Adirondack Wild: A Legacy Leader
By Dave Gibson
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve was honored to be represented as an Adirondack Legacy Leader at the 50th anniversary of the Adirondack Council on July 19, 2025.
Ceremonies were held at the historic Silver Bay YMCA on the shores of Lake George.
While it was nice to be recognized (along with many other Adirondack organizations) the best part of the affair was to socialize and meet the many young advocates working for the Adirondack Council and other groups. These younger people are links in a long and strong chain of informed Adirondack Park and Forest Preserve community activism.
None of us work in isolation.
Ken and I also enjoyed listening to someone who was there at the very creation of the Adirondack Council 50 years ago and is still there to champion the Adirondack Park’s human and natural, wild communities, Robert (Bob) Kafin.
Thank you to the Adirondack Council for its generous sharing of 50 years of its work on July 19, and strong alliances going forward.
Adirondack Wild being recognized by the Adirondack Council’s executive director Rocci Aguirre:
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve is on the Wild’s Side. Its mission is to safeguard wildlands which connect public forest preserve and private land. Our roots date back 80 years to 1945 when its founder, Paul Schaefer, earned a national reputation for protecting wilderness, wild rivers, and lakes in the Adirondack Park. Adirondack Wild carries on his legacy.
Adirondack Wild’s programs are tightly focused on Wildlands Advocacy for the interconnected public and private lands and waters of the Adirondack Park. Specifically, they work to:
- Defend and mobilize public opinion for “Forever Wild” on the public’s Forest Preserve;
- Minimize recreational impacts and overuse through wilderness principle of restraint;
- Apply conservation design to the largest private subdivisions;
- Advocate for APA and DEC appointments who embrace resource protection.
Some of their accomplishments, alone and in coalition:
- Document a pattern of environmental mismanagement in the Adirondack Park and issued policy recommendations (“Park at a Crossroad”);
- Identify planning steps to improve land use decisions and to avoid forest fragmentation (“Pathways to a Connected Park”);
- Designation of 50,000 acres of new Forest Preserve as Wilderness or Primitive;
- Advocate monthly for resource protection before NYS agencies and legislature;
- Defend wild rivers, wilderness, and wetlands in court;
- Help college students studying the Adirondacks.
Some special moments captured with old and new wild friends:
