Thank you for supporting our "No Motors in Wilderness" petition
The definition of “motor vehicle” will NOT be altered to permit motorized vehicles in Wilderness Areas. This is a huge victory.
Meet Our Newest Board Members
Read about our newest Board Members, Amy Nelson, Janelle Jones, and Tim Mount.
AWA Supports Trail Usage Research
AWA has been studying the use of trail counters and kiosks for some time in the context to visitor use data.
Update: OPDMDs and Wilderness Access for People with Disabilities
The redefinition of “motor vehicle” would fundamentally alter the traditional definition of Wilderness, which has always had the prohibition of motor vehicle access by the public as an essential tenet.
People with Disabilities have a Right to Accommodations – So Does Wilderness
It has long been a characteristic of human societies that oppressed classes end up pitted against each other, as though one is the cause of the other’s oppression. When it comes to the matter of improved access to the Forest Preserve for those with disabilities, let’s not let it happen here in the Adirondacks.
Help us to protect Wilderness!
Motorized access in Wilderness would be a violation of one of the most fundamental tenets of wilderness protection.
Keep Debar Pond Forever Wild
Debar Pond one of the most scenic spots in the Adirondack Forest Preserve—and probably a place you haven’t even yet had a chance to see.
2024 Open Woods Ski Season at Jenkins Mountain Announced
It’s 2024 and ski season is upon us! Skiing and visitor use management studies are our favorite thing.
Protecting Remoteness: AWA at the Adirondack Sports Summer Expo
Every year, Adirondack Wilderness Advocates has a booth at the Adirondack Sports Expo, where we highlight a current campaign, engage the public and have a great time talking with people about the their passion for wilderness and advocating for our latest causes.
Adirondack Road Agency
Are roads in wild places a manufactured crisis? AWA co-founder Bill Ingersoll explores this topic.
Hiker Dispersal – Take the Survey!
What are your opinions on hiker dispersal? Let us know!
Making the Call for Wilderness
This organization began as a citizen’s campaign. When other, more established groups seemed all too willing to trade concessions on wilderness for what seemed like mere tidbits of political credibility, we saw a need to step forward and demonstrate what wilderness advocacy truly is. While we didn’t get everything we wanted, it was clear we had made an impression that year, so after that original “crisis” passed we decided to formally incorporate and see what else we could do.
Leading the Way on Adaptive Management
Adaptive management, recommended by the State of New York High Peaks Advisory Group (HPAG), of which we were a part, is an iterative approach to wilderness and visitor management that uses science and data to drive a cycle of measuring, learning and adapting to changing conditions. Used with great success elsewhere, it is the world-class management approach that Adirondack wilderness needs and deserves.
Stewardship Within the Adirondack Park
The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation has long depended on — and partnered with — organizations to deploy stewards. From summits to trailheads to water access points, these stewards help educate the public on responsible recreation and enlist their help in protecting the Forest Preserve.
Cuomo’s Divisive Adirondack Legacy
If you travel far enough northeast in Essex County you’ll reach a seemingly un-Adirondack mixture of expansive pastures interrupted by forested hills – a bucolic landscape somewhat more evocative of Vermont or the Catskills rather than the land of French Louie and Old Mountain Phelps. But this is nevertheless one’s first impression of Exit 32. Turning westward onto County Road 12, though, one is presented with a rugged mountain skyline, where the Adirondack bedrock seems ready to burst vertically out of its forested cloak….
Join AWA for Second Wilderness Webinar
Ari, who works in public sector data management and innovation, will talk about what we have accomplished so far and discuss how this tool could be used in collaboration with organizations within and beyond the Adirondack Park. He will discuss how this tool fits into an array of efforts that seek to enhance the wild character of the Forest Preserve through better monitoring, visitor education, and rapid adaptation.
Remembering Paul Schaefer: Camp Life at the Cataract Club
Paul Schaefer was perhaps the most famous Adirondack conservation “hero” of the twentieth century, the citizen-advocate who took on Albany on a number of Forest Preserve issues – and won. He hiked, he owned property, and he wrote. He is credited with the first known winter ascent of Crane Mountain in Warren County, and he tirelessly traveled the state to present the top issues concerning the Adirondack Park to civics-minded groups everywhere…
Expertise and Adaptive Management for the High Peaks
AWA’s first order of business in serving on the High Peaks Advisory Group (HPAG) was to ensure that protection of the Wilderness was a paramount and inviolate principle. That was established early in our meetings and it is clearly stated in the HPAG’s Final Report. Now comes the hard part: how to protect and preserve that Wilderness in the face of massive surges in use and the increasing pressures of a changing world.