The Adirondack Council

News Release

Released - Sunday, July 15, 2001

WHALLONSBURG -- NYS Assemblyman Richard Brodsky was the winner of the Adirondack Council's highest honor, the coveted hand-carved loon commemorating its Conservationist of the Year Award, at the Council's 2001 Annual Awards Banquet Saturday night.

The Council's annual celebration was held at the Randorf farm, overlooking the Jay Mountain Wilderness in this northern Adirondack hamlet.

Also receiving awards at the banquet were:
Ward Stone, Albany: Public Service Award
Times-Union newspaper, Albany: Park Communicator Award
International Paper: Park Stewardship Award
Adirondack Rock & River Guide Service, Keene: Park Heritage Award
Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretive Centers: Park Educator Award

"In 1997, Richard Brodsky won the Adirondack Council's Legislative Leadership Award for his authorship of the laws that created the state's Environmental Protection Fund and the Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act; for his tireless efforts to protect and enhance sensible land-use planning; and, for his work in stopping the expansion of clearcutting in the Adirondacks," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Timothy J. Burke. "This was more than enough to earn our unending gratitude.

"Since that time, he has continued to use his position as chairman of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee to protect and enhance the natural character and communities of the Adirondack Park," Burke added. "Each year since then, he has sought to increase the penalties for those who steal trees from the Forest Preserve from the $10 pittance enacted in 1909, to a more realistic amount of $250 per tree, plus treble damages.

"Each year, Brodsky has championed legislation to discourage New York utility companies from selling their leftover air pollution credits to companies that caused acid rain in the Adirondacks. His perseverance on acid rain paid off last summer, when the Governor signed Chairman Brodsky's bill. It is the first such law in the nation, and one we hope will be widely emulated," Burke said.

In 1998, Brodsky found money in the state budget to help fix the pollution problem at the state fish hatchery that had caused so much trouble on Upper Saranac Lake. He found the money to repair the state's aging bridges leading into the Sagamore Institute, near the hamlet of Raquette Lake. And he appropriated the first state grant toward the completion of the new Adirondack Research Library in Niskayuna.

Last year, sensing correctly that the money from the Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act would not last forever, Chairman Brodsky toured the state's newspaper editorial boards advocating an increase in the Environmental Protection Fund from $100 million per year to $150 million.

This year, Brodsky has sponsored legislation that would widen the Adirondack Park Agency's jurisdiction over clearcutting. He is sponsoring legislation that would reimburse local governments for part of the cost of fire fighting and ambulance services on state land; regulate the citing of structures and roads on leased lands; create a task force to study the potential for reducing road salt use for de-icing; and, finally, provide a comprehensive revamping of the Park's land-use laws with an eye toward protecting water quality and wildlife habitat.

"Time and again, the Adirondack Council has turned to him for assistance, advice and inspiration," Burke said. "Repeatedly, he has met the challenge, often exceeding our expectations."

Ward Stone has been the outspoken director of the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation's wildlife pathology lab in Bethlehem for 32 years. "His work in warning the public of the dangers of lead shot, lead sinkers and the pesticides used to combat West Nile virus has made a huge impact on public policy statewide," Burke said. "His career is a text book illustration on true public service. His first concern is always the safety of his fellow New Yorkers, not the political consequences he might face for speaking out."

The Albany Times-Union received the Park Communicator Award for more than a dozen editorials focusing Adirondack environmental issues, as well as for the paper's Summer 2000 three-part series on the decline of water quality in Adirondack lakes.

International Paper, which started as an Adirondack company in 1898 and has grown to the largest paper company on earth, won for its s ale of 26,500 acres of land and lakes in the west-central Adirondacks and a series of other conservation projects.

Adirondack Rock & River Guide Service won the award for carrying on the finest traditions of the legendary guides of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretive Centers won for their outstanding educational and interpretive programs at the Newcomb and Paul Smiths facilities, which have served more than 1 million people since opening in 1989.

Previous winners of the Adirondack Council's Conservationist of the Year Award include Governor George Pataki, State Senator Carl Marcellino, NYS DEC Commissioner John P. Cahill, Governor Mario M. Cuomo, New York Times editor John Oakes, NYS Attorney General Dennis Vacco, Adirondack Park Agency Executive Director Robert Glennon, Adirondack activists Clarence Petty, Peter Borrelli, the late Paul Schaefer, the late Harold Jerry, and a host of others.

The Council's board of directors has been presenting awards at the group's annual meeting since 1984. The Council was founded in 1975.

The Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural character and communities of the Adirondack Park through research, education, advocacy and legal action.