Posted on 09/18/2008 3:21:07 PM PDT by neverdem
A 14,600-acre piece of the Adirondacks long prized by environmentalists for its forests and wetlands, including a pond where Ralph Waldo Emerson led a philosophers camp, was purchased on Thursday by a preservation group for $16 million, the group said.
The property, which had been owned by a Vermont family for 56 years, will not immediately be open to the public because of leases for recreational hunting and fishing that will last several more years. But the group, the Nature Conservancy, said the purchase meant that the land would be protected and ultimately added to the Adirondack Forest Preserve in Adirondack Park.
This is one for the history books, said Michael T. Carr, executive director of the Adirondack chapter of the Nature Conservancy. Were redrawing the conservation map of the Adirondacks.
The property, southwest of Lake Placid and on the boundary of the High Peaks Wilderness Area, was until Thursday among more than 2.6 million acres of unprotected privately owned land in the six-million-acre Adirondack Park.
Roughly the size of Vermont, the park includes 103 towns and villages and has an estimated year-round population of 131,000 residents, said Keith McKeever, a spokesman for the Adirondack Park Agency.
The land bought on Thursday includes Follensby Pond, the site of a famous 1858 gathering known as the Philosophers Camp, where Emerson and other Boston-area intellectuals spent a month fishing, hunting, painting and writing. Among those joining Emerson were the painter William James Stillman, the poet James Russell Lowell and the scientist Louis Agassiz.
The gathering took place at a time when Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and others were redefining attitudes...
--snip--
Its so heartening to me that that momentum continues in New York State, he said, even while some of the rest of the country is back to chanting, Drill, Baby, Drill.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Today, the reverse is true and IMO our republic will eventually regret it.
Government has overwhelmed so many of our institutions, I think it is dangerous to grant ever more land, the basis of much wealth, for whatever well intentioned reason, to government.
What’s happened simply is that every wish a significant number of Americans have for our country has become an edict for the federal government. Mushy headed voters believe that if the government doesn’t do something, it won’t be done. Oddly enough, the Nature Conservacy, to the extent they raise private funds to buy lands for conservation efforts from willing sellers at a market price, are taking basically the right thing. But it’s the advocacy as to what happens with public lands (force) which is the problem.
The problem is, environmentalism, as well as charity, and every other “good” thing becomes a matter for the federal government in our politics. A majority of voters in this country are idiots. They are easily swayed by emotion and are ever willing to give up more of their liberty so they can feel better about themselves. The act of voting becomes an act of salvation. Nevermind that they could just support private groups which address whatever problems there are privately.
In the end, we all pay and it becomes someone else’s fault when the federal government runs massive deficits and piles up $10 trillion in debt, a good portion of which is bought up by the Chinese and other despicable governments.
I meant "desolate" in the sense that it is devoid of inhabitants.
WEIGHTY, SHADY POL THREAT TO OWN PARTY (NY's Charlie Rangel)
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Pretty much, This is a picture of much of the land in question taken by me on nearby St. Regis Mt.
No Houses, roads, or anything else man made for miles
Thanks for the ping!
Ping.
Beautiful!
The conservancy says they will most likely sell the land to the state.
I guess that means there is no guarantee the land will be sold to the state
From the article:
The Adirondack chapter of the Nature Conservancy had to borrow the $16 million from its larger parent organization. The bulk of the loan will be paid back when the property is finally sold, most likely to the state.[snip]Mr. Carr said the chapters investments had led to the protection of 571,000 acres in the region. At the moment, it is trying to get the state to buy 70,000 of a 161,000-acre property it purchased last year. An additional 90,500 acres are being offered for sale to timber investors, which would allow logging under strict sustainable forestry standards. The conservancy has said that the sale is necessary to help pay for land preservation.
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