The Bridge that Makes No Sense: Blowdown and Salvage in the Adirondack Forest Preserve

Change is the one constant in the forests of Adirondack Forest Preserve. Blowdowns, floods and fires can alter large areas in hours or days. In 1950, a storm knocked down trees on an estimated 400,000 acres and, in that case, New York State authorized a large-scale timber salvage operation to reduce the fire risk and produce revenue for the State. The problem was, the New York State Constitution specifically prohibits that sort of thing. In 1995, when another storm brought down trees in the Five Ponds Wilderness the possibility of allowing for salvage logging was again raised. No salvage was allowed, but the specific circumstances made it impractical, so that might not represent the final word on the issue. 

Clear information around these events, and the value of salvage logging, is hard to find, but we've tried to present the whole story here. The information used to support our view of it comes from numerous sources listed below. 

Issues of The New York State Conservationist Magazine from 1951 through 1955 are a primary source.
Thanks to Jenny Ambrose, Director of Archives & Special Collections at the Adirondack Experience  for her help in locating some of these resources. 
 
The New York State Conservationist, Jan. 1951 - Dec. 1955
Most Issues available online at the HathiTrust https://www.hathitrust.org/
Search the hathitrust website like this: new york conservationist 1951

Notes on the Adirondack Blowdown of July 15th, 1995 Scientific Background, Observations, and Policy Issues. 

Jerry Jenkins, The Wildlife Conservation Society Working Paper Series, 1995
https://s3.amazonaws.com/WCSResources...

Conservation Policy in Time and Space: Lessons from Divergent Approaches to Salvage Logging on Public Lands, George Robinson and Jeffrey Zappieri, Ecology and Society, Vol. 3 No. 1
https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol3/is..., 

Remembering the Big Blowdown of 1950, John Warren, 11/30/2020, The New York Almanack
https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2020/...

The Big Blow-Down of 1950, John Duquette, The Adirondack Daily Enterprise
Retrieved from the Historic Saranac Lake Wiki
https://localwiki.org/hsl/The_Big_Blo...

The Great Blowdown, Joan Potter, Adirondack Life
https://www.adirondacklife.com/2019/0...

The Forest Preserve of New York State, a Handbook for Conservationists, Eleanor brown, The Adirondack Mountain Club, 1985

Truck trails in the Adirondacks? / by Lithgow Osborne ; and comments on Commission's truck trail policy by Robert Marshall.
Pamphlet Reprinted from American Forests, January, 1936
Retrieved from the Adirondack Experience Online Library,