Adirondack: Life and Wildlife in the Wild, Wild East by Edward Kanze.

Published by SUNY Press 2014.

"It may explain why people who grow up in the mountains or at the seashore tend to spend their lives in mountains or beside the sea,
even if the home environment of maturity lies an ocean away from the geography of youth.
'Home is where the heart is,' goes an old proverb. We seek what we love."



The most valuable insight I acquired from this book, is that for Edward Kanze, there is a distinction between two primary Naturalist camps: the John Muir and the John Burroughs camps.

John Muir, according to Kanze, loved Nature but believed Nature should be preserved seperately from Man, that Man was distinct from Nature.

The Adirondack Park, where Kanze and his family now reside, is unique as far as National Parks go, and according to Kanze, is managed more in line with Burroughs' thinking. In Burrough's mind, he was more of a literary naturalist rather than a scientific naturalist, and he felt it was his duty to record his own unique perceptions of Nature.

The Adirondack Park is 6 million acres, covering more territory than Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks combined. It's the only National Park with private in-holdings.

(On a personal note, the whole time I was growing up in the Adirondacks, I was never made aware of the uniqueness of living within a National Park, nor was I aware of the national, historical, or environmental significance of our humble neck-of-the woods.)

I'd like to leave you with a quote from the book that may resonate with some readers:

"William Chapman White, a journalist who wrote the 1954 classic: Adirondack Country, spoke with renowned Saranac Lake guide Les Hathaway (1862-1952) on this score. 'The trouble with people today,' Hathaway told White, 'is they're so busy coverin' ground they aint got time to notice what's on the ground they're coverin.'

Amen, brother.