ADK Council advocates for wilderness on global stage

ELIZABETHTOWN | A major advocate for the health of the Adirondacks took its message to the global stage by attending the COP27 Climate Conference in Egypt. Adirondack Council Forever Adirondacks Campaign Director Aaron Mair traveled to Egypt to participate in COP27 to discuss — and urge —progress on curbing global climate change. Mair pressed world leaders to preserve wilderness as a means of reducing atmospheric carbon most efficiently — especially because it brings additional benefits such as clean water, recreational space, healthy wildlife, and healthy communities — while creating rewarding new jobs. Mair was representing both the Adirondack Council and the Sierra Club Foundation of Canada. "The Adirondack Council is growing rapidly as an organization, just as interest in the Adirondack Park and the 'forever wild' Forest Preserve continue to grow around the world," said Adirondack Council Executive Director William C. Janeway. "Permanently protected forests are a key element of protecting civilization from the wild and destructive weather created by an overheated atmosphere. Forests calm the climate by removing and storing the most common greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, and by shading the soils and waters beneath them from direct sunlight. The Adirondacks are a global treasure and include the largest intact temperate deciduous forest in the world. People want to know how New York preserves forests and how they can do it back home." Janeway added that the Adirondack Council also wants to show the world that careers in environmental advocacy and activism are not reserved only to white men. As a citizen-activist and pioneer in the environmental justice movement in New York, Aaron Mair was elected president of the Sierra Club, the first Black person to serve in that role. Mair joined the staff of the Adirondack Council to direct its Forever Adirondacks Campaign after he retired from the NYS Department of Health, where he had served as a spatial epidemiologist and cartographer. While Mair was in Egypt, Adirondack Council Director of Government Relations Kevin Chlad, Parkside consultant Saima Anjam, and Deputy Executive Director Raul "Rocci" Aguirre traveled to Puerto Rico for the annual Somos (Spanish for "All of Us") gathering of Latino government and community leaders from New York and the Caribbean. At Somos, they thanked members of the NYS Legislature for the successes of 2022, including $2.1 million in new funding for the Timbuctoo Summer Climate and Careers Institute, $500,000 to start a comprehensive Survey of Climate and Adirondack Lake Ecosystems and $8,600,000 for state wilderness land stewardship and visitor and overuse management. They also discussed the need to move quickly to begin using voter-approved Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Bond dollars to fund capital projects, including new open space and parklands, clean water projects and air pollution prevention statewide. In October, the Council held a reception in Lake Placid to thank the NYS Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus for holding its annual retreat in the Adirondacks for the second consecutive year. Mair and Janeway were featured speakers at that meeting that as well. In September, Aguirre was a featured panelist at a national forum discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the land conservation movement, held as part of the Land Trust Alliance's annual conference in New Orleans. More than 1,500 attendees from around North America participated in the three-day retreat, including Adirondack Council Conservation Director Jackie Bowen. Aguirre also serves as a regional commissioner for New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation (Saratoga-Capital District).

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ADK Council advocates for wilderness on global stage

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