New York’s Adirondack Park is larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Canyon, and Great Smokies National Parks combined. It is one of the largest unbroken deciduous forests on earth, with a thousand miles of streams and rivers, hundreds of lakes, and lofty peaks. Even more amazing, most of the land within the park is privately owned, and 85 million people live within a day’s drive. Yet the Adirondacks remain largely undeveloped. The founding of the Adirondack Park Agency, 50 years ago, was truly, A Wild Idea. Produced by Mountain Lake PBS. Distributed by APT, American Public Television.

Brad Edmondson writes about social change and how it happens. He is the author of A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks (2021), Postwar Cornell (2016), and Ice Cream Social: The Struggle for the Soul of Ben & Jerry’s (2014), and the former editor-in-chief of American Demographics magazine. Brad attended Deep Springs College and graduated from Cornell University. He lives in Ithaca, New York.

Light refreshments provided by Flour and Salt.

This event is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.

Event photo of the book cover provided by the author, Brad Edmondson.