Protect the Adirondacks names Chris Amato as Conservation Director and Counsel

Chris Amato brings long career as attorney in service with the Adirondack Park Agency, Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of New York Attorney General, EarthJustice, and the NYS Legislature

Protect the Adirondacks is pleased to announce that Chris Amato has joined the organization as its new Conservation Director and Counsel. The Conservation Director and Counsel for Protect the Adirondacks leads conservation and advocacy efforts for Forest Preserve protection and management, monitoring and intervening in private land development, and natural resource protection.

Chris has a long history of involvement with Adirondack Park issues, beginning with his work as a Staff Attorney at the Adirondack Park Agency (APA), as Deputy Commissioner for Natural Resources at the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and as an attorney in private practice and with EarthJustice where he represented Protect the Adirondacks and other advocacy groups. Most recently, Chris worked as Senior Counsel in the New York State Senate Majority Counsel’s Office.

“Throughout his career, Chris Amato has been a staunch defender of Article 14, the forever wild clause in the State Constitution, and of the laws protecting the Adirondack Park’s unique natural resources. He has never hesitated to challenge DEC and APA – in Court when necessary – to ensure that their actions affecting the Adirondack Park’s public and private lands conform to the Constitutional and statutory mandates to protect and preserve the lands and waters of this incredible landscape,” said Charles Clusen, Chairman of Protect the Adirondacks.

“I am thrilled to join Protect the Adirondacks at this critical time when public and private lands in the Adirondack Park are facing unprecedented challenges from climate change, habitat fragmentation, visitor overuse, and invasive species. PROTECT has been a leader in ensuring that management of the Forest Preserve complies with constitutional and statutory mandates, and that private land development is regulated to ensure protection of the Park’s natural resources. I look forward to joining PROTECT’s fight to ensure that the unique attributes of the Adirondack Park are preserved for future generations.

“These are challenging times in the Adirondack Park. Public use of the Forest Preserve is at an all-time high. The Park is facing an unprecedented building boom. Our two leading regulatory agencies, the Adirondack Park Agency and Department of Environmental Conservation, were recently found to have violated the NYS Constitution, and both agencies are floundering in their missions to protect the public and private lands in the Adirondack Park. PROTECT is very pleased that we’re bringing aboard Chris Amato to help work on an array of issues facing the Adirondacks,” said Peter Bauer, Executive Director of Protect the Adirondacks.

Chris pausing over Lake Placid on a bike ride of the Whiteface Memorial Highway.

Protect the Adirondacks

Protect the Adirondacks is an IRS-approved non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and stewardship of the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park. Our mission is to protect the Adirondack Park’s wild character for current and future generations. PROTECT pursues this mission through a combination of advocacy, grassroots organizing, independent public oversight, research, water quality monitoring, education, and legal action. Protect the Adirondacks was formed in 2009 as the result of a merger between two long-standing environmental conservation groups in the Adirondack Park, the Resident’s Committee to Protect the Adirondacks (est. 1991) and the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks (est. 1901).

Protect the Adirondacks is managed by a 22-member Board of Directors of Adirondack leaders with expertise in environmental law, local government, Adirondack environmental and cultural history, state agency management, and small business. Protect the Adirondacks maintains an office in a 100% energy efficient, solar-and wind-powered office in Johnsburg in the central Adirondacks. For more information see www.protectadks.org and @ProtectAdkPark on Twitter.