The Great North Woods of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York make up the largest and wildest forest left in the eastern United States. Twenty-six million acres of spruce, fir, beech and sugar maple are dotted with thousands of silver lakes and streams. Loons call across the ponds, moose browse in dense thickets, and Canada lynx pad unseen through the trees. Thoreau found inspiration here, as do tens of millions of Americans who live within a day's drive of this great forest.

But these woods might not be around to inspire any future Thoreaus. As the economy slides, timber companies are rapidly selling off their woodland holdings, leaving some of the wildest parts of this forest open to new logging and development. NRDC and local Adirondack groups are fighting a huge second-home development scheme that threatens New York's Adirondack State Park. We are also urging New York governor David Paterson to follow through with plans to acquire and conserve the 161,000-acre Finch property and the 14,600-acre Follensby Pond tract within the Adirondack Forest Preserve.

Tell New York Governor Paterson to help conserve valuable Great North Woods parklands within his state.