From squatter’s cabin to trekking 2.2 million acres, Petty’s work laid foundation for State Land Master Plan
This is the second in a nine-part series that tells the story of the at-times contentious campaign to create the Adirondack Park Agency, which marks its 50th anniversary in June. Adapted from the new book “A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks,” the author interviewed more than 50 people who fought for and against the APA, some of whom have since died.
Click here for Part 1: Abbie Verner’s head-on collision
By Brad Edmondson
Clarence Petty’s friend Noah John Rondeau lived alone in a shack in the Adirondack Forest Preserve, 18 miles on foot from his nearest neighbor. Petty once asked him if he ever got scared being way out there. “What happens if you cut yourself with an axe?” he asked.
“You got no business cutting yourself with an axe,” the hermit replied.
Adirondackers still cherish Rondeau’s memory for his extreme self-reliance, a prized virtue among full-time park residents. “I think he was the first hippie,” Petty said. “He hated the government. He loved to say he was not a slave to industry.” But the hermit wasn’t really self-reliant, he was a squatter. Rondeau built his shack illegally on land owned by New York State, and it was his home only because rangers allowed him to break the law for 32 years.
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Many full-time residents of the park are deeply connected to land they don’t own. Some of them also resent the “flatlanders” who own it. Petty thought that attitude was silly. He was born in a squatter’s cabin in 1905 and spent almost all of his 104 years inside the park’s “blue line,” as it appears on maps, but he always had a passion for wild land, and he worked for a half-century to protect it from human influence. The laws that regulated land use in the park in the early 1970s could not have happened without Petty’s work.
Between 1959 and 1962, Petty and Neil Stout surveyed the entire 2.2-million-acre forest preserve for the state Department of Conservation, mostly on foot. They mapped the boundaries of roadless areas, documented illegal uses of public land, and reported their findings to the Legislature. Petty loved that assignment. He called it “a three-year vacation.”
Petty and Stout’s work laid the foundation for the State Land Master Plan, which sets about half of the forest preserve aside as nonmotorized “wilderness” and “primitive areas,” and half as “wild forests” where the use of motor vehicles is regulated. The plan also confirms that all tree cutting in the forest preserve is strictly prohibited by Article 14 of the New York State Constitution. Environmentalists refer to Article 14 as the “forever wild clause” and treat it as sacred text.
An emerging environmental movement
Although he was a state employee, Petty played a big role in the environmental movement that emerged after World War II. Adirondack hunters, hikers and seasonal homeowners joined forces as “forever wilders” and became a power in Albany politics. The coalition’s work gained urgency in 1957, when plans were announced for an interstate highway that would connect Albany to Montreal. The route ran along the eastern edge of the Adirondack Park, substantially increasing development pressure.
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The coalition’s leader was Paul Schaefer, who urged state legislators to turn Petty’s research into law. By the time the Northway opened in August 1967, it was clear that something had to be done. In a poetic coincidence, Rondeau, the hermit, died one week before the road was completed.
In fact, someone did come forward with a bold plan to “save” the Adirondacks that summer. The man with the plan had unlimited money and expertise, and he was also the governor’s best friend. There was just one problem. He was a Rockefeller.
Part 3: The debacle that produced the Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks.
About the author: Journalist Brad Edmondson, of Ithaca, is the author of several books, including “A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks.”
As a young ranger back in the 1960s, I think I first heard the name “Clarence Petty” during lunchtime conversations with more senior rangers who were suspicious about why Clarence had been seen traveling around in the interior of THEIR ranger districts? The Conservation Department was less than forthcoming to the rangers about what was going on, so none of us knew that this former district ranger was on a special assignment to prepare for something in the works called a “state land master plan”.
As the years passed, I came to know much more about Clarence as a person and about the work he dedicated himself to, and my respect for him grew. For a white man like me, his was the quintessential American story that I grew up with – rising from a squatter’s cabin to become a visionary and respected conservation leader.
As the Adirondack region passes on to a new generation of leaders, Clarence would probably wonder what the future holds for the Adirondacks? Issues like overcrowding, politicization of the APA, changing racial diversity and episodes of police misconduct are all daunting and must be addressed.
Our future Adirondack leaders are likely to be far more diverse, and they probably won’t start out in a squatter’s cabin as Clarence did. The challenge for the rest of us, who live here and love this region, will be to look past their differences and give new people, who may be different from us, a fair chance to become the leaders of tomorrow who will help the Adirondacks to thrive. I think Clarence might agree with that.
I just want Louis to know that his thoughtful reply on this article made my day 🙂