Competing Values and Environmental Worth

This was originally posted on January 23, 2007 and is inspired from my reading of The Hudson: A History by Tom Lewis.

As we begin our study of the Hudson, I have noticed several attitudes towards the landscape emerge as Europeans explored and exploited the Hudson River Valley. Fascination, opportunity, curiosity, ownership, and stewardship have each prevailed by some group of people at some point throughout the period of European settlement.

Verplanck Colvin's story is an example of how different values have caused groups to compete. Logging interests in the Adirondacks wanted full rights to fell trees for lumber and tannins. Colvin and his supporters valued wilderness and its existence in the future. Against the odds and with expert debating skills, Colvin convinced the state of the value of wilderness and by 1894 the 2.8 million acre land of the Adirondacks was deemed in the New York State constitution "forever wild."

These competing values seem to represent a problem that is at the foundation of many environmental issues: When is it worth the cost of conservation or environmental quality in order to sacrifice economic gains? I predict that this question will arise again several times throughout the semester and I am interested to see how the people of the Hudson River Valley have found answers this question in the last 375 years.