How are we Different?
Why support Adirondack Wilderness Advocates?
We are sometimes asked by people why they should support us and not another Adirondack green group. After all, there are several environmental nonprofits that are larger and have been around longer than we have. We encourage you to support the Adirondack Park and its unparalleled wild places in whatever manner you choose, and we thank you for it no matter what choices you make. However, we really are different. Here are five reasons why you might want to donate to Adirondack Wilderness Advocates.
1. We are laser-focused on Wilderness
AWA is the only environmental group in the Adirondacks entirely devoted to Wilderness. We actively work on Wilderness protection and expansion in a variety of ways, including:
Promoting measurement and protection of remoteness, including distance from roads and trails
Measuring trail usage
Assuring and enhancing solitude
Describing every wilderness area in the Adirondacks and updating our descriptions with outing reports and any calls for action
Protecting wild areas from motorized access
Promoting additions to Wild Forest and Wilderness
2. We are a true grass-roots organization
AWA has no paid staff, no budget for lobbying and no membership fees. We are a grass-roots organization from top to bottom. By not engaging in paid activities, not lobbying and not getting involved in private land issues we can highlight our activism with the honest voices of our supporters and our shared values. Because our budget is small and focused on activism and sharing information, donations to us go further. We have miniscule overhead, so we can devote our resources to the causes we – and you - believe in.
3. We are trusted
We may be small, but we are mighty! Because we don’t play politics, because we say what we mean and mean what we say, and because we have a great deal of Adirondack expertise, we are seen by the state of New York and various stakeholders as a trusted and valuable partner. This helps make us much more effective. We have been invited to serve on the State of New York High Peaks Advisory Group, Trail Stewardship Group, Adirondack Environmental Roundtable, and much more. We have strong relationships with the State, local government officials, and other environmental organizations. We may not always agree, but we have earned trust and we are influential.
4. We favor science and reason over politics
A passion for Wilderness is the most important value we have. But too many times, arguments in the Adirondacks are based upon opinions, politics and subjective opinions that don’t have a basis in reality and are not in the best interests of the ecology of the Park. Our advocacy is backed by science and we make decisions informed by science. Our Board of Directors has experts in statistics, biology, ecology, engineering, and data. Our proposal to measure and better protect remoteness in the Forest Preserve is one example of AWA’s marriage of passion, science, and logic.
5. We stand by our values
We stand by our values even if it is in opposition to other organizations, trendy thinking or political messaging. We formed around the proposal to close Gulf Brook Road in the Boreas Ponds Tract because it would have resulted in a substantial increase in the amount of Wilderness that could have been protected for the people of New York. We were seen by some as extreme, but the majority of people who commented to the State, thousands of them, backed our position. We are always happy to work with others and we are always willing to listen to other points of view, especially from our supporters. We recognize that other organizations share many of our values. But we will never go the way the wind blows.