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OPEN SPACE INSTITUTE
TO RECEIVE ADIRONDACK COUNCIL'S HIGHEST HONOR IN JULY 10 CEREMONY
AT FORT TICONDEROGA
High Peaks and Lake
Champlain Land Projects Earn OSI Title of "Conservationist
of the Year"
For more information:
John F. Sheehan, Communications Director
518-432-1770 (w)
518-441-1340 (cell)
Released, Tuesday, July 6, 2004
TICONDEROGA, N.Y. - The Open
Space Institute, which buys and protects important lands for
environmental conservation and historic preservation purposes,
will become the 20th annual recipient of the Adirondack Council's
"Conservationist of the Year" award when the Council's
members gather for their annual meeting at Fort Ticonderoga on
Saturday (July 10).
"We are extremely pleased to present our highest honor to
the Open Space Institute," said Adirondack Council Executive
Director Brian L. Houseal. "OSI's work to protect the headwaters
of the Hudson River, as well as critical bird nesting sites and
wildlife habitat on Lake Champlain, will leave a permanent legacy
to future generations of New Yorkers. One of the sites is adjacent
to Fort Ticonderoga, where the awards ceremony will be held on
Saturday."
As in previous years, the Council will present OSI with a museum-quality,
specially commissioned, hand-carved loon to commemorate the milestone.
OSI is based in Manhattan and recently created a government
relations office on the same Hamilton Street block as the Adirondack
Council's Albany office. Accepting the award for OSI will be
its President Joseph Martens, who spearheaded the Tahawus acquisition.
In May 2003, OSI announced that it would work with New York State
to preserve more than 10,000 acres of forests, lakes and rivers
in the heart of the Adirondack Park, located in the historic
hamlet of Tahawus, in the Town of Newcomb, Essex County, at the
source of the Hudson River.
In the first phase, OSI purchased approximately 10,000 acres
from NL Industries, a mining company headquartered in Texas.
In the second phase, OSI plans to subdivide the land into four
parcels, including a 6,300-acre tract that the State will purchase
and add to the Forest Preserve, forever protecting it from logging
and development. The project includes the Tahawus Talus, a rare
rock formation at the base of cliffs that forms unique wildlife
habitat, including homes for the long-tailed shrew and the rock
vole, at the north end of the parcel.
The second phase will involve preservation of historic structures
on private lands adjacent to the Forest Preserve parcel, and
an agreement with a timber company to sustainably harvest the
nearly 3,000 remaining acres at the southern end of the tract,
closest to the hamlet.
Also in 2003, OSI protected a crucial section of shoreline adjacent
to Fort Ticonderoga. The deal preserved an important, historic
view of the fort, since it will remain forever in the same undeveloped
state it had been in during the French & Indian War and the
American Revolution, when the fort was last used as a military
installation. The land is located near the LaChute River, which
connects Lake George to Lake Champlain. The site is important
habitat for more than a dozen species of nesting and migratory
birds.
In 1992, OSI stopped an auction of the Heurich property - a three-mile
stretch of undeveloped Lake Champlain shoreline in the towns
of Essex and Westport. OSI bought the land and resold the majority
to the state, protecting habitat for bald eagles, peregrine falcons
and endangered timber rattlesnakes. The deal also preserved
agricultural lands and allowed the previous owner to preserve
an historic lighthouse and farm house on the shoreline under
a conservation easement.
Founded in 1963, the Open Space Institute, Inc. is a nonprofit
land conservation organization that works to permanently protect
from development landscapes of significant environmental, historical
and agricultural value. Through its Northern Forest Protection
Fund, formed in 2000, OSI has assisted in the protection of nearly
1,000,000 acres in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
OSI also provides support to small community groups in New York's
Hudson River Valley through its Citizen Action Program.
The 2003 winner of the Adirondack Council's Conservationist of
the Year Award was NYS Environmental Conservation Commissioner
Erin Crotty, at the Lake Placid Resort. The Adirondack Council's
2002 Conservationist of the Year Award was presented to New York
Rivers United at the Council's annual awards dinner, held at
the Garnet Hill Lodge in North River.
Other previous winners include: Governor George Pataki, Governor
Mario M. Cuomo, New York Times editor John Oakes, NYS Attorney
General Dennis Vacco, NYS DEC Commissioner John P. Cahill, Senate
EnCon Chairman Carl Marcellino, Assembly EnCon Chairman Richard
Brodsky, Assembly En Con Chair Maurice Hinchey, Adirondack Park
Agency Executive Director Robert Glennon and Adirondack activists
Clarence Petty and Peter Borrelli, the late Paul Schaefer and
the late State Senator and Public Service Commission Chairman
Harold Jerry.
Founded in 1975, the Adirondack Council is a privately funded
not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the ecological
integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park.
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