OLD FORGE — The nonprofit advocate Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve will present their annual awards during the organization’s meeting on Friday, Oct. 10, at View Arts Center in Old Forge. The public is warmly invited. An Annual Meeting agenda and registration information can be found at www.adirondackwild.org/events.

Champion of the Forest Preserve: This year’s Champion of the Forest Preserve goes to Chad Dawson, whose wilderness recreation research has guided Adirondack Forest Preserve stewardship for decades. As recreational pressures on the Preserve grew, so did Chad Dawson’s recreational surveys, carrying capacity assessments and visitor use management studies. His premise is that the Forest Preserve degrades if there is inadequate information, analysis, planning and management steps taken to guide our recreational impulses in ways protective of the wilderness. Chad’s work has critically informed wildland protection decisions of resource professionals, citizen advocates and the world. Chad is Professor Emeritus of Recreation Resources Management and former Chair of the faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, former Member of the Adirondack Park Agency, Managing Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness and co-editor of Wilderness Management: Stewardship and Protection of Resources and Values celebrating its 5th Edition in 2025.

Wild Stewardship Award: This year’s award goes to Park ecologist, Sunita Halasz. Sunita is a former natural resource analyst with the Adirondack Park Agency and, lately, the Climate Strategy Advisor for the Adirondack Research Consortium and coordinator of the Adirondack Climate Outreach and Resilience Network or ACORN. Sunita has turned ACORN into the first coordinated, Park-wide effort to identify common concerns and prioritize community-driven, proactive solutions in response to a changed Adirondack climate. Sunita’s energetic organizing has resulted in over a dozen community workshops, which have planted seeds to grow conversations, increase connections and social cohesion and inspire fresh climate leadership around the Adirondack Park. Thanks to Sunita and her team, ACORN has identified shared projects and climate response and resilience funding opportunities across twelve Adirondack counties. In her spare time, Sunita mentors future generations of climate leaders. After listening to young neighbors despair over the decline of melting glaciers, Sunita organized a club in Saranac Lake focused on climate change action. Now, a group of mostly home-schooled students is working on local projects to make their world healthier. In recent days, the Adirondack Council has recognized her many skills and hired Sunita to be their Clean Water Community Advocate.

Paul Schaefer Wilderness Award: In Aaron Mair, we see the same spirit of activism that inhabited wilderness leader Paul Schaefer (1908-1996). Aaron’s strong, courageous voice for environmental justice, wilderness protection and the recruitment of young people of color to enter environmental fields is heard here in New York and across the country and the world. After 15 years of working for environmental justice at the grassroots level with the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, Aaron became the first African American board president of the national Sierra Club. For his work, the Library of Congress accepted Aaron’s professional papers to serve as a foundation for its environmental justice library. While directing the Forever Adirondacks Campaign (Adirondack Council), Aaron’s recruitment of leaders of color in Albany and New York City has helped to address and to fund climate change research in Adirondack lakes, protect wilderness and prepare urban youth for environmental careers at the Timbuctoo Climate and Careers Institute hosted by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Thanks to Aaron, people of all colors and backgrounds know that this is their Adirondack Park, too, and that they have an equal stake in its future.

Those interested in joining Adirondack Wild to celebrate the honorees and to learn more about Wilderness Management: Stewardship of Resources and Values during Adirondack Wild’s annual meeting at View Arts can register by emailing krimany@adirondackwild.org or visiting adirondackwild.org/events. The meeting runs from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.