A Wild Idea: The Story of the Adirondack Park Agency

Brad Edmondson’s A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks shares the complete story of the difficult birth of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA), put together through years of research and dozens of interviews. The story of the APA, told here for the first time, is a “complex, troubled tale of political dueling and communities pushed to the brink of violence.”

The Adirondack region is home to only about 110,000 people, but spans more than six million acres. The Park was established in 1892 and is the largest protected natural area in the contiguous United States — despite most of the land being privately owned. The Forever Wild clause of the New York State Constitution prohibits any development in the wilderness of the Adirondacks, and since its creation in the 1970s, the APA has continued to steward land use plans for the region.

Especially in an era of rapid climate change, the conservation efforts in the Adirondacks can provide a blueprint for other areas in New York State and beyond. In this author talk, Brad Edmondson dives into the APA’s tumultuous origin story and then is joined in conversation by the League’s Erin Tobin to expand on how the creation of a government agency in the 1970s continues to have ramifications today.

During the webinar, we also shared this preview for a soon-to-be-released companion documentary about the birth of the APA. This documentary is scheduled to air this fall on the local PBS station.

For more about Brad and A Wild Idea, visit awildidea.com.

Preservation Book Club events are sponsored by the Peggy N. & Roget G. Gerry Charitable Trust.