ADK Advocates for the EPF

February 10, 2025—Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) staff spent the day at the Albany Capitol during the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) lobby day with Senator Pete Harckham and other Senate and Assembly leaders who support stewardship in the Adirondacks and Catskills. The Environmental Protection Fund is a critical fund that is negotiated each year during the New York State budget process.

The EPF supports projects and programs that clean the air we breathe, safeguard clean drinking water, create parks and trails, support environmental justice, preserve wildlife habitat, protect farms and forests, prevent pollution, and improve the quality of life in every county of New York. ADK joined with New Yorkers for Clean Water and Jobs, and its many organizations from across the state, to request $500 million for the EPF in this year’s state budget.

The EPF protects the High Peaks Wilderness and keeps recreators safe by helping to fund ADK’s Summit Stewardship Program, professional trail crew, and interpretive staff at the High Peaks Information Center and Cascade Welcome Center.

While in Albany, the ADK team requested funding for ADK’s visitor centers. Thanks to Senators and Assemblymembers, this line was in the final budget last year for $250,000 under State Land Stewardship in the EPF. It was cut from the Executive Budget Proposal that was posted in January, so restoration in the Assembly and Senate one-house budget bills is critical.

The funding supports five interpretive staff who cover the High Peaks Information Center and the Cascade Welcome Center in the High Peaks Wilderness, at the busiest trailhead in New York in the High Peaks Wilderness, and on NY 73 on the busiest travel corridor in the Adirondacks.

Over 120,000 are served at ADK visitor centers annually, with over 50,000 engaged directly by skilled interpretive staff or trained volunteers at the visitor center sites. EPF funding also partially funds the Summit Stewardship Program, which annually engages 40,000 visitors on New York’s highest mountains and protects the fragile alpine zone and rare alpine species from damage, as well as helps to keep recreators safe on the mountain peaks.

The ADK team in Albany also requested $12 million for dedicated stewardship funding for the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves. The Executive Proposal included $8 million for this line, but last year’s final budget was $10 million (thanks to the work of the Senate and Assembly). This EPF line funds ADK educational stewards who engage 25,000 visitors at the busy trailheads of the NY 73 corridor. The funding also supports similar programs in the Catskills at high use areas such as Kaaterskill Clove, and Peekamoose Blue Hole.

The dedicated stewardship line in the EPF also supports trail construction and maintenance throughout the Adirondacks and Catskills, including work done by ADK’s professional trail crew. Recreation infrastructure (e.g., trailheads, parking, and water access), projects to improve inclusivity and accessibility, critical materials (e.g., materials for bridges, docks, camp sites, parking and day use areas), ecological monitoring, and Visitor Use Management (VUM) planning and implementation are all supported by this funding line.

Other requests include support for research and monitoring by Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI), and the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC) Whiteface Mountain Field Station; and support for the other visitor centers of the Forest Preserve including the Catskills Visitor Center, the Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center, and the SUNY ESF Adirondack Interpretive Center.