2023 Spring Newsletter

A Community Connects Via Three Sisters update

Wilmington bills itself as the mountain biking capital of the Adirondacks—and Three Sisters Preserve is key to that identity. Acquired by the Lake Placid Land Conservancy (LPLC) in 2017, this 98-acre preserve serves as the connective tissue between residential areas, a municipal park, and nearby trail networks.

Roy Holzer, the town’s supervisor, recognizes how important it is for the community to promote sports and recreation. “As a small community, we have tremendous assets that appeal to the people that live here and the people who visit,” he says. “Three Sisters is a place that helps inspire community involvement and civic commitment.”

The two miles of trails on this preserve were built with assistance from volunteers. Eight years earlier, that sweat equity also created the Wilmington bike park, where dirt mounds, jumps, and berms help riders of all ages build skills

Spring 2023

and confidence. The bike park was a first for the region when it opened in 2009; at the same time, the Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA) tapped into volunteer enthusiasm to build mountain bikefriendly trails on state lands in Wilmington, including the Beaver Brook Tract

unto itself for bikers, trail runners, and walkers. It is a prime example of how land trusts and communities work together to strategically protect open space while enhancing quality of life and access to nature. This preserve came under the Adirondack Land Trust’s ownership on January 1, 2023, as part of our merger with LPLC. The preserve’s name derives from a prominent white pine on the property with three separate trunks reaching for the sky.

on Hardy Road. Both the park and the Hardy Road trails quickly grew in popularity. Yet the two locations functioned independently because visiting both required a car ride. Three Sisters changed that by making a bikeable link possible. It is common now to see a steady flow of riders between the two. With high-quality trails built and maintained by BETA and two small parking areas, Three Sisters is also a destination

Our merger with LPLC was supported with grant funding from the PCLB Foundation and the New York State Conservation Partnership Program and NY’s Environmental Protection Fund. The NYSCPP is administered by the Land Trust Alliance with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Please visit adirondacklandtrust.org for more information about the merger and visiting Three Sisters.

Three Sisters, a mixed forest of pine and hardwood trees, is a welcoming outdoor space with shared-use trails.

Photo: © Jamie McGiver

“Three Sisters is a place that helps inspire community involvement and civic commitment.”

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

William Paternotte, Chair

Stephen H. Burrington, Chair-Elect

David Henle, Vice Chair

Jonathan S. Linen, Vice Chair

Timothy Fritzinger, Treasurer

Anne C. Stuzin, Secretary

Elizabeth McLanahan, Executive Committee Member

David Brunner

Charles Canham, Ph.D.

Elizabeth Folwell

Barbara Glaser, Ed.D.

Lisa Guide

Heidi Kretser, Ph.D.

Brian T. Majeski

Joe Martens

Vinny McClelland

Amy McCune, Ph.D.

Catherine McGraw

Peter S. Paine, Jr.

Holly Rippon-Butler

Julie Willis

Advisory Directors

Mike DiNunzio

Bill McKibben

Amy Vedder, Ph.D.

Chairs Emeriti

Lionel O. Barthold

James C. Dawson, Ph.D.

Harry Groome

Edward W. McNeil

Meredith M. Prime

Charles O. Svenson

NEXT GEN COUNCIL

Patrick Bly

Stephanie Campbell

Adeline Clayton

Naishaly Velez Galan

Evan Foster

Jess Grant

Lura Johnson

Brianna LaRose

Carlie Leary

Molly Passacantando

Cassandra Prenn-Vasilaki

Renee Seacor

Charlotte Staats

Madeleine Stuzin

Emma Ticknor

Thomas Wei

Brooke Wise

Brian Woods

Savannah Woods

2861 NYS Route 73 PO Box 130, Keene, NY 12942

(518) 576-2400

info@adirondacklandtrust.org adirondacklandtrust.org

WHY WE GIVE THE STUZIN FAMILY’S COMMITMENT TO PLACE SPANS GENERATIONS

Anne Stuzin’s headlamp beams into the dense forest of the High Peaks Wilderness. Her light refracts through rain drops, then bounces off two golden eyes. Large, low to the ground. A bear, she tells her daughter Maddie. They are tired after hiking in the Seward Range all day. Now adrenaline morphs into speed—and song. Anne and Maddie race to the trailhead, screaming Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” into the night.

Anne’s affinity for the outdoors began in Vermont, where she spent time as a child exploring the woods and waters near the rustic cabin her parents owned. Years later, after Anne and her husband, Ken, moved to Baltimore, a colleague of Ken’s suggested the Stuzins take a trip to the Adirondacks with their three young children.

When the family visited the High Peaks in 2007, Anne realized the Adirondacks offered her children what Vermont had given her. “It was a time of great adventure and discovery,” she says. The family climbed Hurricane Mountain, found swimming holes, and soon made summer trips to the Adirondacks an annual event. “Every single second was precious,” Maddie says. “When I’m in the Adirondacks now, I feel a visceral connection to who I was as a child and that unhindered time with my family.”

The colleague with travel advice was Bill Paternotte, then an Adirondack Land Trust board member, now the current chair. Bill also introduced the Stuzins to our work and in 2020, Anne joined our board of directors. For Anne, giving back to a place she loves was a natural progression. “My parents not only exposed us to the outdoors, but to a value system that planted the seeds of philanthropy,” she says. “At the Adirondack Land Trust, we’re all driven by our passion for this place and our great interest in protecting it.”

Maddie followed her mother’s lead, joining the Next Gen Council for people in their 20s and 30s interested in land conservation. “It’s a special connection between us,” Maddie says. “It’s also symbolic of what Next Gen wants to do, which is build relationships with the board so they can hear about what younger people believe.”

Back at the Sewards trailhead, Anne and Maddie arrived ahead of group members carrying the car keys. They huddled under a rain poncho, late for dinner back home. The misadventure became Stuzin family lore, one more wild moment that deepened their connection, and commitment, to the Adirondacks.

Like mother, like daughter, Anne and Maddie Stuzin support the land trust in many ways.

Photo: Anne (left) and Maddie Stuzin, provided by Anne Stuzin

The Pride and Joy of Land Protection

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CONSERVATION EASEMENT LANDOWNER

Greg Fetters, a retired CPA, walks his 134-acre property in Essex County’s Town of Jay every day no matter the conditions. He puts microspikes on his boots when it’s icy; clicks into bindings when the snow is deep enough for skiing; wears long sleeves and a hat when the bugs are thick. Along the way, he makes a mental note of trees that have been blown over by wind, felled by beavers, or are showing signs of distress. This prepares him for late fall when he spends nearly every weekend cutting, hauling, and splitting wood that will be used to heat his home in winter. “This process really connects me to the land,” he says.

After seeing fields and forests turned into housing lots in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware as he grew up, Greg knew he didn’t want that for his land. He decided to put his Adirondack property under a conservation easement and now takes comfort on those daily excursions in knowing the forest will remain a forest long after he is gone. The easement restricts development while allowing for forest management. His land is enrolled

in New York State’s timber management program called 480a, which helps to reduce his property taxes.

Greg’s eyes light up when he talks about the wildlife he has seen on his jaunts, including black bears, fishers, otters, porcupines, owls, great blue herons, and other critters. The day he saw a moose was unforgettable. “At first, I thought it was somebody’s horse that wandered away but no— it had antlers and it was huge!” he recalls.

As the former chair of the Lake Placid Land Conservancy, Greg played a leading role in facilitating our merger with LPLC to streamline operations and ensure continued open space protection. With the merger complete, we are proud to count his parcel among the 61 properties covering nearly 20,000 acres throughout the Adirondacks where we work with private landowners to conserve important lands and waters.

For information about private land conservation, please contact Megan Stevenson: megan.stevenson@adirondacklandtrust.org or (518) 576-2400 ext. 109.

Photo: Greg Fetters (left) and Derek Rogers © Nancie Battaglia

The day he saw a moose was unforgettable

Greg Fetters enjoys his land today and has taken steps to ensure it is protected in perpetuity.

Like their grandfather Ray, and father, John Fadden, Dave and Donnie Fadden are both artists and storytellers who are playing an important part in maintaining cultural traditions among Mohawk people and building bridges with non-Native communities.

Donnie Fadden, Elizabeth Fadden, and Dave Fadden, of the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center, and land trust Conservation Program Director Chris Jage.

The center’s new site will allow them to relocate the visitor center and expand educational programming that ties to traditional Haudenosaunee land uses and stewardship practices.

The center’s staff and board are seeking grant funding and private donations to realize their vision for a state-of-the-art facility that incorporates solar, geothermal and other sustainability measures.

Learn more: facebook.com/SixNationsIroquoisCulturalCenter

Pictured from left to right:

HOW THE STARS ALIGNED

333 ACRES PROTECTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SIX NATIONS IROQUOIS CULTURAL CENTER

Dave Fadden’s Mohawk name, Kanietakeron, means “patches of snow.” He was born in March and his maternal grandmother thought it fitting to reflect the Akwesasne landscape during that time of year. Dave is an artist and storyteller, and he directs the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center in Onchiota. Through a land protection partnership in this northern part of the Adirondacks, where the forests have a distinctly boreal feel, our stories are now intertwined. The way Dave tells it is that the “stars aligned” in multiple ways. First, the pandemic inspired a new vision for the center when it closed in 2020 for the first time in its history. After operating as a family business since Dave’s grandfather, Ray Tehanetorens Fadden, established it in 1954, the center became a nonprofit to further its educational goals. With more than 3,000 artifacts in their collection and a steady increase in visitors, they needed more space than the current site could accommodate.

Two chance encounters would soon make the dream of a new facility and a suitable new site less daunting. One was being introduced to Ray Kinoshita Mann, an architect and wife of Charles Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. (Charles met Dave while on an assignment for National Geographic.) Ray Mann drew up pro bono renderings that preserve the current 80-by-20-foot building, modeled after a traditional longhouse, within a new facility.

The other was learning about the Adirondack Land Trust through Mary Thill, a staffer who visited the center in

fall 2021. Dave and Mary got to talking about a nearby 333-acre property for sale. That led the land trust to first evaluate the land’s conservation values using a variety of criteria. The forested wetlands, adjacency to Forest Preserve, and climate resilience characteristics made it a priority, as did the prospect of working with a new nonprofit partner.

In August 2022, the land trust purchased the land for its appraised value of $207,500 and transferred it to the cultural center in October 2022 for $103,750. The lower sales price reflects the value of the conservation easement that will protect the land in perpetuity. The new center and its amenities will occupy 30 acres while the surrounding forests will remain undeveloped, giving the center space to incorporate traditional Haudenosaunee land uses and stewardship practices into its educational programming.

In Dave’s telling, he compares our respective organizational goals to the two row wampum belt that recognizes parallel paths and mutual respect. “The center and the land trust share a common belief and philosophy with regards to preservation, conservation, and stewardship of land,” he says.

“The Haudenosaunee, of which the Mohawks are one of six nations, have a notion of looking forward to the seventh generation ahead when thinking about how the decisions and actions we make today impact those who will come after us.”

That’s what land conservation is all about. We are honored to work together to incorporate and respect Native values to conserve the natural integrity of this property, and we have much to learn along the way.

Olivia Dwyer joined the staff in February as Communications Specialist. Her appreciation for wild lands and waters began with the many treks of her Adirondack childhood. She earned a BS in natural resources from Cornell University, then worked as a journalist focused on outdoor recreation, public lands, environmental issues, and the social concerns of North America’s mountain communities.

Maya Fuller, a Syracuse University junior hailing from Buffalo, has been selected as this year’s Intern for the Future of the Adirondacks. A sociology and geography double major, with a minor in environment and society, they will advance key projects, including integrating access and diversity into all facets of our work, as well as event planning and recruitment with our Next Gen Council.

STAFF

Mike Carr, Executive Director

Joe Scrimenti moved to the Adirondacks from Pennsylvania in December to join the staff as Office Administrator. He has worked in stewardship, interpretation, and education roles at Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Yosemite Conservancy, Asbury Woods Nature Center in Pennsylvania, and 350 Vermont. He was introduced to the Adirondacks while obtaining a BS in environmental studies from the University of Vermont.

Kimberly Corwin-Gray, Associate Director of Philanthropy

Olivia Dwyer, Communications Specialist

Becca Halter, Stewardship & GIS Specialist

Chris Jage, Conservation Program Director

Connie Prickett, Director of Communications

Derek Rogers, Stewardship Manager

Susie Runyon, Finance & Operations Manager

Joe Scrimenti, Office Administrator

Megan Stevenson, Land Protection Manager

Mary Thill, Grants Manager

Aaron Thomas, Farmland & Stewardship Specialist

Nancy Van Wie, Director of Philanthropy

Kathy Woughter, Philanthropy & Outreach Coordinator

WHY GIVE?

When you invest in the Adirondack Land Trust, you invest in clean water, local food, beautiful views, and places for people to enjoy nature.

Please visit our website, or scan this QR code with your phone, to learn how to give via credit card, appreciated stock, or IRA distribution, and find out about our business and community partner program.

Business and Community Partners Shout Out! We are proud to work with these businesses and community partners for a healthy environment, healthy communities, and healthy people: The Bookstore Plus, Dak Bar, Divinely Sue, Spirit Sanctuary, Zone 3 Photography.

Photos: staff © Lisa Godfrey, intern provided by Maya Fuller; gray fox © Larry Master

A DIRONDACK LAND TRUST

CONNECT WITH US THIS SPRING AND SUMMER

Activities are free of charge, participants must register in advance through our website. We hope to see you soon!

VOLUNTEER WORKDAY

Coon Mountain Preserve, Westport

Friday, May 5, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Roll up your sleeves for a half-day to help replace split rail fencing near the kiosk or assist with invasive species control through tarp installation and hand pulling. If time permits, hike the 0.7-mile trail to the summit to enjoy views that may include migrating raptors this time of year.

MOTHER’S DAY WILDFLOWER HIKE

Coon Mountain Preserve, Westport

Sunday, May 14, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Coon Mountain is bursting with wildflowers around Mother’s Day. A naturalist will lead a group—all wildflower admirers welcome—on this moderate 1.4-mile round trip summit hike, including a steep and rocky section, with stops along the way to enjoy the woodland flora.

BIRD WALK

Asgaard Farm & Dairy, Au Sable Forks

Saturday, May 20, 8 to 11 a.m.

Join Adirondack Land Trust Stewardship Manager Derek Rogers and farm owner David Brunner on a bird walk during the heart of spring migration. In addition to being on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, Asgaard’s open fields, edges, forest, and wetlands host a variety of bird species. Derek volunteers as the Adirondack region review coordinator for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology eBird program and editor for NYS Ornithological Association journal The Kingbird.

ANNUAL

MEETING — SAVE THE DATE!

Uihlein Farm, Lake Placid

Saturday, August 12

Join us for a program featuring keynote speaker Elizabeth (Betsy) Folwell, an editor and creative director of Adirondack Life from 1989 to 2020 as well as an entrepreneur, author, and civic leader. The gathering will include optional field trips and in-person connections.

Event details will be shared by mail and posted on our website.

To sign up or learn more about our field trips or events, please visit adirondacklandtrust.org/events.

update

Spring 2023

PO Box 130, Keene, NY 12942

In the process of taking care of the Adirondacks we take care of each other, and we commit to a better and brighter future for our planet.

—Lisa Guide, board member