Award will be made at the annual meeting of Protect the Adirondacks at The Grange in Whallonsburg in the Champlain Valley. Dirk Bryant, scientist with The Nature Conservancy, and Mike Carr, the former executive director of the Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and current executive director of the Adirondack Land Trust, will accept the awards.
A picture of Boreas Ponds and some of the mountains that ring it.
On Saturday July 21st, Protect the Adirondacks is holding its annual membership meeting at The Grange in Whallonsburg in the beautiful Champlain Valley. This is a great opportunity to get an update on the major issues facing the Adirondack Park, see PROTECT’s priorities for the year ahead, and meet the staff and Board of Directors. The annual meeting includes the Conservation and Advocacy report, financial report, membership report, and election to the Board of Directors.
Protect the Adirondacks will also present the Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award to The Nature Conservancy’s Heart of the Adirondacks Team who worked for 10 years to protect 161,000 acres of the former Finch, Pruyn & Co. lands. More than 95,000 acres were protected by conservation easement and 65,000 acres were protected in the Forest Preserve, including Boreas Ponds, Essex Chain Lakes, Blue Ledges in the Hudson Gorge, and OK Slip Falls. Accepting these awards on behalf of the team will be Mike Carr, former executive director of the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and current executive director of the Adirondack Land Trust, and Dirk Bryant, science director of the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
The day will be capped with a presentation from Tom Butler “From the Adirondacks to Patagonia: Forever-wild People, Places, and Future.” Tom Butler is the author and volume editor of more than a dozen books including Wildlands Philanthropy: The Great American Tradition and Protecting the Wild. He is a founding board member of Northeast Wilderness Trust and currently serves as vice president for conservation advocacy for Tompkins Conservation, a nonprofit that has helped create or expand 13 national parks in Chile and Argentina.
Tom’s presentation focuses on Tom’s work about “rewilding ourselves and rewilding the Earth.” Tom Butler describes his presentations this way: “In a richly illustrated slideshow presentation, writer and conservationist Tom Butler will explore some of the ideas that form the philosophical foundation of the contemporary conservation movement. Current conservation work around the globe, including efforts to create new parks at the farthest reaches of the Americas, can trace a connection to wild ideas and conservation tools forged in the Adirondacks. Can this place and its wild character inform a forever-wild future for people and our relatives in the community of life?”
The day starts with a welcome and refreshments at 9:30 AM, followed by a business meeting for Protect the Adirondacks, the awards ceremony, and presentation by Tim Butler concluding by 12:30, when lunch will be served. The cost is $35 and people can register here.
