Sarah Norris, Director of Pendragon Theatre’s presentation of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker, has also been hired as Artistic Producer at Pendragon. Norris will work with Managing Director Michael Aguirre to expand educational programming, produce artistic seasons, and cultivate an artistic core of artists in the area and region to present innovative theatre in the Adirondacks year-round.

The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program Welcomes New Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator

 

Keene Valley — The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) is pleased to announce that Shaun Kittle has joined as the new communications coordinator.

 

Kittle’s career encompasses a wide variety of communications-related work, from his award-winning reporting on environmental issues to developing brands for marketing Adirondack communities. He most recently served as the Communications Director for the Franklin County Economic Develop Corp’s tourism program. In that role, Kittle developed strategies for connecting important community stakeholders, attracting young professionals to the region, and protecting our natural resources. Previously, he served as the Associate Director of Communications for North Country School and Camp Treetops, where he focused on finding creative ways to tell the story of the institution’s place-based approach to education. Kittle has degrees in Magazine Journalism and Ecology from Plattsburgh State University.

 

Kittle said he is excited for his new role, as it is a perfect opportunity to combine his love of the Adirondacks with his writing and photography skills to help protect the lands and waters of this region.

 

“Shaun brings a decade of experience working in communications for several Adirondack nonprofits to this role. He is eager to start engaging community members and APIPP partners in efforts to prevent, monitor, and manage invasive species,” said Tammara Van Ryn, APIPP program manager.

 

 

About the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program

The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) is a partnership program founded in 1998 by The Nature Conservancy, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State Department of Transportation, and the New York State Adirondack Park Agency. Its coordinated approach to invasive species management has been a model for similar programs across the U.S. APIPP focuses on 11 aquatic and 25 terrestrial invasive species of concern to the Adirondacks. For more information about managing invasives species, please visit www.adkinvasives.com. 

 

Shaun Kittle

Adirondack Watershed Institute announces new Director of its  Stewardship Program as boating season begins  

 

PAUL SMITHS, N.Y. (May 5, 2022) – Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) announced that Bill Brosseau has joined their team as its new Stewardship Program Director. This news comes as AWI prepares for this year’s boat inspection and decontamination program to help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species in area waterways.   

 

Starting on Memorial Day weekend, AWI stewards will offer free inspections and boat washing at more than 60 boat launches and roadside locations across the Adirondack region. Stewards educate boaters, anglers, and other visitors about aquatic invasive species. The regional program relies on the boating public to adopt the Clean, Drain, Dry standard required by New York State’s regulation to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. 

 

AWI hires between 100-130 seasonal staff annually to implement the program. Brosseau joined AWI in March to oversee this flagship program, which is the largest aquatic invasive species spread prevention effort in New York State. 

 

“Bill brings to AWI a proven track record of building collaborative partnerships, protecting natural resources, and successfully managing large groups of staff and volunteers,” said Dan Kelting, AWI’s Executive Director. “He demonstrates a strong land and water stewardship ethic that will help AWI expand its work and strengthen its impact on clean water.”  

 

Before joining AWI, Brosseau was the Conservation Director with EarthCorps, a conservation corps focused on ecological restoration in the Pacific Northwest. He has also held varied leadership roles with the Adirondack Mountain Club. 

 

“I have a deep connection and long history with the Adirondacks,” says Brosseau. “I’m excited to join the team at AWI and contribute to the long term protection of its lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams.”  

 

AWI’s spread prevention network is carefully designed to place stewards at popular and high risk launches and along travel corridors across northern New York. Stewards operate at some of the busiest launches in the region including Lake Placid, Great Sacandaga, and Lake Champlain.  Additionally, stewards safeguard smaller and more remote waterbodies like those found in the St. Regis Canoe Area where invasive species introduction is high because organisms can easily spread from lake to lake. 

 

The boat inspection and decontamination stations are cooperatively funded by New York State’s Environmental Protection Fund, USEPA-Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Lake Champlain Basin Program, numerous Lake Associations, private foundations, and municipalities.  

 

Information about inspection and decontamination station locations, aquatic invasive species ecology, and steps the public can take to maintain the quality of New York’s waterways is at adkcleanboats.org.  

Detailed 2021 reports for each individual location can also be found on AWI’s website, adkwatershed.org.  

 

“The opportunity to consistently share the Clean, Drain, Dry message with the boating public is having a positive impact on our waters, and we look forward to another successful season,” says Kelting. 

 

The mission of the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute is to protect clean water, conserve habitat and support the health and well-being of the people in the Adirondacks through science, collaboration, and real-world experiences for students.

Bill Brosseau

Elizabeth Folwell Joins Adirondack Land Trust Board

KEENE — The Adirondack Land Trust announced that Elizabeth (Betsy) Folwell will join its board of directors this summer.

Folwell came to the Adirondacks in 1976 and has lived in Blue Mountain Lake ever since. She was the first education coordinator at what was then called the Adirondack Museum and with her husband, Tom Warrington, operated a general store in town. She directed the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts, likewise in Blue Mountain Lake, a year-round community arts center 1980–88. In 1989 she joined the staff of Adirondack Life as assistant editor and eventually became creative director in 2005.

In 2021 she retired from the magazine, with hundreds of articles and essays in the rear-view mirror. She is the author of Short Carries: Essays from Adirondack Life and the first three editions of The Adirondack Book.

Since 2017 Betsy and Tom have been bringing a 1946 Silk City diner back to life in Blue. The restaurant—Chef Darrell’s Mountain Diner—opened in June 2021 on NYS Route 30.

“She is such a force,” Bill McKibben (who is an Adirondack Land Trust advisory director) wrote in the introduction to Short Carries. “So deeply ingrained in this place that it’s almost easy to overlook her single greatest talent: her own writing.”

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 26,710 acres since its founding in 1984.

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

Elizabeth (Betsy) Folwell. Photo by Nancie Battaglia.

Photo at top: Wikipedia Commons photo.