-crowds-on-popular-adirondack-wilderness-trails-1282.html

Do you think hunting can be “justified” as an act of conservation? – Alex Smith’s words of “hunting to feel connected to nature,” got me questioning, “what is the role of hunting in the ecosystem?” Some say hunting is a critical wildlife management tool, some argue it is just a euphemism for killing for fun.

Regardless of its righteousness, it is shown in many cases that hunting does help manage the wildlife population and the balance of species in the ecosystem. However, it is also shown that it contributes to artificial manipulation of wildlife population, which disturbs the natural system, and such disturbances by hunting are encouraged by hunting-tied wildlife protection agencies. In order to retain hunting as a “rightful way of conservation”, finding a non-hunting-tied funding source for wildlife protection agencies is the key in determining the role of hunting in the conservation effort in near future.

So can hunting be as an act of conservation? First of all, conservation is defined as the act of preserving, guarding, and protecting biodiversity, the environment, and natural resources. According to (Nelson, 2021), hunting doesn’t fit the definition when only talking about a single animal, but it gets important in a broader sense of hunting particular species or protecting the vast diversity of organisms in the area. It acts as a funding resource for state wildlife agencies’ conservation funds. For instance, about 59% of funding, $3.3 billion, came from hunting and fishing-related activities (Rott, 2018).

Furthermore, hunting is successful in controlling prey species, preventing population explosions because of reduced predators. This allows to balance the populations across the ecosystem and impede over-grazing, for example. In fact, the Nature Conservancy considers the overabundance of deer in the eastern US to be the greatest threat to the forests – even more than climate change (Nelson, 2021)!

However, interestingly, or rather ironically, the major reason why the predator populations have been declining (that leads to an increase in herbivore populations) is again, because of hunting. Moreover, (In Defence of Animals, n.d.) argues that because state wildlife agencies are funded by hunters, their programs are in place to manipulate habitats and artificially bolster “game” species while ignoring “non-game” species. This then leads to unbalanced ecosystems by favoring some species for “conservation,” and ecological disruption as well as skewed population dynamics.

We should all carefully note how the conservation efforts are facing the dilemma today, of having to encourage hunting for sake of keeping the agencies funded. And how, to combat such a situation, another funding system that is not hunting-dependent needs be installed so that we can practice “real conservation” by support from people beyond hunters. Furthermore, we should have a system to support hunting to play its part – to control the population healthily, and not hunting down the favourable species, by liberating them from economic restrains. It is also important to learn about where and how the meat reaches our tables to rethink our relationship with wildlife and nature.

If anyone’s interested, I found a video on YouTube that contains scenes of
hunting down and dissecting a deer (see below) – although it’s in Japanese! But
the video will give you some hints and make you think about what hunting is.

Works Cited

“In Defence of Animals.” Hunting – the murderous business. n.d. https://www.idausa.org/campaign/wild-animals-and-habitats/hunting/

Nelson, Rob. “Untamed Science.” 15 August 2021. https://untamedscience.com/blog/hunting-and-conservation/

Rott, Nathan. “National Public Radio.” 20 March 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/593001800/decline-in-hunters-threatens-how-u-s-pays-for-conservation

Wagner, Greg. “Nebraskaland.” 30 August 2021. http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2021/08/why-hunting-is-so-important/

Alex Smith’s words of “hunting to feel connected to the nature,” got me thinking for a while: What is the role of hunting in the ecosystem? What kinds of impact can it have on animal populations? – Can hunting be “justified” as conservation? Some say hunting is a critical wildlife management tool, some argue it is just a euphemism for killing for fun.

Regardless of its righteousness, I believe that the subject of hunting is important because exploring what “hunting” is, allows us an important opportunity to think about what we are living upon every day.

When I asked myself “can hunting be a conservation?” I was not sure. First of all, conservation is defined as the act of preserving, guarding, and protecting biodiversity, the environment, and natural resources. According to (Nelson, 2021), hunting does not fit the definition when only talking about a single animal, but it gets important in a broader sense of hunting particular species or protecting the vast diversity of organisms in the area. As we have read in one of the articles on hunting, it acts as a funding resource for state wildlife agencies’ conservation funds. For instance, about 59% of funding, $3.3 billion, came from hunting and fishing-related activities (Rott, 2018). Furthermore, hunting does a great job in controlling prey species such as deer and elk, preventing them from having population explosions due to reduced predators. This allows to balance the populations across the ecosystem and impede over-grazing, for example. In fact, the Nature Conservancy considers the overabundance of deer in the eastern US to be the greatest threat to the forests – even more than climate change (Nelson, 2021)!

However, what’s interesting is that the major reason why the predator populations have been declining (that leads to an increase in herbivore populations) is again, because of hunting – quite contradictory. Moreover, (In Defence of Animals, n.d.) argues that because state wildlife agencies are funded by hunters, their programs are in place to manipulate habitats and artificially bolster “game” populations while ignoring “non-game” species. This will then lead to unbalanced ecosystems by favoring some species for “conservation,” and ecological disruption as well as skewed population dynamics.

Although it may not always be the case, we should still note that the conservation efforts are currently facing the dilemma of having to encourage hunting for sake of keeping the agencies funded. And to combat such a situation, another funding system that is not too hunting-dependent should be installed so that we can practice “real conservation” by a support from people beyond hunters. Furthermore, I think that, as conservation enthusiasts, it is very crucial to learn about hunting in thinking about the future of conservation and coexisting of humans and wildlife. It is also important to learn about where and how the meat reaches our tables to rethink our relationship with wildlife and nature.

If anyone’s interested, I have found a video on YouTube that contains scenes of hunting down and dissecting a deer (see below) – although it’s in Japanese! But the video will certainly make you think about what hunting is, and what we are living upon today.

Works Cited

“In Defence of Animals.” Hunting – the murderous business. n.d. https://www.idausa.org/campaign/wild-animals-and-habitats/hunting/

Nelson, Rob. “Untamed Science.” 15 August 2021. https://untamedscience.com/blog/hunting-and-conservation/

Rott, Nathan. “National Public Radio.” 20 March 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/593001800/decline-in-hunters-threatens-how-u-s-pays-for-conservation

Wagner, Greg. “Nebraskaland.” 30 August 2021. http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2021/08/why-hunting-is-so-important/

Global food waste has been a growing issue today, especially from environmental perspectives such as the emission of greenhouse gases.

To combat, AdkAction has announced the “Adirondack Compost for Good” project, which will promote food waste composting in the Adirondacks as New York heads toward the placement of the NYS Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling law from January 1, 2022. This law requires businesses and institutions that generate an annual average of two tons of wasted food per week or more must:

1. donate excess edible food; and
2. recycle all remaining food scraps if they are within 25 miles of an organics recycler (composting facility, anaerobic digester, etc.).

(New York State, n.d.)

The Adirondack Compost for Good project was founded by a team of four Adirondackers that are passionate about composting and its goal is to help Adirondack communities turn food and other organic “wastes” into high-quality compost. This process keeps nutrients in the community, which builds local resilience, heals soils, and helps reduce global greenhouse gas emissions (Adirondack Compost for Good, n.d.).

The composting process is done by the composter drum, built by one of the founding members, John Culpepper. One composter can process about 35,000 pounds of unsorted food waste (e.g., meat and dairy) and carbon bulking material (e.g. wood chips and sawdust) per year, completing the composting process in just a few weeks.

The appealing feature of this project is its contribution to the sustainability of the Adirondacks, the relatively fast paced food waste composting, and the inexpensiveness since the composers were designed to be simple. The free design guide and operating manual are available too for anyone that wants to try composting. In addition, there is also a 6-minute-long quick instruction video on “building a three bin compost system in your backyard” on their website (Adirondack Compost for Good, n.d.), which allows people to experience the composting and sustainable cycle of food very casually.

Furthermore, the project has been expanding into an interesting research on composting human urine. The members tried to create a finished compost by only involving urine and a carbon source compost just like commercial compost used by farmers, to test the significance of human urine on fertilization of the soil.

To meet the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for Class A biosolids compost, they ensured that it reaches over 130℉ for more than 3 consecutive days during the compost to avoid potential pathogens. They have demonstrated that by using a simple recipe of humane urine + water + sawdust (in the form of compressed wood pallets), and the result from the Penn state compost lab confirmed that the finished compost from the Compost for Good is just as good as many commercial composts.

According to the Adirondack Compost for Good project’s website, it has helped to compost 261, 377 pounds of food waste and other organics, prevented 35,025 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions until today (Adirondack Compost for Good, n.d.). The idea of urine composting has been appreciated and has currently been awarded funding to stimulate organics recycling business development, which would hopefully encourage further advancement in their research and applications in the world.

John says that on a large-scale, upcycling human urine through the composting process could benefit food waste composting, sustainable agriculture, and sustainable forestry. Moreover, composting urine would reduce the load on existing wastewater treatment plans and could reduce negative environmental impacts (Adirondack Compost for Good, n.d.).

Works Cited

Adirondack Compost for Good. (n.d.). Adk Action. Retrieved from Adirondack Compost for Good: https://www.adkaction.org/project/compost-for-good/

New York State. (n.d.). Department of Environmental Conservation. Retrieved from Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law: https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/114499.html

Can natural selection and succession bring the lost “wilderness” back to the Adirondacks?

Although relying on nature to fix itself takes centuries, I believe bringing back “what it used to be,” is possible.

Discussing the lost forests of the Adirondacks due to wildfires and loggings in last week’s class evoked my recent experience in the woods: I joined a summer school to immerse ourselves in nature. During my time there, we visited Tadami forest, currently registered as “Tadami Biosphere Reserve” by UNESCO (UNESCO, 2020), to witness the forest that is apparently closest to “real nature” in Japan.

I think it’s no exaggeration to say that it was one of the most beautiful forests I’ve ever seen (figure 1); the trees were thriving – they looked genuinely happy being there!

However, such breathtaking woods of Tadami have their history too.Today, Tadami Town is 94% dominated by forest and mountains, and its forest is roughly divided into three types of woods: the primary forest of beech, the secondary forest of Japanese oak and the man-made forest of Japanese cedar.

As soon as we started climbing the mountain, it was very fascinating to see this complete division of the oak on the left and cedar on the right across the small trail we followed. According to the guide, the reason why the forest is divided is that Tadami Town’s primary industries were (and in fact, they are still) agriculture and forestry. Since Tadami was so rich in trees, logging for firewood prospered until the late 1940s (UNESCO, 2020). Initially, this deforestation began as the town was so remote and it was one of the very few jobs and resources available for the people of Tadami.

However, as the demand for lumber rapidly grew due to postwar reconstruction and economic growth, large-scale logging was initiated by the forestry office (THE FUKUSHIMA MINYU SHIMBUN, 2008). More than 40ha of woods were clear-cut every year. Consequently, Tadami Town suffered heavy flood damage caused by torrential rain, worsened by excessive logging. After this disaster, the people strongly protested logging and the forest is preserved today as a result of their persisting effort.

Now, I think you are starting to see some similarities with Adirondack’s history.

But the difference is that due to the increase in demand for trees in postwar times, while logging by forestry office was going on, the coniferous trees such as cedar were actively planted too, replacing the original dominant species of beech, for more intense harvesting since cedar was much more economically beneficial. Beech suffered a steep decline in its population until 2002 when a petition of over 26,000 people saved and protected them just before going into extinction (Tadami Biosphere Reserve, n.d.).

When I visited the Tadami forest, I noticed and was told that due to successful beech preservation policies, a gradual succession has been taking place: protected beech trees, which originally have higher shade tolerance, were becoming predominant in the forest and outcompeting oak that prefers brighter environment.

The forest was changing, and it was hope that we saw.

What’s more interesting is the mechanism of gap dynamics – a pattern of plant growth that occurs following the creation of a forest gap, a natural disturbance that results in an opening in the canopy (Wikipedia, 2021) (figure 2).

The gap created by a big fallen tree can promote germination of the soil seed bank (often dormant seeds that are naturally stored within the soil) by letting sunlight reach the ground, and thus, further process of succession (figure 3).

This also indicates that we can even take advantage of the consequence of excessive logging has brought to the forest to encourage succession, and help it thrive again by strengthening the preservation policies and making sure nature is left free to do whatever it’s got to do out of human’s hands.

Citation

Tadami Biosphere Reserve, n.d. 企画展 守りたい！ 只見の野生動植物. [Online]
Available at: http://www.tadami-buna.jp/panel-kasidasi/29-2_mamoritai_tadaminoyaseidoubutsu(p1-5).pdf

THE FUKUSHIMA MINYU SHIMBUN, 2008. 身近な森守る機運高く. [Online]
Available at: https://www.minyu-net.com/serial/kankyo08/kankyo4-1.html

UNESCO, 2020. Tadami Biosphere Reserve, Japan. [Online]
Available at: https://en.unesco.org/biosphere/aspac/tadami

Wikipedia, 2021. Gap dynamics. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_dynamics

Eastern cougar, also known as mountain lion, puma, or catamount, is the big cats that were once common in the Adirondacks. In fact, there are places called Panther Mountain, which overlooks Panther Pond and Panther Marsh, which is a sign that there probably used to be panthers in its mountains. Before the 19th century, the cougar was abundant across America and was the most widely distributed land mammal in the Western Hemisphere.

However, eventually, it was listed as an endangered species under NYS’ Endangered Species Law in 1973 – what was going on then? 

During the 1500s, European settlers were first unaware of the cougars in Eastern North America until they saw the cats as a threat to both themselves and their livestock after acknowledging their size and predatory habits. Those settlers soon started to eliminate them with a combination of mass cougar hunting, market deer hunting and deforestation, which had “successfully” led the cougar population to near extinction by 1900.

Fortunately, the cougars did not go extinct, but the number is still critically low today. The Adirondacks haven’t been able to confirm any or any sustainable breeding population after decades since its placement in Endangered Species Act.

To promote the recovery of the cougar population, a project called Cougar Watch has been active to record public sightings of cougars in and around the Adirondack Park. In fact, there have been some regular reports of cougar sightings, however, many federal and state wildlife officials believe those spotted mountain lions are not native in the area – either ones that escaped or released, or perhaps migrated from west to east. Hence, there are more to be done and is a long way to go.

Even though currently, there are no active plans in action to restore the cougars to the Adirondacks, a result from a study, “Predicting support for re-colonization of mountain lions (Puma concolor) in the Adirondack Park” showed that many more than expected Adirondack respondents were supportive of recolonization of mountain lions. It is also interesting how 69.8% of residents supported the hypothetical idea of mountain lions naturally returning to the Park and only 35.7% supported the return but releasing them intentionally. Of course, 41.3% of the residents indicated concerns of lions being back around. This is an inevitable issue regarding the co-existence of wildlife and humans that the park has to combat.

One of the motivations behind their return is an ecological reason, which is to control the white-tailed deer population that has rapidly increased under new regulations and conservation programs after being almost extinct at the beginning of the 20th century. Michaels Robinson, a scientist of the Center for Biological Diversity in Washington, DC, quoted in an article for National Geographic that “it should be a clarion call to recover pumas and all our apex predators to sustainable levels to help rebalance a world that is out-of-killer.”

Another motivation comes from the name “cougar”, which comes from the Amazonian Tupi, meaning “false deer”. It suggests how the lives of predators and their prey depend on each other in the ecosystem and also how this delicate balance of nature has been disturbed by humans (or settlers). 

The last motivation could be that the big cats were believed to be noble and powerful among the Native Americans. Many tribes had Panther as a major clan animal and incorporated them into legendary tales, which indicates the importance of the big cats in their cultures and lives. It is also interesting since this might have led to another conflict between the settlers and the indigenous people back then.

The expectation and hope for wildlife managers to seriously consider communications and public outreach strategy about cougars are high and big, but until then, we should keep our eyes wide open for any signs of a cougar when walking in the Adirondacks.

Citations:

1. 1. https://www.saranaclake.com/story/2016/10/adirondack-panthers-then-and-now
2. 2. https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2019/06/no-evidence-of-native-cougars-in-the-adirondacks.html#comments
3. 3. https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2019/10/nys-endangered-list-changes-would-remove-cougars-wolves-more.html#comments
4. 4. https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2015/08/study-adirondackers-support-return-of-cougars.html
5. 5. https://www.protectadks.org/programs/cougar-watch/
6. 6. https://medium.com/@roccomarinelli/cougars-in-the-adirondacks-of-new-york-83f7fa52ebf

The Adirondack Park is well-known for its vast wilderness, breath-taking mountains and forests, lakes and rivers, and wildlife to explore. Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, the numbers of visitors to the park have been increasing in the search of nature and outdoor experiences they can enjoy. Of course, the increase in tourism plays a positive effect on the park’s economy and hence, sustaining its “wilderness”. For instance, in 2018, the park had about 12.4 million annual visitors generating about one billion dollars a year, which is an evident economical profit.

However, unfortunately, this is not necessarily good news for the “wilderness”, which the park is supposed to be conserving primarily. According to High Peak Wilderness’ research, visitor number have recently surged to 250% beyond capacity. Crowding leads to increase in demand, and the overuse in certain locations is putting pressure on the park and its natural resources.

Out of all New Yorkers and out-of-state visitors, 72% visit the park to enjoy the outdoor activities and 85% of those come for hiking, according to a regional tourism survey. The surge of hikers are raising some concerning issues in the Adirondacks, in which the trails in populated areas are being overused, resulting in erosion, damage on vegetation, and negative impact on wildlife.

To meet the increased demand in use, a new, sustainably designed trail is being built. However, implementing a new trail, and dealing with overcrowding in general, requires more resources, which is limited in nature. In addition, any newly made trail will degrade overtime, especially with current lack of staffing and maintenance level, leading to a damage on the entire ecosystem built around it.

Taking erosion as an example, it happens when the trail use becomes excessive, soileventually gets damaged and degrades. Eroding soil can then degrade the nearby waters’ quality and consequently harm the wildlife, plant life and the structure of waterbody.

Furthermore, to satisfy the increased hikers but maintain the feeling of solitude in the great wilderness, the trails have been rebuilt wider and wider and the long lines of cars overflowing from parking lots near trails are further disturbing the resources and wildlife, and hence, the beautiful “wilderness” of the Adirondacks.

The report released by the Leave No Trace Center recommends a better education for “leave no trace” policy and limiting crowd sizes in wilderness areas to combat the growing concerns. Some of the recommendations, such as placing capacity limits, reservations and user fees are already in place for campgrounds and areas used for the day, but interestingly, not in the protected wilderness areas.

Additionally, Adirondack High Peaks Strategic Advisory Group, consisting of 22 members (January 2020), was newly formed by the state to find solutions to overuse and overcrowding issues in the park. “Managed right, this park could welcome many more visitors than the 12.4 million who came in 2018,” said Adirondack Council Executive Director William C. Janeway.

Hopefully, the Adirondacks will find a way out of these rising issues by collaborating with the advisory group and the new policy to maintain the balance of conserving its beautiful wilderness and high quality of life for its residents.

Works Cited

Adirondack Council, n.d. Overuse in the Adirondack Park.
Available at: https://www.adirondackcouncil.org/page/overuse-in-the-adirondack-park-298.htmlA

New York League of Conservation Voters, 2020. Combating Adirondack Park Overuse.
Available at: https://nylcv.org/news/combating-adirondack-park-overuse/

Reisman, N., 2020. Adirondacks Face Crowding and Overuse Issues, Report Finds.
Available at: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2020/08/25/adirondacks-face-crowding–overuse-issues

Sheehan, J. & Council, A., 2020. Leave No Trace Center Recommends 52 Actions to Curb Impact of Crowds on Popular Adirondack Wilderness Trails.
Available at: https://www.adirondackcouncil.org/page/press-releases-16/news/leave-no-trace-center-recommends-52-actions-to-curb-impact-of-crowds-on-popular-adirondack-wilderness-trails-1282.html