Protect the Adirondacks has announced that the Howard Zahniser Adirondack Award 2017 will be given to Dick Booth, a former Adirondack Park Agency Board member and a professor in Cornell University’s Department of City and Regional Planning, located within the University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

The award will be presented at the 2017 annual public meeting for members of Protect the Adirondacks at Heaven Hill Farm in Lake Placid on Saturday July 15th at 9:30 am.  PROTECT also plans to honor Steve Englebright, the Chair of the State Assembly Conservation Committee, as the Legislator of the Year.

“This award recognizes Booth’s service on the APA Board from 2007 to 2016 where he distinguished himself in defense of the ‘forever wild’ Forest Preserve and classified ‘Wilderness’ lands in the Adirondack Park,” an announcement sent to the press said. “During his time on the APA Board, which manages a complex private and public land use regulatory program for the 6-million acre Adirondack Park in northern New York, Booth worked to uphold a decision-making process based on compliance with existing laws and regulations, scientific review and analysis, and public input.”

During much of his time at the APA, Booth chaired the State Lands Committee, which oversees management for 2.4 million acre Forest Preserve in the Adirondack Park.  Booth was critical of the APA’s planning process for the Essex Chain Lakes Unit Management Plan, which he argued weakened the State Land Master Plan.

Howard Zahniser campaigned for the National Wilderness Act, which became law in 1965. Zahniser’s Wilderness advocacy brought him to investigate the forever wild protections in the NYS Constitution for the Forest Preserve, which Zahniser used as a model for the National Wilderness Act.  Zahniser was so taken with the Forest Preserve and the Adirondacks that he purchased a camp in Bakers Mills near the Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area.

The annual meeting will also include presentation of the Conservation & Advocacy Report andFinancial Report, and election for the Board of Directors (see the full slate here). Coffee, refreshments and lunch will be served.

Click here to register for the meeting. Heaven Hill Farm is located at 302 Bear Cub Lane, Lake Placid. Registration is $35.

Photo of Dick Booth by Mike Lynch.