Dwk014

Reminders for class on Tuesday, 2/4

Hi Doug! A quick note to check in and share some reminders. How have the Wiki readings been going? Do you have any questions about them? We will be evaluating Alexander von Humbold'ts Wikipedia page on Tuesday in discussion, so be sure to review the Evaluating Wikipedia article quality brochure. Also, remember that you have two other things due Tuesday: creating a User Page (see mine for an example) and introducing yourself to an online ambassador or another student through their Talk Page. Let me know if you have any questions! --Enstandrew (talk) 18:49, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

History of Ecology

Hey Doug! Looking forward to seeing you in class and discussing the readings for this week about Humboldt! MackenzieGlaze (talk) 03:19, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Welcome

Hello, Dwk014, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Yunshui, and I am your Online Ambassador for Bucknell's History of Ecology course. My job here is to help you to work within Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, to answer any questions that you have about editing here, and to act as your advocate in the (unlikely) event that you find yourself in a dispute with another user.

You are welcome to contact me at any time by leaving a message on my Wikipedia talkpage or by emailing me. I will usually respond to any messages within 24 hours (though I aim to be faster!), but if you need more immediate help, you can ask questions of experienced editors at The Teahouse or get live help via Wikipedia's IRC channel (connect here).

Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• Introduction to Wikipedia
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• Wikipedia's Simplified Manual of Style
• Basic Wikipedia Markup

Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. Once again, if you need help with any aspect of Wikipedia, please just ask; it's what I'm here for. Enjoy your course! Yunshui 雲‍水 08:35, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Adirondack Park Outline

The Adirondack Park is a publicly protected, elliptical area encompassing much of the northeastern lobe of Upstate New York, United States. It is the largest park and the largest state-level protected area in the contiguous United States, and the largest National Historic Landmark.

The park covers some 6.1 million acres (2.5×10^⁶ ha), a land area roughly the size of Vermont and greater than the National Parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Great Smoky Mountains combined.

Once a hunting ground for numerous Native American Tribes, over a million acres of land was petitioned to be purchased by two land speculators but they never received claim to it due to the onset of Revolutionary War. After the War, that land was surrendered to the U.S. Government to be redistributed to investors. Most of the land that makes up the park today was bought in one large purchase by a speculator group, who got the land for just eight cents an acre. In 1869, a man by the name William H.H.Murray, a Boston pastor, published a wilderness guidebook of the Adirondacks and helped create the image of the Mountains as a place of relaxation and pleasure rather than a natural obstacle. New York City residents began to leave in record numbers and find escape from the hectic city life in the Adirondacks.. With the increase in tourism, along with the precedence set by the creation of Yellowstone and Yosemite, over two million acres of publicly owned land was deemed the Adirondack Park; established in 1892 by state legislature and further protected with changes in New York’s constitution to keep the land and lumber of the park free from being leased, sold, or purchased privately or publicly. Although the park is legally protected, controversy exists in terms of what to do with the land, as 60% of the park’s area is privately owned.

This struggle to conserve the land and balance exploitation and conversation originated from philosophies and arguments presented in George Perkins Marsh's work “Man and Nature” that highlight the negative impacts of civilization and man in general. This had two main results; one, it raised concern for effects of logging and man's impact on the environment and second it motivated the evaluation of the Adirondacks as a vital freshwater source. These conflicting ideals led to the parks creation, development of tourism, logging regulations, and the furthering both conservation as a political movement and the debate on how the land should be best utilized.

References

• Graham, Frank, and Ada Graham. The Adirondack Park: a political history. New York: Knopf, 1978
• Perrottet, T. "Birthplace of the American Vacation Escape to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, a breath of fresh air for harried city dwellers since the Gilded Age". SMITHSONIAN,2013. 44 (1): 68.

Sources

Ballou, William Hosea. "An Adirondack National Park." The American Naturalist 19, no. 6 (1885): 578-582.

Graham, Frank, and Ada Graham. The Adirondack Park: a political history. New York: Knopf,1978.

Harris, Glenn. An environmental history of New York's north country: the Adirondack Mountains and the St. Lawrence River Valley : case studies and neglected topics. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2012.

Jacoby, Karl. Crimes against nature: squatters, poachers, thieves, and the hidden history of American conservation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

Perrottet, T. "Birthplace of the American Vacation Escape to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, a breath of fresh air for harried city dwellers since the Gilded Age". SMITHSONIAN,2013. 44 (1): 68.

Schaefer, Paul.Defending the wilderness: the Adirondack writings of Paul Schaefer. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1989.

Sulavik, Stephen. Adirondack: of Indians and mountains, 1535-1838. Fleischmanns, N.Y.: Purple Mountain Press, 2005.

Terrie, Philip G.. ""Imperishable Freshness": Culture, Conservation, and the Adirondack Park." Forest & Conservation History 37, no. 3 (1993): 132-141.