2025 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 10, 2025, at View Arts in Old Forge.
2025 Adirondack Wild Awards
2025 Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award
Presented to
Aaron Mair
Aaron Mair and the late Paul Schaefer share setbacks which made them stronger Adirondack leaders. In 1945 Schaefer went to New York City for support to preserve the Moose River Plains from flooding. His was turned down as a lost cause. Fifty years later, Mair went to the city for support to stop the spread of toxic air emissions over Black neighborhoods in Albany. He, too, was rejected. Both Schaefer and Mair turned these rejections into successful activism. After years of working for environmental justice, Aaron became the first African American board president of the Sierra Club. His recruitment got the attention of the Library of Congress where his papers launched its environmental justice section. Aaron’s work heading the Forever Adirondacks campaign for the Adirondack Council led to many gains including the Timbuctoo Climate and Careers Institute preparing youth for environmental careers here in the Adirondacks.
2025 Wild Stewardship Award
Presented to
Sunita Halasz
As Climate Strategy Advisor for the Adirondack Research Consortium, Sunita Halasz has made the Adirondack Climate Outreach & Resilience Network (ACORN) the first Park-wide effort to identify common concerns and community-driven, proactive solutions in response to a changed Adirondack climate. Thanks to Sunita and her team, ACORN has identified shared projects, common solutions, and funding opportunities across the twelve Adirondack counties. Sunita’s energetic organizing work has resulted in over a dozen community workshops which have planted seeds to grow conversations, increase connections and social cohesion, and inspire fresh climate leadership around the Adirondack Park.
2025 Champion of the Forest Preserve
Presented to
Chad Dawson
Chad Dawson’s wilderness recreation research has guided Forest Preserve stewardship for decades. As recreational pressures grew, so did Chad’s visitor use surveys and carrying capacity assessments. His premise is that the Forest Preserve will degrade if there are not solid information, planning, and management to guide our recreational impulses. While chairing the faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management at the SUNY College of ESF, Chad’s work for Forest Preserve trails and waterways was never confined to the classroom but liberally shared with state foresters, planners, advocates in this room today, and with the world. Chad is the former Managing Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness and co-editor of Wilderness Management: Stewardship and Protection of Resources and Values. In 2025 we celebrate Chad Dawson on the occasion of Wilderness Management’s 5th Edition.