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Conservation Report
April, 2013
Vice-Chair, Conservation: John Omohundro, 315-265-8365
As your new Conservation VP, I define my role as inviting you into a greater understanding of and advocacy for open space in and around the Adirondacks. In addition to ADK’s concerns inside the Blue Line (the park’s boundaries), I will keep an eye on what’s happening in our chapter’s region - at the county’s Environment Management Council, for example, also the St. Lawrence Land Trust, the Save the River, and the Raquette River Advisory Council, among others.
First of all, you have to tune into the news on these matters. I strongly recommend you subscribe to the club’s e-newsletter (from Lake George): adktoday@adk.org. For news summaries, I strongly recommend you subscribe to the e-newsletter “Adirondack Almanac”: adirondackalmanac.org. I recommend you study the “Advocacy Report” in your Adirondac. Occasionally I’ll report on what other environmental groups in the region are doing: Adirondack Council, Protect!, and Adirondack Wild, for example.
Second, you have to do something to advocate for your environmental concerns. Donate money; join organizations; write letters; attend meetings - it’s what citizens do. I’ll point to issues to support, and how to do it, but you have to select your issues and your methods.
ADK has chosen to focus on invasive species for 2013. Other crucial issues are the state’s consideration to permit hydraulic fracking for gas production, how to classify the lands in the large new Finch-Pruyn purchase south of Newcomb; whether increasing the bobcat trapping quota was a sound idea, the APA’s consideration of simplified rules for clearcutting within the Blue Line (cutting is prohibited on state land, but only half the park is state land)...
There’s so much to talk about I’ll probably write longer reports, with links, on the chapter’s website. (Geez, I never thought I’d become a blogger.) If you want to join my exclusive inner circle of really-cool-memberstrying- to-stay-informed, tell me so at omohunjt@northnet.org. To improve your chances, attach a chocolate-chip cookie.