Created by the New York State legislature in 1892, the Adirondack Park covers 9,375 square miles, an area more than double the size of Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks combined. The Park is a mosaic of 2.5 million acres of state-owned Forest Preserve intermingled with 3.5 million acres of private land. The private holdings vary from the vast properties of lumber and pulp companies to the town lots of year-round residents and locally owned businesses. The Adirondack Park is the largest park, federal or state, in the United States outside of Alaska.
State-owned land in the Adirondack Park, comprising the Forest Preserve, enjoys a unique guarantee of protection against development. In 1894 a state
constitutional convention agreed to an amendment to the New York State Constitution containing the "forever wild" clause."The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed, or destroyed."The Adirondack Park is a great experiment. Can a park, woven from of a patchwork of public and private holdings, preserve wilderness and recreational lands while providing economic security and opportunity for its people? Can citizens of a consumer culture live and work in harmony with so vast an amount of unspoiled nature? view map of Adirondack Park
The Adirondack Park faces a variety of challenges as the twenty-first century begins. Some of these challenges -- the break-up of the Park's large land holdings, the stewardship of public lands, and the viability of Adirondack communities -- are regional issues. Others --acid rain, for example--require national solutions.
