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2024 Summer Appeal

A close ally of Paul Schaefer’s wrote this about Paul’s legendary, mid-20th century battle to defend the wild rivers of the Adirondacks from destruction by dams and reservoirs: “It’s a funny thing about wilderness. If you put in roads and developments, instead of opening the wilderness experience to everybody you have instead denied it to everyone, forever, as it is no longer wilderness.”

That cogent statement made so long ago still strongly motivates the work of Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve. Founded in 1945, almost 80 years ago. Reinvigorated in 2010, Adirondack Wild is still meeting the same challenges but now in a modern form. How do we in the 21st century continue to keep the wilderness wild? And how do we ensure that private development adjacent to Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve is designed to be harmonious, compatible with, and not acutely fragmenting of a wild ecosystem?

Many question if qualities of wildness can still be achieved when we have altered the region’s and the world’s climate.

To this, Adirondack Wild says, unequivocally, that Article XIV of our state constitution, “forever wild,” and all of the laws protective of wildlands are more relevant and necessary today, during climatic change, than ever before. In fact, we should be enforcing and strengthening those laws, not weakening them. A broken, fragmented, developed ecosystem, public and private, is far more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than an intact, healthy one.

We need unfragmented wilderness today to mitigate climate change and to pass these Adirondack and Catskill landscapes onto our children and grandchildren as unimpaired as possible. That is not only our obligation to the future, but also the only way for the Park’s communities to sustain themselves economically.

View the High Peaks from the top of Clear Pond Mt. Photo by Ken Rimany
That is why we now ask for your help.

To meet our end of year financial goals and to continue our strong advocacy for wildlands, we need to raise $25,000 between now and July 1. A major donor will match your contribution dollar for dollar up to the same amount, $25,000,

Standing against us is a big marina developer near Saranac Lake who is suing us for $1 million simply because he wants to silence our voice about the impacts of their marina on the Park’s waterways, which we described as “big development on a small pond.” They are trying to silence Adirondack Wild’s comments to the Adirondack Park Agency, amounting to a strategic lawsuit against our public participation. Our legal team is donating their time to defend us in court. And, so far, the developers have completely failed to silence our voices.

We are fighting hard, along with others, to get the State of New York to finally study the carrying capacity, or how much recreational development on Adirondack lakes can be sustained without impairing these interconnected waterbodies, their wildlife, and wild shorelines. And we still are pushing for new legislation to mandate the use of conservation subdivision design by the Adirondack Park Agency.

For its small size, Adirondack Wild provides results as an influential environmental advocate and conscience for our unique Forever Wild forests, working to defend wild lands from threats and promote policy reforms.

However, our very existence as an effective nonprofit is now threatened. Support for our mission right now is very critical. Because our budget is small and many of our original Adirondack Wild donors are no longer alive, we must and are actively trying to rebuild support for our mission in 2024, and beyond.

So, please consider making a generous gift to Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve using our mailing address, via our secure website (adirondackwild.org), or through a legacy gift of stock or securities.

Once again, a generous donor will match all contributions up to a total amount of $25,000. We’re on the Wild’s Side and we know you are, too!

Thank you for your consideration, and in ‘forever wild’ friendship,

David H. Gibson, Managing Partner