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The Adirondack
Council's Activist Network
Over the past
decade, the Adirondack Council’s Activist Network has helped
us accomplish vital and lasting improvements in the state and
federal policies that protect the Adirondack Park and often other
natural areas throughout the state.
The Council’s
efforts to establish a New York State Environmental Protection
Fund (EPF) proved successful in 1993, as the Adirondack Council
helped the Senate, the Assembly, and the Governor reach an historic
agreement to provide permanent funding for acquiring land and
for conservation easements with private landowners. The fund
is also used to provide recycling facilities grants, landfill
closures and historic preservation projects. The EPF started
out with funding of $100 million per year, but thanks to Council
activists, has grown to $125 million per year. In the Adirondacks,
land and water conservation have been the principal uses of the
fund, resulting in the expansion of the Forest Preserve and more
than 400,000 acres of land protected under conservation easements
with landowners.
On the federal level, Council activists urged the
federal government to stop acid rain. Acid rain has left over
500 Adirondack lakes devoid of native life. In 2004 the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the Clean Air Interstate Rule that, when implemented,
will regulate emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides
at levels sufficient to stop acid rain in the Adirondacks and
allow recovery of the ecosystem to begin.
With these and other
landmark victories behind us, it seems hard to believe there
is still so much to do. Cell towers, all-terrain vehicles, excessive
road salt, invasive species and sprawling development are already
affecting the Park. New threats to the Park’s ecological
integrity and |
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Activist
Manual Available
To celebrate
30 years of advocacy, the Adirondack Council has created “Defending
the East's Last Great Wilderness – A Guide for Activists”
for our members to enhance their activist skills.
The manual includes information on writing letters to policymakers,
meeting with elected officials, and other advocacy tools. It
also contains a section with Park facts and history for easy
reference. Please click here
to view
on-line. If you would like a hard copy, please call us toll-free
at: 877-873- 2240 or e-mail us at activists@adirondackcouncil.org.
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wild character
emerge constantly. Council activists must be prepared to press
for new and improved protections for the Adirondack Park.
With your continued
assistance in raising Adirondack issues and concerns in Albany,
throughout the state, and in Washington, D.C., the Council will
work to ensure that adequate funding is available so that priority
parcels in the Adirondacks are preserved and protective legislation
and regulations are enacted.
Through our activists,
public education programs and advocacy, the Council has consistently
raised the level of attention focused on the Adirondack Park.
Using the 1992 Centennial of the Adirondack Park to call for
enhanced Park protection, we initiated activism that continues
today in the Adirondacks and throughout the Northeast.
Since that time,
great victories have been won by the Council, due in large part
to the dedication of members in the Activist Network. Recent
victories include the addition of the 15,000 acre William C.
Whitney Wilderness to the Forest Preserve; a law granting local
communities the right to ban personal watercraft (a.k.a. jet
skis); the first increase in penalties for timber theft from
state lands since 1909; a statewide ban on the sale of lead sinkers
that poison one of the Adirondack’s most unique and well
known species, the common loon; millions of dollars in federal
funding for an addition to the High Peaks Wilderness; and, tax
relief programs that aid land conservation.
Thank you! Your
letters, calls, and visits to legislators, and helping to spread
information to policy makers, friends, and neighbors are what
keep Adirondack Park issues in the forefront of current events
and on the minds of the state’s most powerful leaders.
Click here for
Action
Alerts
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