The Blue Line is the term used in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 state for the boundaries of the Adirondack and Catskill parks, within which can be found the state's Forest Preserve

Forest Preserve (New York)

New York's Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of...

. The state constitution

Constitution

A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

 requires that any property owned or acquired by the state in those parks "be forever kept as wild forest lands" and prohibits it from selling or transferring them in any way (save amending

Constitutional amendment

A constitutional amendment is a formal change to the text of the written constitution of a nation or state.Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation...

 that section of the constitution to allow specific transactions).

It is so called because blue ink

Ink

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill...

 was used when they were first drawn on state maps. That started a tradition that persists to this day (although private mapmakers have just as often used green). While they were originally meant merely to guide the acquisition of future Forest Preserve land, over time they have come to define and have legal impact on all lands, public and private, within them.

History

When the Forest Preserve was created in 1885, the legislature

New York Legislature

The New York State Legislature is the term often used to refer to the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York. The New York Constitution does not designate an official term for the two houses together...

 merely designated particular counties in the state as places where Forest Preserve could be acquired in the future. This definition was retained nine years later when the Forest Preserve Act became Article 14 of the state constitution.

Shortly afterwards, it became apparent that a more precise definition was needed, as some of the counties in which there was the greatest need to protect land also had large areas where that was not necessary. Ulster County

Ulster County, New York

Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...

, for instance, is home to some of the wildest land in the Catskills but also has many well-developed lowlands near the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

.

So, in 1902, the legislature passed a bill defining the Adirondack Park for the first time in terms of the counties and towns within it.

Two years later, the Catskill Park followed suit. However, it was delineated not solely in terms of pre-existing political boundaries but instead through a combination of those and old survey

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

 lot lines, streams and railroad rights-of-way

Right-of-way (railroad)

A right-of-way is a strip of land that is granted, through an easement or other mechanism, for transportation purposes, such as for a trail, driveway, rail line or highway. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way...

. That proved to be a more effective and politically viable method, and accordingly the Adirondack Park Blue Line was redrawn shortly afterwards following the Catskills' example.

Redefining the line

While it takes only a simple majority vote of the legislature to amend either Blue Line to add land to the park, any diminution requires that two successive legislative sessions approve — the process for amending the constitution without the public vote.

Both parks have grown considerably since being created. The Catskill Park reached its present size in the late 1950s; the Adirondack Park did not cover its current domain until the early 1970s.

Inside the Blue Line

In 1912 the legislature further clarified that the parks included the privately owned lands within as well as the public holdings. This has a few implications today.

Land use in the Adirondack Park is subject to the rules and zoning

Zoning

Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...

 regulations of the sometimes-controversial Adirondack Park Agency

Adirondack Park Agency

The Adirondack Park Agency was created in 1971 by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as a governmental agency that performs long-range planning for the future of the Adirondack Park. It oversees development plans of private land-owners as well as activities within the Adirondack Forest Preserve...

 (APA). Even the state Department of Environmental Conservation

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...

 must get APA approval of its management plans for the Forest Preserve.
But there is no corresponding agency for the Catskills (largely due to the rough start the APA got) and as a rule the practical impact of living within Blue Line is minor. Since the mid-1960s the state has regulated commercial highway signage within them in a manner similar to the federal Highway Beautification Act

Highway Beautification Act

In the United States, highway beautification is the subject of the Highway Beautification Act, passed in the Senate on September 16, 1965 and in the U.S. House of Representatives on October 8, 1965, and signed by the President on October 22, 1965...

 and tries to use a distinctive, rustic gold-on-brown color scheme for all its own signage within them.

The original Forest Preserve legislation assigned the state the primary role in controlling forest fires within the parks, a great relief to many towns within it then as steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

s and illegal logging were giving them plenty to deal with. DEC still has that status in what the law calls "fire towns" ... basically, every town entirely or partially within the parks (and the Ulster County town of Shawangunk

Shawangunk, New York

Shawangunk is a town in southwestern Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 12,022 at the 2000 census. Like the neighboring mountain range, for which it is named, it is pronounced either as the Munsee Lenape, Shawangunk , or as the colonial Shongum by local residents...

, which has plenty of fire exposure on the eponymous ridge

Shawangunk Ridge

The Shawangunk Ridge , also known as the Shawangunk Mountains or The Gunks, is a ridge of bedrock in Ulster County, Sullivan County and Orange County in the state of New York, extending from the northernmost point of New Jersey to the Catskill Mountains.The ridgetop, which widens considerably at...

). Fires have become much less widespread than they used to be, however, thanks to a better-educated public and state oversight.

The Catskill Park is also the only place within the state's "Southern Zone" where hunters do not have to wear their deer tags in the woods.

Other state land use in the parks

Since Article 14 is interpreted as applying to all state land ownership or purchase within the parks, this creates some problems for other state agencies that need a physical presence within them to serve the public.

Usually the agencies involved, like the Department of Transportation

New York State Department of Transportation

The New York State Department of Transportation is responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports, waterways and aviation facilities in the U.S...

, simply lease

Renting

Renting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for all property charges regularly incurred by the ownership from landowners...

 what they need from private landowners. Sometimes another governmental entity not subject to state law owns the land (the bistate Palisades Interstate Park Commission

Palisades Interstate Park Commission

Palisades Interstate Park and its creator, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, was formed in 1900 by governors Theodore Roosevelt of New York and Foster M. Voorhees of New Jersey in response to the destruction of the Palisades by quarry operators in the late 19th century...

 owns the future site of the Catskill Interpretive Center, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons

Federal Bureau of Prisons

The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...

 lets the state lease land for its own prison near Ray Brook

Ray Brook, New York

Ray Brook is a hamlet in New York State, USA located on NY 86 between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid in the Town of North Elba in Essex County. It is the site of the Adirondack Park Agency, the District 5 office of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Federal...

).

The Administrative Use land classification, particularly in the Adirondacks, also makes some other state business possible.

The law also exempts some areas within the park boundaries. Land inside the territory of any incorporated

Municipal corporation

A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...

 village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 or city

City

A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

 does not have to be incorporated into the Forest Preserve. The towns of Altona

Altona, New York

Altona, New York may refer to either:* Altona , New York, located in Clinton County or* Altona , New York, located within the Town of Altona....

 and Dannemora

Dannemora (town), New York

Dannemora is a town in Clinton County, New York, United States. The population was 4,898 at the 2010 census. The name is reportedly from a locale in Sweden.The Town of Dannemora contains a village also called Dannemora...

are also excluded, despite being entirely or partially inside the Adirondack Blue Line, due to the large prison facilities located in them.