Wild Forest Lands: Finding History and Meaning in the Adirondacks - Paperback

by Philip G. Terrie (Author)

The Adirondack Forest Preserve is the largest publicly protected wilderness in the Eastern United States, with a state constitutional provision guaranteeing that it be "forever kept as wild forest lands." But just what does "wilderness" mean today? How has our understanding of that concept shifted, from the colonial implications of the term as first applied to the Adirondacks to a more inclusive usage, still contested, today?
Part memoir, part New York history, and part meditation, Wild Forest Lands explores the rhetorical and spiritual meaning of the Adirondack "wilderness." Terrie revisits the literature and history of the region, reckoning with how his views on the places he has defended have evolved over time. Rich with detail, Wild Forest Lands grapples with the enduring power of the Adirondacks and what it truly means to preserve something that is, by nature, wild.

Author Biography

Philip G. Terrie is professor emeritus in American culture and environmental studies at Bowling Green State University. He is the author of Forever Wild: A Cultural History of Wilderness in the Adirondacks and Contested Terrain: A new History of Nature and People in the Adirondacks, Second Edition.