About Zachary Matson

Zachary Matson has been an environmental reporter for the Explorer since October 2021. He is focused on the many issues impacting water and the people, plants and wildlife that rely on it in the Adirondack Park. Zach worked at daily newspapers in Missouri, Arizona and New York for nearly a decade, most recently working as the education reporter for six years at the Daily Gazette in Schenectady.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gary Hicks says

    Seeing a smaller land trust being eliminated by a larger one seems not right. Each should have its own niche. Perhaps a more positive board attitude in the LPLT would allow it to continue.

  2. Joan Grabe says

    I think it is a very smart decision. These are 2 organizations doing essentially the same thing but the Adirondack Land Trust has a wider view and deals with the entire Park. This is important with issues of connectivity and importance. Lake Placid will still get the attention but there is economy of scale, more staff, improved efficiency and greater impact. Easements take regular inspections and supervision. They do not sit there unwatched and that is a big budget item in the land trusts. This will turn out to be a very satisfactory merger. I hope it goes through.

    • Gary Hicks says

      These organizations imo do not do essentially the same thing.

      The larger land conservancies focus on larger and more environmentally valuable lands for preservation, as they should. Typically they will decline transactions of, say, 50 acres of ordinary woodland or wetland offered by owners who wish to protect their property from development. The smaller trusts will potentially preserve such lands where the larger ones may not.

      Elimination of such competition likely is not good for the overall health of the the land trust community. The Land Trust Alliance does not have the equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee such consolidations, putting burden on the individual organizations to police themselves.

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