2024 Awards
Conservationists honored at Adirondack Wild’s annual meeting
Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve conveyed its annual awards to three deserving Adirondack champions on Friday, October 11, 2024, at Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek.
2024 Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award
Presented to
Neil Woodworth
From the courtroom to the committee room, to ADK chapters across the state, Neil Woodworth made the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve and its legal defense, growth, and wise stewardship his life’s work. His counsel at the Adirondack Mountain Club has been widely consulted and was sought by Paul Schaefer himself. Neil successfully challenged the Olympic Authority and NYS DEC for failing to identify lands as Forest Preserve, secured a significant court affirmation of Article XIV at Balsam Lake, helped to secure public rights of navigation on the South Branch of the Moose and other navigable rivers, helped achieve Wilderness classification and management of Hitchens Pond and Lows Lake through court action, and advocated for acquiring critical landscapes for the Forest Preserve, such as the former Champion International lands and rivers. These are just a very small sampling of Neil’s many significant achievements over four decades on behalf of the public’s interest in the Forest Preserve and our unique constitutional covenant, Article XIV.
2024 Wild Stewardship Award
Presented to
Sara Frankenfeld and the Warren County Department of Planning and Community Development
While some view State Lands as a roadblock to progress, the Warren County Planning Department has embraced the State Forest Preserve and its wilderness qualities as a net benefit and key to the county’s attractiveness for heritage tourism. Sara Frankenfeld personifies the County’s readiness to take advantage of public wildlands in their midst. Her three-year partnership with Cliff and Redfield Interactive (CRI) has resulted in the First Wilderness Story Collaboration in which historians, authors, explorers, and student interns produce stories and story maps that support and guide outdoor adventure, appreciation, understanding, and tourism dollars spent in Warren County. The historical surprises that result from the well-researched and revealing story maps are endless – enriching for County residents and visitors and rewarding for students. Sara’s GIS skills, talent for collaboration in planning, and love for the area in which she lives and works play a crucial role in development of the First Wilderness Heritage Corridor.
2024 Champion of the Forest Preserve
Presented to
Helen Chase
While rooted in her Catskill Park, Helen Chase reaches out to the Adirondack Park, helping both to learn from each other. As a planner, communicator, and consensus builder Helen reminds us all of the crucial watershed values of the Forest Preserve, feeding our major rivers, cleansing the air and atmosphere, and serving as a clean water supply for millions. Helen has ensured that New Yorkers never take the Forest Preserve for granted but embraced it as necessary to community life. She has chaired the NYS DEC Forest Preserve Advisory Committee and the Catskill Park Centennial Committee. Her experiences have taken her from the National Air and Space Museum, to Harvard Divinity School, to the Department of Geography and Planning at SUNY Albany, to the Catskill Center where she serves as vice president. Thank you, Helen, for enriching our understanding of our watershed forests and for being a consummate champion of the Forest Preserve, unique on planet earth.