During the organization’s Annual Meeting on July 11 at Garnet Hill Lodge in North River, NY, Protect the Adirondacks was pleased to honor Charles “Chuck” M. Clusen with the Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award for his extraordinary lifetime of leadership in protecting wilderness across the United States and defending New York’s Adirondack Forest Preserve. Howard Zahniser was a towering figure in American conservation history who relentlessly campaigned for the National Wilderness Act, which he modeled in part on the forever wild clause in the New York State Constitution. This award in his name is the highest honor given by Protect the Adirondacks to recognize people who have made outstanding contributions to the environment and success of the Adirondack Park.
Past honorees of the Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award include Elizabeth Thorndike, Peter S. Paine, Jr., attorneys John Caffry and Claudia Braymer, The Wildlife Conservation Society Adirondack Program, former Adirondack Park Agency (APA) Board Member Richard Booth, the Nature Conservancy’s Heart of the Adirondacks Team, former APA Chair John Collins, and former APA Executive Director Bob Glennon.
Protect the Adirondacks Board Chair Chuck Clusen (center with award) with (L-R) Claudia Braymer, Phil Terrie, Liz Thorndike, Bob Glennon, John Caffry and Barbara Rottier
For more than five decades, Chuck has been one of the nation’s most influential conservation leaders. Throughout his career in conservation work and his years of nonprofit advocacy, he has spent 55 years organizing and leading efforts to protect public lands, preserve existing wilderness areas, and secure permanent protection for millions of acres of America’s most treasured landscapes.
“I’m extremely honored to have received the Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award from Protect the Adirondacks. As Howard Zahniser was drafting the federal Wilderness Act in the late 1950’s, he regularly visited Paul Schaefer in the Adirondacks mountains to discuss wilderness protection. Federal wilderness areas and the Adirondack Forest Preserve’s Wilderness areas are born out of a collective desire to preserve natural landscapes, untrammeled by man and set aside in a way that leaves them unimpaired for future generations. I’m grateful that I was able to dedicate so much of my career and personal time to protecting wilderness areas in the Adirondacks and across the country and carrying forward Zahnie’s legacy,” says Chuck Clusen, Chair, Protect the Adirondacks.
Chuck’s impact on Adirondack conservation has been equally significant. He was influential in founding Protect the Adirondacks in 2009 and has served as the organization’s Chair of the Board of Directors since then. Under his leadership, Protect the Adirondacks established itself as a strong voice for the Adirondack Park, dedicated to defending the “Forever Wild” protections of Article XIV of the New York State Constitution and safeguarding the Park’s forests, waters, wildlife, and public lands.
“Chuck was instrumental to the formation of Protect the Adirondacks! from two distinct organizations – the venerable Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and the relatively new Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks. Chuck’s leadership was vital to making the merger successful and bringing the two organizations’ agendas, histories, and board members together. The many accomplishments of the last 15 years would not have been possible without Chuck. We would not have a decision from the NYS Court of Appeals stopping the construction of new snowmobile highways in the Forest Preserve and granting clear and stronger protection to the Adirondack Forest Preserve” says Phil Terrie, Ph.D., author, historian, and member of Protect’s Board of Directors.
“Chuck’s leadership, mentorship, and his tireless efforts have been invaluable to Protect the Adirondacks. His work has had a lasting impact on our organization and future generations of conservation advocates. We are grateful for his many years of service to Protect and other conservation organizations across the country” says Barbara Rottier, Esq., Vice-Chair of Protect’s Board of Directors.
About the Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award
The Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award, given by Protect the Adirondacks, honors individuals whose commitment, vision, and leadership have made lasting contributions to protecting the Adirondack Park and advancing wilderness conservation. Named for Howard Zahniser, principal author of the federal Wilderness Act of 1964 and a frequent visitor to the Adirondack wilderness, the award recognizes those whose work reflects his enduring conservation ethic and commitment to wilderness protection.
“Chuck’s lifelong dedication to wilderness protection, and his ongoing commitment to the Adirondack Forest Preserve is an inspiration to the Board, members and staff of Protect the Adirondacks. We are thrilled to recognize Chuck with this award and to have this opportunity to reflect on his achievements and our organization’s successes, and to renew our dedication to defending and growing the Forest Preserve’s Wilderness areas” says Claudia Braymer, Executive Director, Protect the Adirondacks.
Protect the Adirondacks Board Chair Chuck Clusen and Executive Director Claudia Braymer
Clusen’s Career in Wilderness Protection
As Chair of the Alaska Coalition, Clusen helped lead the successful campaign for passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. The landmark legislation established more than 100 million acres of national parks and wildlife refuges while permanently protecting 56 million acres of designated Wilderness. His work on wilderness legislation throughout the lower 48 states also contributed to Congressional designation of more than 14 million acres of Wilderness.
Throughout his distinguished career, Clusen held leadership positions with many of the nation’s premier conservation organizations. He served as Vice President of The Wilderness Society; Director for the National Parks and Alaska Projects at the Natural Resources Defense Council; Executive Director of the American Conservation Association; Executive Director of the Adirondack Council; and Associate Conservation Director for the Sierra Club. He also helped found American Rivers, later serving as its Board Chair, and served on the Board of Directors of the League of Conservation Voters.
“Chuck is a founder of American Rivers. He was at the meeting in Denver in 1973 where they formed the American Rivers Conservation Council. Chuck was vital to the early days of the organization. As ARCC was focused on stopping massive pork barrel dam projects that were destroying our last wild rivers and at the same time working to proactively protect more rivers under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, his determination and grit helped shape the fledging organization and set us up for decades of success for rivers” says Amy Souers Kober, American Rivers.
“We all know what a devoted and effective protector of the Adirondacks Chuck is. Most of you know as well, that he has always been a great champion of public lands in Alaska. Simply said, he led the campaign there that put 150 million acres of land into conservation status. Still the greatest such achievement in history. But his range is much wider than that. He has, in a career spanning more than four decades, contributed to the creation of parks and conservation units across the country and along the way became a storehouse of information about them. Their unique glories, the characters that fought over them, and how the battles were won, what threats persist and what still needs saving. But what he deserves most an award for may be what he has done for other conservationists and the movement writ large. For as long as I’ve known him, he has organized, led, championed and/or supported the coalitions that secured our national heritage and made a reality of what is rightly called “American’s Best Idea”, and for that he has my undying thanks” says Niel Lawrence, former senior attorney at Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Protecting the Adirondacks has been strengthened by Chuck Clusen’s prior leadership in saving wild Alaska. A champion for the North Country” says Laurance Rockefeller Jr., Honorary Trustee, Natural Resources Defense Council.
