Protect the Adirondacks! will host the 7th Clean Waters Benefit on Saturday, August 22, 2009 at Hornbeck Boatworks off Troutbrook Road in Olmstedville, in the Town of Minerva to raise funds for its programs and services in the Adirondack Park. The event will begin at 11:30 AM with a canoe/kayak paddle on Minerva Stream, concluding at the historic Olmstedville dam.

Participants are asked to bring their own canoe and be prepared to pull over several beaver dams. Tours of Hornbeck Boat Works and of the owner’s Forest Stewardship Council certified forest will begin at 12:30 PM. A Reception begins at 3:00 PM and features author Bill McKibben as the event’s guest speaker along with Adirondack singer-songwriter Dan Berggren.

Admission to the Clean Water Benefit is $50 per person and advance registration is requested. To register or for further information, contact Kathy Scott at PROTECT’s Adirondack Office, P.O. Box 1180, Saranac Lake, NY 12983; 518-891-1002, or call April VanHeusen at 518-377-1452, Ext. 4

Funds raised from the benefit will be put toward the programs and services of Protect the Adirondacks! such as the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program (ALAP), now in its 12th year. According to PROTECT “ALAP is one of the largest, most professional, volunteer-driven water quality monitoring programs in the Adirondack Park.” The program works in partnership with the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College and was established to help develop a comprehensive and up-to-date database of water quality of Adirondack lakes and ponds. ALAP monitored 77 lakes and ponds during the 2008 season.

Protect the Adirondacks!, Inc. (PROTECT) is the new, non-profit, grassroots membership organization “dedicated to the protection and stewardship of the public and private lands of the Adirondack Park, and to building the health and diversity of its human communities and economies for the benefit of current and future generations.” PROTECT came was organized from the recent consolidation of the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks (RCPA) and The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks (AFPA).