$120,000 in grants create new land management position at Adirondack Land Trust

KEENE, NY — The Adirondack Land Trust received a two-year grant of $80,000 from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Land Trust Alliance through the New York State Conservation Partnership Program (NYSCPP), plus a $40,000 matching grant from a private donor. Together, the grants allow the land trust to create the new position of stewardship manager.

Bill Brown is returning to the Adirondacks to fill the position in June. Brown has worked for more than 20 years in Adirondack conservation, including 14 years with the Adirondack Land Trust and the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (1992-2006), first as land steward and later as director of science and stewardship. For the past 10 years he taught environmental studies at SUNY Potsdam. He completed a B.S. in biology and environmental studies at St. Lawrence University and an M.P.S. in natural resources at Cornell University.

Brown will work with private landowners and with fellow stewardship manager Doug Munro to care for 14,064 acres under Adirondack Land Trust conservation easements, which are voluntary agreements that protect private lands in perpetuity. Brown and Munro also work with volunteers to care for 3,364 acres the land trust owns in fee, including Coon Mountain Preserve in Westport and Glenview Preserve in Harrietstown.

The Adirondack Land Trust grant was made possible by a generous matching gift from Annette Merle-Smith, of Keene Valley. Statewide, 70 grants totaling $2.29 million funded through New York’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) this year leveraged an additional $2.3 million in private and local funding to support projects that protect farmland, wildlife habitat and water quality; enhance public access for outdoor recreation; and conserve open-space areas that are important for community health, tourism and regional economic development.

The 2018 round of NYSCPP professional development grants will enable four growing North Country land trusts—Adirondack Land Trust, Indian River Lakes Conservancy, Thousand Islands Land Trust and Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust—to hire new staff, building conservation and stewardship programs and deepening community connections.

Founded in 1984, the Adirondack Land Trust works to protect farms and forests, undeveloped shoreline, scenic vistas and other lands contributing to the quality of life of our communities as well as the wildness and rural character of the Adirondacks. The land trust has protected 23,637 acres to date.

To learn more, visit adirondacklandtrust.org or contact info@adirondacklandtrust.org, (518) 576-2400.

Caption: Bill Brown, stewardship manager at Adirondack Land Trust. Photograph by Katherine Brown