III. SOCIAL SCIENCE & ECONOMIC RESEARCH in the Adirondacks / Northern Forest

Published and unpublished research with bullet point notes (by Rachel Neugarten). Articles organized by relevance, not alphabetically.

Back to Annotated Bibliography

Gavurnik, J. 2008.The North Country in Statistical Profile. CARDI Reports. Community and Rural Development Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 

• assessed population, employment, poverty, housing values in 7 North Country counties and compared to the rest of non-metropolitan New York state
• North Country’s least-urban counties may have a higher standard of living, based on select indicators, when compared to the more urbanized areas
• Low population density and loss of young adults are the region’s defining demographic characteristics
• Poverty is no higher in the North Country than elsewhere in non-metropolitan NY State
• older population is increasing even more rapidly than the state average

Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, Adirondack North Country Association, the LA Group, and others. 2009.  Adirondack Park Regional Assessment Project. 120 pp. Available by order: http://www.aatvny.org/content/Generic/View/1

• Executive Summary (public)
  
• Full report - black and white (6 MB PDF, private)
• Full report - color (26 MB PDF, private)

Northrup, Jim. 1997.  The Adirondack Condition: Economic, Environmental & Social Well-Being. Environmental Advocates, Albany, NY. 50 pp. + appendices.

• looked at 90 indicators of economic, environmental & social well-being for Adirondack region (not just within blue line), compared to 9 other regions of NY state
• economic indicators mostly not good- per capita income, unemployment, poverty, high public assistance
• environmental indicators good – more land per capita, public land, wild land, outdoor recreation opportunities, developed outdoor recreation sites
• social indicators: mixed – Good: low crime, high infant health, low breast cancer, AIDs, low divorce, low single parent households, high workers from home, low pupil to teacher ratios. Poor: low number of physicians / health services, high teen pregnancy, low bachelor’s degrees, low spending per pupil.
• crude aggregate indicator – Adirondack region rates highest overall

Cox, G.L., J.D. Erickson, W.F. Porter, A.M. Woods. 2007. North CountryRespondents Voice Vision for Sustainable Future. Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies. 14(1): 32-40.

• results of focus group discussion and follow-up mail survey sent to local leaders in Adirondack and Northern Forest communities (104 respondents)
• public education was top priority, followed by rural values, diverse and environmentally-compatible businesses, environmental protection, and concerns with high property taxes
• investment priorities differed slightly by community, but overall rank of investment priorities by category was: physical infrastructure, economy and planning capacity, environment, people, and social/cultural projects

Erickson, J. 1998. Sustainable Development and the Adirondack Experience. Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies. Fall/Winter 1998. p. 24-32.

• proposes two opposing definitions of "sustainable development" - SD through economic growth, "technological savior," versus SD as living within an environmental carrying capacity
• weak vs. strong sustainability - weak: scarcity in one resource can be overcome by substituting one for another. Strong - market goods cannot substitute for non-market goods.
• Land use planning: old model (1973 Land Use Development Plan) - concentrated development, linked via transportation corridors, buffered by natural beauty, designed to protect environment.  1980s: mirror image: habitat core areas, linked by buffered migratory corridors, then circles of increasingly human-impacted buffers, then areas of intensive use.
• Economists' vs. environmentalists perspective on the Adk economy: "The economist declares that regulations and State land protection are constraining economic growth and therefore causing high seasonal unemployment, high local tax burdens, high state subsidization, and elitist, unconstitutional burdens on private land development and personal enterprise. The environmentalist responds that the Adirondack economy exists because of these constraints, supporting a tourist industry, creating growth in service and trade sector employment, and shaping the conditions for a higher quality of life."

Keal, Andrew, and David Wilkie. 2003. Do public lands constrain economic development in the Adirondack Park? Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies. 10(1): 31-36.

• "this study strongly suggests that state ownership of land within towns inside the Adirondack Park Blue Line is not the primary determinant of a municipality's economic well-being."
• looked at % unemployment, % poverty, per capita income, median house value, and median household income (1990 US Census)
• compared those values to % state owned land per town, % private land zoned for high intensity development, population size, and distance to major metropolitan areas
• found weak relationships between all variables, indicating ambiguous and variable relationships between predictor and response variables
• increase in state land and increase in high intensity zoned lands both had small positive relationships with economic well-being
• conclude that "municipalities within the Blue Line that contain a large proportion of protected public lands in relation to those zoned for economic development are not at an economic disadvantage"
• also conclude that other factors (such as development history) are probably important, in combination with above factors

Klein, J.A. and Wolf, S.A. 2007.Toward Multifunctional Landscapes: Cross-sectional analysis of management priorities in New York's Northern Forest. Rural Sociology. 72(3): 391-417.

• Survey of two communities (one amenity-based and one timber-based), 9 professions (environmental organization, landowner, real estate, etc.), 4 "orientations" (ecological, recreation, large timber, small timber)
• Conclusion: 2 communities not as different as expected
• 9 professions significantly different
• Different types of recreation should be differentiated
• implications: important to consider professional (work) & recreational (play) interests of individual respondents
• questions for Steven: number of landowners = high, overrepresented?
• Communities weren't different enough (not actually amenity or timber-based)?

Porter, W.F., G.L. Cox, J.D. Erickson, and A. M. Woods. (Unpublished data.) Survey of Public Priorities as a Guide for Future Sustainable Investment Strategies. (Data summarized in 2 powerpoint presentations - short version and long version)

• Results of 2 surveys: One written mail survey sent to 200 residents in four Northern Forest states (104 respondents)
• One 15-minute telephone survey of 1221 residents of the Northern Forest states
• Includes demographic information about respondents
• Respondents were asked to rank importance / preferences in terms of forest, rural identity, economic development, environmental protection, recreation and tourism, second homes, regulation of private lands, affordable housing, property taxes, investment priorities, etc.

• data on 39 indicators of social, economic, and environmental well-being for the Northern Forest counties in NY, VT, NH, and ME
• compares NF counties to non-NF counties in same states and region as a whole
• data are presented with no interpretation, no conclusions!
• population density of Northern Forest (NF) counties lower, in NY NF counties have more preventable deaths per 10,000 ppl than other NY counties (1996), true for NF region as well; NY NF counties have lower property & violent crime rates than other NY counties, true for region as well (1996); NY NF counties have much lower deposits in locally controlled banks; etc.

• The authors suveyed 708 members of 28 hunt clubs (out of a total 1500 members from 48 hunt clubs with leases on the Champion lands), and asked them about their "willingness to pay" (WTP) for hunt club memberships. The response rate was 48.4%.
• The authors estimate the WTP for a lifetime hunt club membership at over $1,290, much higher than the actual average cost of membership ($465), and corresponding to a total value of about $1.9 million for the 1,500 hunters in the 48 concerned clubs.
• The authors argue that this represents a significant loss of social value and should be considered when the state conducts benefit-cost analyses for state land acquisitions / makes decisions about existing hunt club leases.
• But the authors acknowledge that the social value to the exclusive hunt club members comes at the cost of the potential value that could accrue to the public, when the lands are opened for public use.

• Summarizes socioeconomic and landscape trends for the Northern Forest region (NY, VT, NH, ME) and compares to U.S. averages
• Declines in manufacturing, wages, high bachelor degrees per capita relative to U.S. average, low wages for recreation & tourism jobs, lack of benefits, lack of cell / internet coverage, high costs of transportation, dependence on fossil fuels, aging population, second homes, changing forest ownership, parcelization, etc.
• makes general and specific recommendations for improving socioeconomic well-being

Stagle, S., G. Cox, J. Erickson, and K. Hubacek. 2001. A Multi-Criteria Analysis for Open Space Conservation in New York State. In: M. Makowski and H. Nakayama (Eds.), Natural Environment Management and Applied Systems Analysis. International Institute for Applied System Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.

• Describes NY DEC systematic evaluation criteria for state acquisitions
• Describes NAIADE multi criteria decision analysis methodology (DecisionLab2000) - authors say this method is better for "fuzzy," uncertain data
• Also allows analysis of areas of agreement/disagreement between stakeholder groups
• Recommend standard criteria across sub-categories of state land acquisition types
• Recommend stakeholder involvement / public input earlier, state that there are areas of consensus between stakeholder groups that could inform state planning

Dawson, C.P., N.A. Connelly, and T.L. Brown. 2005.Developing a research process to monitor social conditions in five Adirondack Park protected areas. Pp. 70-78. in: Peden, J.G., Schuster, Rudy M., compos., eds. Proceedings of the 2005 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium; 2005 April 10-12; Bolton Landing, NY. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-341: Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station.

• estimated visitor use of several Adirondack wilderness and park areas using trail counters, trail sign-in registers, and surveys
• surveyed visitors at trail heads and with follow-up mail surveys to determine how visitor experiences are affected by evidence of other visitors (number of other visitors encountered, litter, etc.)
• visitors favor four potential future management actions: limit group size (campers and hikers/boaters), provide bulletin boards of information, increase law enforcement
• used "limits of acceptable change" (LAC) methodology - aim is to inform Unit Management Plans (UMPs) for park areas

Dennis, D.F. and M.J. Twery. 2006.  Choice Modeling: Public preferences for enhancing benefits from private forests in the Adirondacks. In: Burns, R. and K. Robinson, K., comps. 2006. Proceedings of the 2006 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Bolton Landing, New York, USA, 9-11 April 2006. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-14. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station.

• survey of 567 visitors to Adirondack Visitor Interpretive Center in Paul Smiths, NY (not representative - many urban students)
• "wildlife habitat was the most important aspect of the decisions for these respondents" with other attributes (timber, recreation, cost) about equal in importance

Davis, B. 2005. Easement-based land conservation and recreational access in the Northern Forest. p. 264-269 in: Peden, J.G., Schuster R.M, comps. eds. Proceedings of the 2005 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium; 2005 April 10-12; Bolton Landing, NY. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-341. Newton Square, PA: U.S. Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/22301

• survey of three communities in the Northern Forest (Island Pond, VT, Pittsburg, NH, and Rangeley, ME)
• all three near conservation easements >100,000 acres (132,000 Champion Lands, VT, 171,000 CT Lakes Headwaters, NH, and 111,000 acres of Pingree, ME)
• purposive sampling, snowball sampling, content analysis, social network analysis
• compared easement language for similarities & differences in public access, recreation opportunities
• interviews: respondents' perceptions about how projects are affecting access, recreation opportunities, respondent involvement in conservation projects, importance of outdoor recreation to local economies, ownership patterns of local lands

Kretser, Heidi. AdirondackCommunities and Conservation Program: Linking Communities and Conservation Inside the Blue Line. Wildlife Conservation Society Working Paper. June 2001. http://wcs.org/media/file/ADKHeidiKretserWP2.pdf.

• provides several definitions of community
• discusses challenges of defining community in the Adirondacks
• studies of 3 towns
• survey of 258 tourism business owners in 16 communities
• observed a disconnect in people's perception of the environment and the economy
• Organizations, businesses understand that env. conservation spurs economic development, but residents do not
• recommend addressing misconceptions about "insiders/outsiders" and effects of regulatory structure - fuel debates polarizing environment vs. development
• recommend setting aside adequate time and resources to gather information at community level
• recommend making information more accessible and more easily understood for local residents, community development, conservation planning, and the tourism industry