Forest Preserve (New York) - Land Classifications Within The Forest Preserve

Land Classifications Within The Forest Preserve

Ecological and environmental awareness grew in the later years of the 20th century. Recreational use of the Forest Preserve began to rise to new levels, and newer methods of outdoor recreation became popular. These two factors led to a widespread realization that it was no long enough to simply rely on the language of Article 14 and the state's Conservation Law (as it was called at the time) and the court decisions and administrative opinions that relied on them.

The Conservation Department became DEC in 1970. One of its new tasks was to implement more contemporary land management practices. But administration of the state land in both parks was (and still is) split between different regional offices, and it was hard to get them both following the same principles since they did not communicate much.

There was also no serious planning involved. New trails were created, or allowed to be created by outside parties, with little thought to their environmental impact or regional role. Camping was permitted anywhere, and some of the sensitive alpine environments in the Adirondack High Peaks were showing the effects.

Two temporary state commissions set up to consider the future course of the Adirondacks and Catskills in the early 1970s both strongly recommended that master plans be created for state lands in both parks. They also called for classifying the large tracts of state land as either wilderness or "wild forest," depending on the degree of previous human impact and the level of recreational use they could sustain. Both of these were ultimately adopted, along with an "intensive use" and "administrative use" designations for smaller parcels.

In the Adirondacks, several additional classifications exist due to the more diverse character of lands in the extensive area of the park: "primitive area," "canoe," "travel corridor," "wild, scenic and recreational river," and "historic."