Why Activists Need to Step Up for the Adirondacks
By Claudia Braymer, Executive Director, Protect the Adirondacks*
As an extremely active organization, Protect the Adirondacks is on the front lines of the problems facing the Adirondack Park. There are serious threats – to community character, natural resources, and the Adirondack way of life – that demand stronger, more widespread advocacy efforts. Poorly sited and designed development projects are impacting sensitive and remote areas of the park. Continued residential development sited in our lower density, secluded areas, far beyond existing communities and not connected to community drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, exacerbates these problems. Climate change also poses an existential threat from flooding, droughts, the spread of invasive species and shorter and warmer winters.
Moreover, there are significant development proposals potentially looming on the horizon for which we are not fully prepared, such as large-scale battery storage systems, federal detention and interrogation facilities, big-box warehouses, AI data centers, and industrial agriculture. Our organization is pushing for more thoughtful planning and oversight by the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) and by local government to ensure that the Park is more prepared to adequately address these issues. The solution to these problems is to defend and expand protections within the park. Loosening the protections in the park will do nothing but make the park even more susceptible to the negative impacts of inappropriate development. Environmental and community activists across the Park need to keep pressing APA and local governments to ensure that development decisions reflect the long-term goals for the Adirondack Park.
As we think about what we want the park to be for residents, visitors, and all New Yorkers, now and in the future, we must all keep sight of the extraordinary value of this amazing and precious place. The Adirondack Park is treasured for its forested lands, clean water, fresh air, breathtaking scenic views, access to trails and lakes and beautiful and important, but fragile natural resources. We need to leverage and embrace the existing protections that were established in the Constitution, the APA Act, various implementing regulations, and local zoning laws. We also need to update these tools to protect both the public and private lands in the park from the adverse impacts of uncontrolled growth and the lack of thoughtful planning and oversight.
The APA Act, enacted in 1971 to create the park agency, has strong, useful provisions, but it is more than 50 years old and it needs to be modernized to reflect the subsequent, extraordinary changes in our society and climate. The current APA Act can be improved to better confront challenges to community character, to require affordable housing as part of large residential projects, to ensure more effective use of science-based design and review standards, and to tackle climate-change concerns. Achieving these improvements will take a coordinated, statewide advocacy effort to push legislators to update the APA Act.
In addition, updating and implementing new local laws through municipal governments is another way to preserve the character of the park. Local advocacy efforts can drive the adoption of restrictions that prohibit certain kinds of projects in locations where they are unwanted but might not be restrained by the APA Act. As an example, grassroots groups are organizing residents to demand that their municipal governments establish local restrictions for the siting of battery storage systems in the park. Similar local restrictions could be developed to stop the proliferation of cookie-cutter subdivisions sited in inappropriate locations.
In all of this, environmental advocacy organizations, community groups, as well as the land trusts that conserve private lands, are vital pieces of the land protection puzzle in the park. The activities of these organizations cannot be underestimated or undervalued. They lift up the voices of their members and of the local people who are most negatively impacted by private development projects. Organizations like ours regularly submit public comments, participate in public hearings, and initiate litigation when necessary; they hold state agencies and private developers accountable. These activities are healthy and positive ways to engage and ensure that those most impacted by development projects have their concerns heard and addressed.
Protecting the park – its steadfast communities and its amazing natural resources – will take active, sustained advocacy from all of us. That may be through serving as an elected official or on a local planning board, attending public hearings and filing written comments on project applications, participating in local comprehensive plan development processes, or volunteering with community groups.
The Adirondack Park that we love isn’t here by accident – it has taken generations of advocates watching out for the park with persistence, diligence, and zealous advocacy. We urge you to join with Protect the Adirondacks in organizing, speaking out and demanding strong protections for the public and private lands that make up this irreplaceable landscape.
*This writing first appeared in the Adirondack Explorer’s May/June 2026 issue.
