The New York State Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 marks a major investment in the Adirondack Park, funding numerous critical needs and institutions that will protect the environment and meet challenges around diversity and public lands management

Governor Kathy Hochul, the New York State Senate, and the Assembly have enacted a landmark state budget that delivers critical investments in conservation, land stewardship, and environmental justice. The new State Budget for FY2026 being finalized in the State Legislature provides significant funding for Adirondack programs that will meet key challenges for the Adirondack Park and Adirondack communities.

Governor Hochul, the Senate, and the Assembly have enacted a landmark budget that boosts the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) to $425 million and provides desperately needed funding for land conservation, acquisition, and stewardship of our precious state lands.

The newly approved budget includes a $1 million allocation for a carrying capacity study of the Saranac Chain of Lakes, an increasingly popular recreation destination in the Adirondacks. The study will assess sustainable use levels to protect water quality, wildlife habitat, and visitor experiences. Earlier this year in the Assembly‘s proposed one-house budget, Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Deborah Glick and the Assembly led the charge on the need to include funding in the budget for a carrying capacity study of the Saranac Chain of Lakes. Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Pete Harckham, and the Senate agreed that this study needed to be funded through the State Budget.

Environmental Protection Fund – $425 Million

The Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) is a cornerstone of New York’s conservation efforts, supporting programs ranging from open space preservation and state land stewardship to climate resilience, and environmental education. In addition to land protection efforts, the EPF continues to support diversity initiatives and vital scientific research.  This year’s EPF includes targeted funding for programs that are essential to the long-term protection of the Adirondack Park and its communities, including:

• $42 million for land conservation and acquisition (see below for more info);
• $10 million for state land stewardship, including $10 million for Adirondack and Catskill Wilderness;
• $2 million for the Survey of Climate Change in Adirondack Lake Ecosystems (SCALE);
• $1 million for a Carrying Capacity Study of Saranac Chain of Lakes (see below for more info);
• $1.25 million for the Timbuctoo Summer Climate and Careers Institute;
• $250,000 each for the Paul Smith’s, Newcomb, ADK, and Catskills visitors centers;
• $750,000 for AARCH for management of Camp Santanoni;
• $200,000 to the Adirondack Watershed Institute;
• $200,000 to the Whiteface Atmospheric Research Station;
• $1.5 million for the SUNY ESF Applied Forestry Institute.

In other budget sections, the Clean Water Fund was funded at $500 million, $1 million for the African-American Experience exhibit at the Adirondack Experience in Blue Mountain Lake, and funding for the Adirondack Diversity Initiative.

We thank the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Deborah Glick and Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Pete Harckham for championing the historic increase to the EPF. Thanks also go to the leadership in the Legislature, including Senate Majority Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger, and Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chair Pretlow. Thanks to all those who came together in Albany during Adirondack Park Lobby Day in February 2025 to advocate for funding for the Adirondacks!

EPF Open Space and Land Acquisition

The funding for Open Space and Land Acquisition ($42 million) will help the State achieve its goal of protecting 30% of the State’s lands and inland waters by 2030. In 2022 the Legislature passed and Governor Hochul signed the landmark “30 by 30” law, which commits the State to protecting 30% of the State’s lands and inland waters by 2030.  PROTECT issued a report that documented all currently protected lands in the State and concluded that in order to reach the 30 by 30 goal the State will need to protect an additional 3.2 million acres over the next six years. While the $42 million is a positive increase from last year, even more funding for open space protection is necessary to acquire and preserve the millions of acres of lands and waters of the State needed reach the 30 by 30 goal.

Whitney Park, pictured here, is a 36,000-acre parcel of land in the Adirondacks that is available and could be purchased with open space land protection funding.

EPF State Land Stewardship – Carrying Capacity Study

The State’s final budget includes $1 million in the State Land Stewardship line (e.g., Adirondack and Catskill visitor safety and wilderness protection to address overuse) to fund a carrying capacity study of sensitive water bodies in the Adirondack Park. “Carrying capacity” means the ability of natural resources to withstand and sustain human activity and the environmental impacts resulting from those activities. In the case of waterbodies it means the impacts on water quality, fish and wildlife, scenic and aesthetic resources, and the user experience resulting from increasing boat traffic and conflicting visitor use. A carrying capacity study would examine these factors, evaluate whether and to what extent the carrying capacity has been exceeded, and recommend measures to avoid exceeding the carrying capacity and/or to return resources to an acceptable level that does not exceed the carrying capacity. Although the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan requires the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to conduct a carrying capacity study for each unit of Forest Preserve lands and waters in the Park, DEC has thus far failed to complete even one such study, citing budgetary constraints. This funding gives DEC the resources that it needs to undertake a carrying capacity study through expert consultants.

$1 million included for DEC to conduct a carrying capacity study of water bodies in the Adirondack Park