Less than a year after saying it was making a long-term commitment to the Adirondacks, one of the region’s most influential environmental groups is closing its Adirondack program.
The Wildlife Conservation Society says it will close its Adirondack State Park operations in September, according to an article on NorthCountryPublicRadio.org.
The group, which opened its park operation in 1994, has conducted research on conservation land management issues, working to draw attention to issues like recreation overuse and sprawling real estate development.
According to the society’s website, the Adirondack Program was created in response to challenges the park faces. It says land use patterns of the region have historically generated friction between economic development and conservation interests. Because the park is a patchwork of human communities on private lands and protected public lands, human-wildlife conflict often arises, and the quality of wildlife habitat of the region as a whole is constrained by the land use patterns and landowner actions on the park’s private lands. Poorly planned residential development has the potential to change the composition of the region’s wildlife populations.
The society worked on such Adirondack issues as climate change, loon conservation, studying the region’s boreal bird species, wildlife connectivity, forest health issues and more.
Two full-time and one part-time staff members will lose their jobs as a result of the closure.