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Conservation
Jul 1, 2019
David Katz
davidk@slic.com
315-386-4393
Two Heads Are Better Than One
Adk’s chapters have great ideas but haven’t had a regular way to share them with each other. To facilitate sharing, Jules Greiner, the Club’sMembership Director, last winter began exploring ways to improve communications among chapters and between chapters and Adk headquarters. Electronic meetings are an easy way for chapters to get together in the same “place” at the same time, and a few months ago Adk began coordinating monthly chats for chapter Chairs and Directors via Slack online collaboration software.
About half of Adk’s chapters have a conservation chair. Some conservation issues are local and can be addressed by the local chapter ’s conservation person. For instance, plans for Plumb Brook in Russell in the center of St Lawence County would probably be of interest mostly to the Laurentian Chapter.
But some issues affect wider geographical areas and therefore multiple chapters. For instance, the Laurentian and North Woods chapters might want to work together to comment on the Debar Mountain Unit Management Plan. Or we might want to work with the Black River chapter on issues affecting the Oswegatchie River watershed. Or we might want make sure our public comments on the Raquette River Greenway align with the Club’s comments.
Might our conservation efforts benefit by regular communication among chapter conservation chairs or with the club’s conservation staff? In April, the club decided to find out, and in May we held the first Slack conservation meeting. It was the first beautiful evening of spring and not as well attended as we might have hoped. But some good first steps came out of the hour ’s chat, and we plan to continue the meetings to see where they lead. Stay tuned.