Deeper Adirondacks exposure for lawmakers sparks plan to invest in future environmental ‘champions’
By Gwendolyn Craig
As state budget negotiations continue this month, there is a push from downstate lawmakers and Adirondack organizations for $2.1 million to fund a careers institute set on graduating future climate change leaders, while also making the 6-million-acre park more accessible.
One of the lawmakers leading the push is Zellnor Myrie, a 35-year-old Brooklyn Democrat. The state senator never visited the Adirondacks until about four years ago when he took a trip with friends. But his skiing vacation hardly scratched the surface of the park’s mountains, waters and historic sites. Last year, Myrie dove in deeper on a trip to Lake Placid with the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus.
The caucus met in the Adirondacks for the first time, and members spent three days exploring places like Heaven Hill, John Brown Farm State Historic Site and Timbuctoo, where Brown and Black men seeking suffrage settled in the mid-1800s.
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The December visit, Myrie said, made him “shocked and disappointed” that he had not learned about the Adirondacks’ historic significance, let alone its role in conservation.
RELATED: Read about the caucus’s visit, which brought top elected leaders to Lake Placid for first meeting outside of Albany READ MORE
Myrie and state Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages are sponsoring a $2.1 million request in the state’s tentative $216 billion budget for the Timbuctoo Summer Climate and Careers Institute. It would be a partnership between the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry and City University of New York Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. The Adirondack Council has led the call for the funding, along with other park stakeholders.
The state Assembly and Senate have passed their respective budget bills, with funding earmarked for Adirondack Park-related projects. The Assembly included $10 million for the Adirondack and Catskill parks, while the Senate itemized $50 million for state land stewardship. There is not a specific carve-out for the climate institute, though the Senate budget includes an option for $13 million for priority projects in the Adirondacks and Catskills.
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The institute would host annual, two-week courses for students interested in climate science with “the dual benefit of beginning to address the systemic issues of access to the Adirondack Park from an equity and justice perspective,” according to a description of the project.
“I think it’s a really smart investment and one that could become, I believe, a legacy of this state to connect downstate and upstate regions,” Myrie said. “I believe our next climate champions will come out of this institute.”
Solages’ office did not respond to requests for an interview, but earlier this month she held a caucus talk on the social media platform Twitter about the Timbuctoo proposal.
“It’s a small investment for something that has a huge impact in our state,” she said.
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Aaron Mair, campaign director of the Adirondack Council’s Forever Adirondacks, said he hopes the institute can assemble this summer and eventually support 30 to 100 students.
“(It’s) going to be a Herculean task, because you’re building this plane while you’re flying it,” Mair said.
COMMENTARY: Aaron Mair on the opportunities the institute would provide READ MORE
Mair envisions the institute as part of a national push for a Civilian Climate Corps, similar to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. FDR’s program employed young men from urban areas in the country’s forests and parks.
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“We’re doing that again,” Mair said, “in the time and in the moment of climate change.”
The institute could foster the next generation of trail builders, researchers, land managers, journalists, mappers and foresters. Funding the institute, Mair said, could lead to a bigger investment in the Adirondacks and in the next generation. It could also be an opportunity for the state to recognize a place of historic significance. Mair said some of the legislators during their visit to Timbuctoo last year looked like they had “recovered a piece of lost memory.”
“In 1846, this was a place of liberation for them, and the first fight for Black suffrage, for the right to vote,” Mair said. “And then you’re able to go outside and then see the High Peaks and say ‘Wow, I now know why they came here.’”
What a great idea for a “climate institute” here that builds upon the history of John Brown’s Farm and the great work of Martha Swan and “John Brown Lives”.
Thank you Sen. Myrie and Assemblywoman Solages for your work on this. And thank you Gwen Craig for reporting this uplifting story during this dreary time of Covid and war and climate change, and giving us hope for the future.
Let us HOPE that if we will just stand fast for the truth and stop hating each other, we can truly begin to achieve great things by working TOGETHER! Time is getting short, but if we work TOGETHER, we can still pass along this unique and wonderful Adirondack Park to a new – and yes, whether you like it or not – a more diverse generation, of young people, who will learn to love and to care for this wonderful region just as we do and have done, no matter what our backgrounds, all through our history.
So let’s all come together, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and start making good things happen for the future of the north country. Let’s all help everybody’s children and grandchildren to become the next generation of environmental “champions” who will make Adirondack Country continue to be a welcoming place for all – residents and visitors alike.
To tell the truth, I absolutely support this aspiration to open a climate institute because I think that it will be a really reasonable investment which will bear huge fruits afterwards. From my point of view, a climate institute has a great deal of advantages because it is a great opportunity for students to become more aware of climate science and all aspects connected with climate. Studying climate has a paramount importance in our world because climatic change is such a relevant and pressing issue nowadays which requires a great engagement. Of course, the institute could foster the next generation of really talented people who could make a considerable contribution to the improvement and development of our world. From my point of view, the climate institute can perform a really important function and it is a necessary project.
There is a ready made channel for state funding of a “Climate Institute” as currently envisioned. What’s more, it would shorten the length of time to get programming up and running with an interdisciplinary cadre of highly qualified applied researchers and experienced educators.
No need to reinvent the wheel here…the State University of New York’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center already has 60 plus years of ongoing climate studies — some of which use the iconic Schaefer Observatory on the top of Whiteface Mountain near Lake Placid. What’s more, SUNY’s Adirondack Community College in Queensbury and SUNY’s Environmental, Science and Forestry in Syracuse have dozens of faculty already oriented to climate studies. Surely they could be harnessed into a robust program with practical applications regarding climate oriented careers at all levels of the targeted student population.
A “Climate Institute” centered on these existing SUNY institutions would be a smart and timely addition to benefit the study of climate challenges in the Adirondacks.
This is fantastic! But why only 2.1million out of 216 billion budget? 2 to 3 billion would be better fit this project.
Jim Schaefer, Just as I learned so much from my mentor, Paul Schaefer, in my early years fighting the Gooley Dam, I think there are also many worthwhile things to unpack in your comments here about climate science and careers.
But the urgency of global climate distress has finally brought well meaning people together on this proposal, and it now has growing legislative support from many quarters, so let’s all work together to get this plan funded started and build on it in the days ahead.
Of course, the institute could foster the next generation of really talented people who could make a considerable contribution to the improvement and development of our world. From my point of view, the climate institute can perform a really important function and it is a necessary project.