The Adirondack Land Trust has announced the addition of three new board members who bring expertise in private land conservation, farmland access for young farmers, and communications.

The mission of the Adirondack Land Trust is to forever conserve the forests, farmlands, waters and wild places that advance the quality of life of our communities and the ecological integrity of the Adirondacks. The land trust has protected 26,628 acres since its founding in 1984.

The following bios were provided by the Adirondack Land Trust:

Vinny McClelland, of Keene Valley, has been exploring and working in the Adirondacks most of his life. After earning a forestry degree from the University of Vermont, McClelland worked in land-use planning in Alaska and the Adirondacks, and ran the family business, The Mountaineer, in Keene Valley. He works with the timberland, consulting and real estate marketing groups at LandVest. McClelland serves on the board of Champlain National Bank and the Adirondack Landowners Association, and heads the Keene Food Pantry and the Adirondack Foundation’s #507 Fund in support of the Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship Program. He has three children with his wife, Barbara, and enjoys chasing them climbing, hiking and backcountry skiing.

Holly Rippon-Butler is the land access program director for the National Young Farmers Coalition, a grassroots network of farmers and ranchers that advocates for policy change, builds farmer networks and provides business services to help young farmers succeed. From her first job at an apple orchard, to positions with regional and national land conservation organizations, Rippon-Butler has focused her work on the intersection of food, farmland protection and policy. She grew up hiking and skiing in the Adirondacks. Since receiving a master’s degree in sustainable land use and agriculture, she has split her time between her family’s multigeneration dairy and beef farm in Schuylerville; the Champlain Valley area, where she established her craft ice cream business, Farmers Cone Creamery; and travel around the country to work with farmers, policy makers and land trusts. When not thinking about farming and land use, she is most likely scheming about outdoor adventures or eating ice cream.

Anne Stuzin, of Keene, and Baltimore, MD, is a civic volunteer. A career in advertising and communications took Stuzin to New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco prior to Baltimore. She now serves on the boards of the Young Victorian Theatre Company and the Roland Park Civic League, and she does freelance photography for a number of nonprofit organizations. Originally from Fairfield County, CT, she spent her childhood in Vermont, where a love for the outdoors and wild spaces was nurtured. She discovered the Adirondacks as a college student at Skidmore, spending winter terms instructing skiing at Gore Mountain. Family vacations in the High Peaks later reconnected her to the region. Stuzin has three children with her husband, Ken, originally an upstate New Yorker. She is excited to be three hikes away from becoming a 46er.

More information is available on the Adirondack Land Trust website, by email info@adirondacklandtrust.org, or by calling (518) 576-2400.

Photo of Vinny McClelland, Holly Rippon-Butler, and Anne Stuzin provided.