Search - Adirondacks on DVD

A Fine Balance!

Martin A Hogan | San Francisco, CA. (Hercules) | 07/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"On six million acres in upstate New York, the "Adirondack Park" is by far the largest park in the lower 48 states. Its land is divided almost evenly between protected wilderness and privately owned tracts creating a pattern of ownership that maintains a delicate relationship between progress and preservation. Through the perspectives of several characters, this program explores the history, seasonal landscape and current state of the Adirondacks.

Released by PBS in the late spring of 2008, this controversial documentary showed what kind of a place a six-million acre State Park was and could me in modern times. With a nearly 50-50 split of private and public ownership (it was once considered to be a National Park), the Adirondacks are shown what they are - remote yet accessible; wild and public. The documentary traces a fine balance between the publics' right to own and use the land against private owners who choose to log, develop or possibly destroy the integrity of the park's landholdings. It takes a good crew like PBS and director Tom Simon to present a fair and balanced view of this rarest of parks. With amazingly beautiful shots of mountains, lakes, rivers and streams, the film traverses across the entire park showing the immense beauty and value of such a large piece of public land within such close proximity to major metropolitan areas (New York City, Montreal, Albany, Syracuse, etc.). The cinematography is the star here with helicopter gilding shots throughout. As if to emphasize the point of private vs. public, the film ends on an odd note. The development of the Big Tupper ski area and numerous condominiums and recreation facilities shows the Town of Tupper Lake in its impoverished condition against a community that gravely wants to leave the area wild forever. It has been an ongoing struggle since the park was established.

"At the 1894 Constitutional Convention, a new covenant to achieve meaningful protection of the Forest Preserve was included in the new Constitution. Henceforth, the Adirondack Forest Preserve would be "forever wild."

"For years the State had been acquiring and holding lands, often denuded, to be sure, which lumber interests did not pay the taxes on. It was this nucleus of property that gave the idea for the Park. Curiously enough, in this way, avarice was its own undoing ... In 1885 the Forest Preserve was created, and the popular vote in 1894 set it aside for the use of all the people forever."
-- T. Morris Longstreth, The Adirondacks, 1917"


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Very interesting!

jj14905 | Upstate NY | 07/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I watched this program on PBS and it was so good that I had to buy the DVD so I can watch it again and again. What a great program full of stunning visuals of a beautiful area of the United States."