A Consortium in Fact as well as Name

The first full year of the Adirondack Research Consortium’s operation as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization has been a time of collaboration and of building partnerships. We identified some 200 academic and research institutions, government agencies, and organizations whose representatives, in recent years, have attended or presented at ARC’s annual conference or written articles published in the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies. Our aim is to bring them, along with new institutions, into a network of organizational partnerships that collectively will make the ARC a consortium in fact as well as in name.

Our Partnership Advisory Council (ARC PAC), chaired by Dr. Ross Whaley, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Emeritus President and University Professor and past chair of the Adirondack Park Agency, is bringing together partners from academic, business, government, and NGO sectors to advise the ARC board on programs, initiatives, and priorities. A ‘Friendraiser’ reception at Heaven Hill Farm in Lake Placid served to launch the council, which will hold its first meeting in February at SUNY Albany.

Our 14th Annual Conference on the Adirondacks in May, on the theme of Sustainability, Climate Change and Protected Areas, drew 175 attendees and some of the nation’s leading scientists to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, resulting in extensive media coverage, including front page lead headlines in Adirondack region newspapers. The 15th Annual Conference on the Adirondacks, continuing the theme of Sustainability, will be held May 21–22 at the Crowne Plaza in Lake Placid.

The ARC is poised to undertake new initiatives, matching the needs of Adirondack users with the capabilities of research producers to address pressing issues for communities, land owners, the tourism, recreation and forest products industries, and local and state governments. None of this would be possible without the exceptional volunteer assistance of ARC board members and other ARC members and the considerable administrative skills of our executive director, Dan Fitts.

If your institution, agency, business, or organization is not yet an ARC Partner, or you are not a member, please join our accelerating agenda for collaborative research-based knowledge to improve the quality and vitality of the Adirondack region, by going to our website, www.adkresearch.org.

Best wishes for 2008 and thank you for playing your part to insure the environmental integrity and economic vitality of the Adirondack region.