Contact: David Gibson, 518.469.4081
dgibson@adirondackwild.org

Adirondack Wild’s 11th Annual Members Meeting Sept. 24, 2021

APA Member and Johnsburg Town Supervisor Andrea Hogan and former APA Member Chad Dawson to speak


Group Presents Annual Wild Awards

For Immediate Release
September 2, 2021

North Creek, NY – Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve convenes its 11th Annual Membership Meeting on Friday, September 24, 2021 at Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek. The meeting begins with Adirondack Wild’s program at 1 PM.

The meeting is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested. Tannery Pond Community Center requires that face masks must be worn, and social distancing practiced during the meeting.

Tannery Pond Community Center, North Creek

The afternoon meeting features guest speakers Chad Dawson, an Adirondack Wild board member and former APA Member, and Andrea Hogan, current APA Member and Town Supervisor of Johnsburg. Their focus will be on the current state of the Adirondack Park Agency at 50 Years (1971-2021) and reimagining the APA in the Next 50 Years.

Andrea Hogan

Andrea Hogan was appointed to the APA Board by Governor Andrew Cuomo in June 2020. Ms. Hogan has served as Supervisor for the Town of Johnsburg since her election in 2018. She has worked on broadening the Town’s economic base through business recruitment plans and an emphasis on increasing broadband infrastructure. Ms. Hogan represents the Town of Johnsburg on the Warren County Board of Supervisors. She sits on the economic development, environmental concerns and real property, tourism, human services, public works committees, and is chair of the support services committee.

Chad Dawson

Chad Dawson is a Professor Emeritus of Recreation Resources Management and former Chair of the faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY. In 2016 he was nominated to the APA by Governor Andrew Cuomo and served until Dec. 2020. He is the former Managing Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness, and co-author of Wilderness Management: Stewardship and Protection of Resources and Values.

Adirondack Wild will also be presenting the 2021 Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award and the Wild Stewardship Award.

The Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award will be presented to recently retired Adirondack Park Agency natural resource planners and supervisors Walter (Walt) Linck and Richard (Rick) Weber. For the past 20 years, Linck and Weber steered the APA toward one of its paramount missions, the protection and preservation of the natural resources of the Adirondack Park’s state lands, the Forest Preserve. Thanks to Walt and Rick, higher standards were employed to enhance management plans, permits and wild land policies across the Park. The award is named for the 20th century’s foremost Adirondack wilderness defender and coalition leader Paul Schaefer (1908-1996).

This year’s Wild Stewardship Award will be presented to Martha Swan, founder and executive director of John Brown Lives! Since 1999, Martha and JBL! have addressed civil rights, climate justice, human trafficking, immigrant rights, mass incarceration and voting rights. JBL! has successfully placed the Adirondacks on the map as a moral as well as protected landscape. Under Martha’s leadership, JBL! became the Friends group of John Brown Farm State Historic Site in North Elba. Thanks to JBL! countless people look to the Adirondack Park as a welcoming place to renew and revive social, moral, and environmental justice through education and action. This caring for moral landscape exemplifies the highest standards of Park stewardship.

Adirondack Wild’s meeting concludes at 3:15 PM. Advance registration is requested.

To register, please email Ken Rimany at krimany@adirondackwild.org.

Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve is a not for profit, membership organization devoted to the protection and wise stewardship of wild lands through advocacy and education. The organization protects wild lands from threats, documents mismanagement, holds officials accountable and proposes policy reforms. More on the web at adirondackwild.org.