Does the Adirondack Park need more wilderness?

YES Bill Ingersoll

Do we need more wilderness? Don’t be silly—yes, of course we do. Wilderness has been a defining element of the Adirondacks for more than two centuries, as much an iconic part of the landscape as loons, black bears and red efts. Even if we can’t always be in the wilderness, we find inspiration knowing that it’s out there, somewhere past those foothills on the horizon.

Wilderness is also part of our national identity. One of New York’s most famous sons, Theodore Roosevelt, regarded the United States as “nature’s nation,” and his travels abroad only reaffirmed his belief that our wildest places were among