The Adirondack Atlas - (Adirondack Museum Books) by Jerry Jenkins (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Adirondack Atlas offers a detailed geographic portrait of the largest protected area in the contiguous United States and the largest region of protected temperate forests in the world. Generously illustrated-complete with 450 full-color maps and 250 figures, graphs, tables, charts, and scientific drawings-this volume covers 130 topics on the six-million-acre Adirondack Park. As the first book of its kind, it is both a work of art and an authoritative reference.

The Park has a complex history. It is one of the only parks in the world to combine large wilderness areas with extensive private lands and a substantial residential population. Jerry Jenkins explores this connection between the wild and human communities within a protected landscape. As he maps out the diverse and ever-changing environment--the recreational growth, conflicts between users, development, pollution, and climate change--he highlights elements that threaten to alter the Park and undo the protection it now enjoys.

Jenkins includes old stories of fur routes and battles, log drives and Shea engines; new stories about school taxes and education, conservation easements and local economies, artistic ferment and social ills, about healthy towns, dying trees, and deer harvests. As a comprehensive and standard resource, the Atlas captures the full scope of the park's topographic, hydrographic, and ecological history for a wide audience of geographers, historians, and Adirondack enthusiasts.

Review Quotes

Jenkins and Keal have produced what is destined to be the reference book on the Adirondacks. Anyone who is interested in the Adirondack Park, and the great experiment in conservation that it represents, will find a remarkable compendium of maps complemented by superb ecological interpretation.-- "William F Porter, Adirondack Ecological Center, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry"

About the Author

Jerry Jenkins was trained in philosophy and mathematics and works as a botanist and geographer. He lives in the Taconic Mountains and has thirty years of field experience in the North Country.

Andy Keal is a specialist in geographical information systems. Both Jenkins and Keal are researchers with the Adirondack Communities and Conservation Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society.