David Gibson and Dan Plumley, both of whom resigned this month from Protect the Adirondacks, are thinking about forming a new environmental organization.
“We’re talking a lot about the possibility. Nothing’s crystallized,” said Gibson, who once served as Protect’s executive director.
Meanwhile, Charles Clusen, the chairman of the Protect board, said Protect expects to hire a new staff director in late June. The person will be given the title of president.
“This person lives in the Park, and he’s known the Adirondacks for a long time,” Clusen said.
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He said the person has “vast experience” in land-conservation issues and has headed at least three other organizations. “Overwhelmingly, people will be impressed,” Clusen said.
Protect was formed last year by the merger of the Association for the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks and the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks.
Gibson had served as executive director of the Association since 1987 and assumed the same title in the new organization. This March, however, he was demoted to adviser. When he was furloughed in May, he decided to call it quits in June.
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Plumley, who held the title of director of conservation programs, also quit in June. He told the Adirondack Daily Enterprise: “It’s been my great honor to work for and with Dave, and I have to admit, in many ways, in my heart, I kind of resigned from Protect when he was moved aside. That was a decision that I could not support.”
Gibson expects to decide by mid-July whether to go forward with starting a new organization.
I wonder if “splintering” into another group is a good idea? It seems to me that if the reason that necessitated a merger of the other two groups was economic than now is a pretty poor time to start a new group unless their hope is to “lure” members and dollars away from the other group(s).