PROTECT THE ADIRONDACKS INC
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Adirondack Park faces a number of challenges, ranging from climate change to over-development to high public use of public lands to water quality threats to the need to make the Park welcoming and hospitable to all New Yorkers and people beyond. Protect the Adirondacks solves these challenges by engaging in strong research to bring good data to public issues. For instance, our long-term water quality monitoring program generated the science to prove pollution from road salt. Our "Adirondack Park and Rural America" report showed that the economic and population trends in the Adirondacks were constant with Rural America. Our legal actions have won major victories that have held state agencies accountable and helped to reform management of public lands to provide greater openness and transparency. Our advocacy has helped to bring state support to local projects and communities to support institutions and organizations. Protect the Adirondacks accepts no public funding.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Adirondack Lake Assessment Program (ALAP)
ALAP is a partnership between PROTECT, the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College (AWI), and project sponsors and lake monitors. ALAP was established in 1998 to help develop a comprehensive and up-to-date database of water quality conditions in the Park.
The Adirondack Stewardship Project
The Adirondack Stewardship Program provides Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for qualifying forests and wood procuring businesses. We work carefully with enrolled forestland owners to assist in marketing certified resources, from timber to carbon credits, at their highest capacity and aid with the continuing management and stewardship of forests in the Adirondack Park.
Where we work
External reviews
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Adirondack Park was formed in 1892, and the public Forest Preserve was made "forever wild" in 1895 as part of the New York State Constitution. The work of protecting the Adirondack Park has been a multi-generational and bipartisan commitment of New Yorkers. Today, the Adirondack Park is internationally recognized as a vital conservation model and diverse ecologic landscape.
Protect the Adirondacks works to defend the wild character and ecological integrity of the Adirondacks and the continued mutual well-being of the natural and human communities of the Adirondack Park. The work of Protect the Adirondacks requires constant vigilance for:
• protecting the Park’s wild lands, native flora and fauna, waters, soils, air, and the scenic character of the Park;
• defending the “Forever Wild” clause, Article XIV of the New York Constitution, and ensuring that the Forest Preserve is managed accordingly;
• defending and expanding the network of classified Wilderness lands of the Park;
• ensuring that the Park’s private lands are sustainably managed to conserve their productivity, economic viability, and open-space character;
• promoting the development of local communities that are strong, diverse, and vital;
• promoting the Adirondack Park as a global model of landscape-scale conservation in which strong protection of large, interconnected public wild lands are integrated with sustainably managed, economically viable, private farms and forests that are linked to healthy, diverse rural communities;
• protecting, preserving, and enhancing the wilderness character, ecological integrity, scenic resources, and appropriate recreational uses of the New York State Forest Preserve;
• sustaining and expanding the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program, a long-term scientific water quality monitoring program managed in partnership with Paul Smith’s College;
• conserving the wild, natural, open-space character and the viability of the private farms and forests of the Adirondack Park;
• undertaking educational, research, scientific, investigative, philanthropic and charitable activities, grassroots organization, legal action, public advocacy, and working with the public and other organizations to achieve its mission.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Protect the Adirondacks pursues its mission through a combination of advocacy, grassroots organizing, independent public oversight, research, and legal action. PROTECT organizes advocacy campaigns on a variety of issues to ensure the voice for a wild Adirondack Park is heard by state agencies, the NYS legislature, and local governments. PROTECT also works to encourage citizen participation in our campaigns and with independent monitoring and oversight of the Forest Preserve. PROTECT invests in research to organize information and identify solutions to pressing problems and manages public advocacy campaigns, supported by research, which identify and press for long-term solutions. PROTECT engages in legal action as a last resort to uphold compliance with existing environmental laws designed to protect the natural resources of the Adirondack Park.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Protect the Adirondacks employs three full-time staff members, two who are attorneys, and is led by an active and engaged 21-member Board of Directors, made up of Adirondack leaders in state agency management, environmental law, local government, environmental and cultural history, and small business. The Conservation and Advocacy Committee is the nerve center of PROTECT, managing the organization’s advocacy, public education, research and legal actions. Other committees include Membership & Development, Facilities & Grounds, Board Development, and Legislative. PROTECT also works with more than 100 volunteers.
PROTECT also oversees key partnerships. We currently manage the largest water quality monitoring program in the Adirondack Park in partnership with the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College. We also manage the Adirondack Research Library in partnership with the Kelly Adirondack Center at Union College.
PROTECT has organized a team of attorneys who work pro bono on legal research and litigation to defend and uphold New York’s environmental laws which protect the natural resources of the Adirondack Park. PROTECT also manages a research committee of seven PhDs who help guide and undertake major research projects.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Recent accomplishments and victories of PROTECT include:
Landmark legal decision upholds forever wild protections in the NYS Constitution for the public Forest Preserve: In July 2019, the Appellate Division, Third Department, issued a decision favorable to a lawsuit brought by Protect the Adirondacks that challenged the constitutionality of the tree cutting and construction of a network of wide road-like Class II Community Connector snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Forest Preserve. This lawsuit was started in 2013. An injunction against tree cutting was won in 2016. A trial on this case was held in 2017. For more background information see articles here, here and here. This case is now being appealed to the Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York State. If this decision holds, it will have a major long-term impact on Forest Preserve management and uphold the famed forever wild clause in Article 14, Section 1 of the State Constitution.
2022 marked the 25th year of the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program (ALAP). ALAP celebrated its 25th season in 2022 of monitoring the water quality of dozens of lakes and ponds across the Adirondacks. ALAP is a partnership between Protect the Adirondacks and the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College. The Adirondack Lake Assessment Program (ALAP) was started in 1998 with three objectives: 1) to organize long-term water quality data on individual lakes and ponds in the Adirondack Park; 2) to provide long-term trend data on individual lakes and ponds for local residents, lake associations, property owners and local governments to help organize water quality protection efforts; and, 3) to assemble a profile of water quality conditions across the Adirondacks. ALAP was designed as a cost-effective program based on trained volunteers and scientific analysis. Click here to read more.
Protect the Adirondacks exposes illegal road reconstruction in the High Peaks Wilderness Area. In December, PROTECT released information that exposed illegal reconstruction, using heavy equipment, to rebuild an abandoned road in the High Peaks Wilderness Area. The State of New York closed this road in 2018 and in 2020 and 2021 undertook actions to reclaim the road corridor to a natural forest condition. Without public notice, the Department of Environmental Conservation reversed course and used heavy equipment to undo the restoration work and reconstitute the abandoned logging road.
Published online hiking trail guide for 100 terrific hikes outside the overused and crowded High Peaks Wilderness Area to try and disperse public recreational use to others areas of the Adirondack Park. Click here to read the online trail guide. These guides feature directions, pictures, and maps for 100 mountains, waterfalls, remote lakes and ponds, lookouts, bogs and wild rivers that will dazzle hikers of all abilities.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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PROTECT THE ADIRONDACKS INC
Board of directorsas of 01/23/2024
Charles Clusen
James McMartin Long
Michael Wilson
David Quinn
Barbara Rottier
Nancy Bernstein
John Caffry
Andy Coney
Dean Cook
James Dawson
Lorraine Duvall
Robert Glennon
Roger Gray
Evelyn Greene
Sid Harring
Dale Jeffers
Peter O'Shea
Philip Terrie
Christopher Walsh
John Nemjo
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 07/22/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.