2011 Annual Report

www.AdirondackWild.org

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Dave Gibson presenting at the ACR hearings. Photo by Ken Rimany

Partners and Directors

Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve builds upon the work of hundreds of spirited men

and women who have stood up for wilderness and the forest preserve − against tremendous

odds − since 1885. For 125 years, New Yorkers have been guided by these conservationists.

Peter Brinkley, Senior Partner/Chair

pbrinkley@frontiernet.net

Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest PreserveFounded 1945

PO Box 9247 • Niskayuna NY 12309www.AdirondackWild.org

Left to right: Ken Rimany, Partner; Peter Brinkley, Senior Partner/Chair; David Gibson, Partner; Dan Plumley, Partner. Photo by Naj Wikoff

Anne Weld Secretary

Peter Brinkley Chair

Terry Jandreau Treasurer

Officers

Daniel R. Plumley, Partnerdplumley@adirondackwild.org

Home Office: 518.576.9277

David H. Gibson, Partnerdgibson@adirondackwild.org

Mobile: 518.469.4081

Kenneth J. Rimany, Partnerkrimany@adirondackwild.org

Adirondack Park Regional

Thomas Cobb Donald Brightman Carl George Margaret Schadler

Directors

Dear Friends of Adirondack Wild, It is our great hope at Adirondack Wild that we New Yorkers will safeguard our

Wild lands through this time of serious economic troubles. To this end, we pledge the efforts of the most senior and experienced advocacy

Staff in the Adirondacks, including members of our Board of Directors and

Advisory Council.In just over a year, we have begun to challenge NYS and others to do more than

the minimum the law requires, but to showcase to the rest of the world a higher

standard by which we protect and manage wild watersheds and wilderness.

We will continue to demonstrate the many benefits which people and wildlife

receive from the Adirondack Park and the Forest Preserve which lands are

owned by the People of New York State and whose Constitution requires that

these lands “shall be forever kept as wild forest lands”. We must keep to this high standard as well as educate ourselves and others to

portray the full richness of this Park’s precious resources. And importantly,

conservation of the Wild means extending this core philosophy to private lands.

To this crucial work, we welcome all those of like mind, sincerely thank those

who have supported us and appeal to you to strengthen your support.Peter Brinkley, Senior Partner/Chair

Annual meeting held at Paul Smith’s College’s Visitor Interpretive Center on September 17, 2011. Photo by Ken Rimany

Channelizing of Gulf Brook in Keene. Photo by Dan Plumley

Partners

Board of Directors

Front cover: A view from wild, trail-less, un-named peak looking towards Giant of the Valley, Rocky Peak Ridge, Dix Ridge, and Eastern High Peaks. Photo by Dan PlumleyBoard of Directors photos (except Michael Washburn and Stephen Blackmer) by Ken Rimany

Eric Johanson Stephen Blackmer Roger Marshall Suzanne Roberson Michael Washburn Leader

Advisory Council

Upper St. Regis. Photo by Ken Rimany

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Allen Family FundA. Joseph ArmstrongMrs. Richard M. Armstrong Jr.Norman H. BaumanJim BeilDan & Nancy BerggrenFrank & Nancy BerlinAshok M. BhavnaniRobert M. BiesemeyerJ.E. Bigelow Carolyn BischoffStephen BlackmerRonald BleierJames & Veronica BlendellDonald & Carolyn BrightmanPeter & Barbara BrinkleyAngela M. BrownPaul R. BruennPreston M. BruennJ.T. Terry BruneCamp Fire Conservation FundHarrison K. Cantor, IIIHelen Kelsey ChaseMonique Weston ClagueJames E. CloseThomas & Alene CobbThe Community FoundationWilliam & Heather CooperShirley CornishSylvia & John CosgroveRonald & Sheila CuccaroMr. & Mrs. Peter CurtissFred & Carol CusterJoan K. Davidson (The J.M. Kaplan Fund)George D. & Anita DavisChad DawsonDr. & Mrs. James C. DawsonCharlcie A. DelehantySusan & Jack DelehantyJenifer H. DemingBetsy DirnbergerJohn DrozMilton Dudley & Kathryn KernanAmy Durland & Robert MainsSamuel H. Fisk & Linda CoeHarvey & Mary FladNicky Frechette & Helene WatrousMichael FromeMichael C. GannGE Foundation Matching GiftsCarl GeorgeEllen GibsonGeorge GibsonDavid & Susan GibsonJesse & Donna Gigandet

Craig GilbornAmy M. GodineLarry & Yvette GrallaJane Gray & Mary Jane StefanJohn & Kathy GreenthalLouise L. GreggBarbara A. HailHenry C. HallasJohn J. HaverlickJanet S. HawkesWalter HaynerCarl Heilman IIDavid & Nancy HigbyRobert & Cathy HoffmanStewart Skinner HudnutTerry & Suzanne JandreauDaniel T. JenkinsJocelyn R. JerrySallie & Andrew JoachimKent & Bonnie JonesLarry & Maryde KingMargaret L. & Henry KinosianDavid Kiphuth & Linda SchradePaul & Kerry KochBen W. KoehlerAmy KoshJohn KostickyM. KrepinskyPat LambertAmanda B. LengauerKatrina LindLaura Lee LinderGene Lindman & Janet NullAlfred & Katharine Lowe, Jr.Roger & Barbara Smorgans MarshallPaul MartinThe McLanahan Family Charitable FundDouglas R. MillerJanet B. & Richard MolayAngela Hart MorrisLarry MorrisCharles C. MorrisonOwen & Kimberly MudgeBob & Kelly NessleGerhard & Ellen NeumaierPeter O’SheaMr. & Mrs. Patrick OrtonPeter S. Paine, Jr.Paine Family FundGeorge Painter Keith PartykaPeter J. PettiboneEdward D. PettyDan, Tsermaa & Evella PlumleyAnn H. Poole

Hank & Jane PowellPhyllis & Larry PowellMeredith PrimeJohn & Mike QuenellPat QuinnDusty & Arlene RhodesCarol L RicherKen & Nancy RimanyDonald C. RobersonSuzanne RobersonScott & Robin RobertsonNicholas & Shelly RobinsonDr. John RuggeNeil & Anne SatterlyMr. & Mrs. Arthur V. SavageHarvey & Margaret SchadlerGregory J & Ellen S. SchaeferCarl & Isabel SheddSierra Club/Hudson-Mohawk GroupErnest J. SiladiR.L. & Karen StolzAnne L. TejaPhilip G. TerriePhyllis ThompsonElizabeth ThorndikePeter & Joanne TobiessenEllen & George Utley, IIINorman J. Van ValkenburghRonald & Priscilla VanArnumApril VanHeusenThe Walbridge FundChristine W. WardMichael & Natanya WashburnAnne C. WeldWeld Family FundWells Fargo AdvisorsEdward & Susan WhitcraftTheodore S. & Norma WickershamIrene & Robert WickhamNaj WikoffRobert L. & Judith M. WinchesterDr. L. Arnold & Myrna WyseDr. Mickey J. WyseJanet Marie YeatesEd ZahniserMathias & Ann Zahniser

Memorials To:Robert Carl Lind − From Katrina Lind

Tributes To:Suzanne Jandreau − From John A. MoranAnne Weld − From Dr. Kathryn Weld & Dr. Sheldon Brown

Membership — Donors/Members - Fiscal Year July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011

To all who supported Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve in its first year of operation, we thank you so very, very much for your generosity. Not only are you our Donors, but you are our Charter Members, too!

Your financial support has provided the necessary ‘fuel’ for Adirondack Wild to represent you as a leading public voice speaking for wilderness and wild land values and stewardship in the Adirondack and Catskill regions.

Some results of your generosity have enabled us to:■ Create a dynamic website www.adirondackwild.org■ Speak out for wild lands in numerous forums, at APA and DEC meetings■ Promote principles for ecosystem-based, wild land management of the Forest Preserve■ Forge new educational partnerships■ Gain significant publicity for our work■ Launch a series called “Dialogue for the Wild” where we seek to deepen conversations about the importance of wild lands in our lives and the role these landscapes play in our communities

We invite you to continue to visit our website often and to subscribe to our E-Newsletter so we can keep you informed of our endeavors - to learn more about our involvement in the many important wild land issues that matter to us all.

Lastly, please know that your financial support will ensure that the priceless legacy of ‘Forever Wild’ . . . will be passed on “to the youth of distant tomorrows.”

Thank you once again, for all.

Dear Friends of Adirondack Wild, It is with great pride and pleasure that I report solid financials for our initial year of operation. Our Budget for our first fiscal year (July 1, 2010 - June 30, 2011) of $300,000 netted a $36,420 surplus after disbursements of $298,106. This was accomplished through the generosity of 226 donating members along with institution and foundation grants, totaling $334,526 in revenues received. Principal expenses included fulfilling our staffing needs, hosting and participating in various educational and advocacy forums, developing and maintaining our new web site www.adirondackwild.org, and securing necessary expert testimony by Dr. Michael Klemens for our participation at the Adirondack Club Resort hearings in Tupper Lake. We work hard to insure that our organization provides an uncommon value for each dollar spent. We are profoundly grateful for your generosity, and pledge to continue to earn your support in our work of Safeguarding the Wild; Extending the Wild; and Educating for the Wild.

Terry L. JandreauTreasurer

Financials

A Special Thanks

Revenues: $334,526

Disbursements: $298,106

93% Individual Contributions

7% Grants

80% Programs

8% Fund Raising

12% Management & General

Photo by Ken Rimany

Safeguarding wild rivers: When Governor Andrew Cuomo relaxed environmental rules in response to August’s devastating flood, heavy earth moving equipment began to dredge the beautiful East Branch of the Ausable River and scenic tributaries like Johns Brook, unintentionally destroying trout habitat, polluting them with sediment. Little of this work would make the next flood easier. In fact, experts consider the channelizing of these streams the worst step to take. Adirondack Wild took action. Dan organized an impressive rivers coalition, met with the DEC and Governor’s staff, sent photos and a group letter to Governor Cuomo, filed notices of potential violations, and received media attention. Thanks to this coalition, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation has acknowledged the ecological damage and intends to begin a river restoration program. For more, see our website, and please sign up for our E-Newsletter.

Safeguarding ecological integrity:

After investigating the Moose River Plains Wild Forest, Adirondack Wild called upon the state to manage this 82,239 acre area as a Wild Forest for its wild, heritage values and for its ecological integrity, and to seek greater dialogue with campers, hunters and students of the area.

“This management plan for the Moose River Plains has become needlessly complex. Instead of managing the area comprehensively, the management plan breaks it up into component parts for specific forms of recreation. The unity and beauty of ‘forever wild’ is fragmented and out of focus.” – Dan Plumley

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“The Adirondack Club and Resort housing layout is classic sprawl on steroids. It spreads negative ecological impacts out across the landscape.” – Dr. Michael Klemens, Adirondack Wild’s testimony at the ACR Public Hearing.

One of the highlights of our first year has been our partnership with Dr. Klemens, a conservation biologist who has earned awards for integrating complex ecological data into the land-use decision-making process. In the coming year, we seek financial support to expand our partnership with Dr. Klemens.

Safeguarding Sensitive Wildlife Habitats:

On April 25, we led Dr. Klemens on a tour of roads that bisect part of the ACR site. It rained, resulting in a peak migration for amphibians. In an extremely short “snapshot” for surveying wildlife in habitats as large as ACR (6,200 acres), Dr. Klemens catalogued eleven species of salamanders and frogs moving into wetlands to breed, whose habitats would be seriously damaged by the ACR housing layout. ACR’s application reported no amphibians, and a paucity of other fauna. Dr. Klemens’ testimony put the applicant on the defensive for obvious failure to conduct substantive wildlife studies or impact assessments.

Safeguarding Resource Management areas:

Expert testimony in ecology, landscape architecture, and APA law weighed heavily against issuance of a permit. Allowing so much housing development in Resource Management, 77% of the ACR site, would stand the law on its head given that the APA Act states that the basic purpose of Resource Management areas is “to protect the delicate physical and biological resources, encourage proper and economic management of forest, agricultural and recreational resources and preserve the open spaces that are essential and basic to the unique character of the park.”

Unbiased experts from the resort industry presented solid evidence that ACR is unmarketable, speculative, uncompetitive, and unlikely to rejuvenate Big Tupper ski center. Therefore, we recommend denial of this permit without prejudice to the applicant resubmitting an alternative, lawful application based upon substantive field data.

Safeguarding the Wild

“If we are to safeguard our vital life support systems, we must have scientific data from whole, intact, wild ecosystems in order to compare with data from intensively developed and damaged landscapes.”

– David Gibson

Dr. Michael Klemens at the ACR hearings providing expert testimony about the ecological implications of the project. Photo by Ken Rimany

Photos: Johns Brook, Keene, before and after channel dredging and grading by state-funded heavy equipment. Photos by Naj Wikoff

Red River valley in the Moose River Plains Wild Forest. Photo by Ken Rimany

Dr. Klemens documenting salamanders and frogs along public roads at the ACR project site with Dan Plumley and Dave Gibson, April 2011. Photo by Ken Rimany

Plains of Abraham looking towards the High Peaks Wilderness Area. Photo by Ken Rimany

Photo by Ken Rimany

Extending Standards of Ecological Integrity:

To extend the wild, it is vital that we seek to study the health of our forever wild Forest Preserve, detect trends, and manage wild lands comprehensively.

Thus, Adirondack Wild issued a broad critique of the state’s current management of the Forest Preserve and conservation easements:

■ Agencies frequently manage parts or component resources in isolation from each other, without evaluations of overall wild land health and integrity. ■ The state is changing a large conservation easement to retain a high level of motorized use and development without proper public hearings. ■ The state proposes new snowmobile community connector routes without sufficient evaluation of the impacts to ecosystems or wild conditions. ■ The state too easily compromises well known state and national wilderness management guidelines.

Our Constitution demands that the Forest Preserve be “forever kept as wild forest lands,” a high standard. We need an equally high standard for understanding these complex wild land ecosystems. Therefore, we challenge our state agencies to ensure: ■ A systems approach to managing all parts of the Forest Preserve■ High quality of scientific information about overall ecosystem health■ Good user and other data to help detect pressure on sensitive ecosystems.■ Understanding interrelation between wild lands and the larger Park landscape

Follensby Pond − photo © Carl Heilman

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“More than 85% of wild ecosystems in the northeast are in the Adirondacks and Catskills, a fact which highlights our responsibilities for this wild legacy.” – David Gibson

Extending the Wild – Finch and Follensby: “Lying at the core of the wild Adirondack Park, the Finch Pruyn woodlands and Follensby Pond bordered by the Raquette River and the western edge of the High Peaks Wilderness represent two of the most compelling conservation targets in the eastern United States” – Dan Plumley

Adirondack Wild is experienced in promoting key state land acquisition and protection projects, advancing appropriate conservation easements which link private and public wild landscapes, and working collaboratively with all who demonstrate a strong land ethic. In 2012, Adirondack Wild will work with the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, the State of New York and many others to bring key parts of the former Finch, Pruyn woodlands into the publicly-owned Adirondack Forest Preserve.

“The wild Adirondacks and Catskills act as vast watersheds, providing clean drinking water, absorbing storms, preventing floods, preserving stream flows and delivering natural services and benefits at extremely low cost.” – David Gibson

Extending the Wild also promotes employment in ecological services and tourism, including wildlife and heritage tourism, guiding, boatbuilding, outdoor education and skills development, and local hospitality and learning centers – all reliant on an extensive wild land network. Extending our Wild Lakes:

The Wild Lakes Collaborative is an informal Adirondack initiative to highlight, inventory and consider the conservation of wild, heritage or high quality “reference” lakes in the Adirondack Park. These are lakes which appear to exhibit negligible direct human impacts and little to no history of pollution, or significant change in chemical or faunal composition from obvious human impacts to the shoreline or watershed. Joining the first meeting of the collaborative this summer were representatives from Adirondack Wild, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Paul Smith’s College and Queens University.

Extending the Wild

“Securing wild land benefits across the Adirondack Park landscape is not a luxury, but a transcendent, critical obligation to current and future generations and Earth’s biological systems which sustain all life.”

– Dan Plumley

Autumn in the high peaks. Photo by Ken Rimany

Photo by David Gibson

High Peaks Wilderness Area. Photo by Ken Rimany

Dan Plumley at Icehouse Pond, Moose River Plains Wild Forest. Photo by Ken Rimany

Adirondack Wild works to ensure that the Park experiences a rich diversity of use by peoples underrepresented in conservation who can help spread an ethic of wild land understanding, care and protection to people of all backgrounds, thus building statewide political support for wild places.

Urban Youth:

We are teaming with Green Tech Charter High School in Albany and its family intervention specialist and counselor, Brother Yusuf Burgess. For many years, Yusuf has “used the power of nature to transform urban youth,” guided them to discover discipline, teamwork, self-awareness and self-worth in the great outdoors. This year, we have assisted Yusuf in several field visits to the Adirondacks, including a snowshoeing, and hunting cabin experience, a flyfishing experience on the famed West Branch of the Ausable River, and overnight camping adventure. This is just the beginning of a promising partnership between us and Green Tech school.

Wild Stewardship Training:

Adirondack Wild currently works with a variety of colleges like Pace Law, Cornell, SUNY Plattsburgh, St. Lawrence University, Paul Smith’s College and others to provide wild land stewardship training. We are also exploring opportunities with Union College as it seeks to launch an interdisciplinary Adirondack curriculum in 2012. We act from a sense of urgency in preparing next generation wilderness leadership.

“The hike up St. Regis was particularly important to me…The legal minds of my generation need to work to preserve the Adirondacks and ensure that the “forever wild” lands stay that way... forever.” – Jenny McAleese, Pace Law School

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We were invited by Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace Law’s Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law to assist young legal minds to find fresh meaning in New York’s foremost wilderness law which keeps the Forest Preserve in the Adirondack and Catskill Parks “forever wild.” His seminar was examining how New York can strengthen its Constitution by devising new economic as well as ecological arguments which can gain a foothold in public policy. Our staff engaged with the class at Pace Law and at the Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College, guided them on a late fall hike up St. Regis Mountain, and attended their oral presentations.

“Adirondack Wild is commited to broadening student understanding of how these parks work as a model for true wilderness and wild land protection at national and international levels.” – Dan Plumley

Dialogue for the Wild:

Years of advocacy tell us that people are eager for deeper, unifying dialogue about what wild lands mean to us. Adirondack Wild creates space to share voices and points of view about the wild places and wildlife we value. In our first year, this space included featured writers on our website, featured speakers in our communities such as Paul Millmore (see our website field note on this Keene Valley presentation under Educating for the Wild), presentations at the Adirondack Interpretive Center in Newcomb, a push for greater dialogue among users and managers of the Moose River Plains Wild Forest, and our leadership in helping to arrange dialogue about the dredging of rivers following late August floods in the Ausable River watershed.

Educating for the Wild

“We train new generations to safeguard and extend wild lands, while enhancing their own lives and careers in the process. We believe in mentoring because it is through such practices that we learn about our true potential as stewards of the earth.”

– Ken Rimany

Left: Dan Plumley teaching a student how to tie the fly - Photo by Susan Bibeau/Adirondack Explorer. Right: “You Got It” - Photo by David Gibson

Pace Law School students along with Dan Plumley and Dave Gibson on the summit of St. Regis Mountain. Photo by Ken Rimany

Dan Plumley with St. Lawrence University’s Adirondack Semester students.

Jenny Lake. Photo by Ken Rimany

Photo by Carl Heilman

Safeguarding the Wild by protecting the wild legacy, transcendent values,

and benefits of the NYS Constitution’s “Forever Wild” provision for the three-million-acre Forest Preserve in

the Adirondacks and Catskills.

Extending the Wild by advocating for the addition of particularly valuable wild lands to the Forest Preserve, and for conservation

easements which further ecologically-beneficial stewardship of private lands.

Educating for the Wild through training, photography, cultural arts, literature,

conferences, and partnerships with those who help recruit aware, active wilderness stewards.

Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest PreserveFounded 1945

PO Box 9247 • Niskayuna NY 12309

www.AdirondackWild.org

All rights reserved © 2011 Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve. Except where indicated, all photography © 2011 Ken Rimany, Dan Plumley and Dave Gibson. Design by jgigandet.com.

Passing on the priceless legacy of ‘Forever Wild’ to “the youth of distant tomorrows.” Dan Plumley, left, with Kim Hursh, center, and her father Tom Hursh. Photo by Ken Rimany.