LAKE PLACID — The Adirondack Council, an Elizabethtown-based environmental advocacy group, will present its Conservationist of the Year Award to the Northeast Wilderness Trust for its efforts to permanently protect forests, reconnect wildlife habitat, and reestablish wilderness areas from Maine to the Adirondack Park at Heaven Hill Farm in Lake Placid on July 13.

The award will be presented during the Adirondack Council’s annual Forever Wild Day celebration. The council’s annual membership meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, July 10 at 4 p.m.

“Celebrating the work of the Northeast Wilderness Trust during the council’s Forever Wild Day underscores the unique nature of the Adirondack Park as an international conservation success story, blending public and private lands,” said Raul J. Aguirre, executive director of the Adirondack Council. “NEWT’s work across the Northern Forest allows for the permanent protection of sensitive ecological habitats on private lands and provides a conservation option that would otherwise be unavailable. In the Adirondacks, NEWT’s wilderness ethic nicely compliments the Forever Wild nature of our globally significant wilderness areas and public lands.”

In New York, NEWT manages 18 preserves covering more than 10,000 acres, including the Split Rock Wildway and the Moriah Wilderness and Eagle Mountain Preserves. These wildlands provide a critical connection between the Champlain Valley and the High Peaks Wilderness Complex. NEWT also works in the St. Lawrence River Valley, where it is rewilding landscapes in partnership with local land trusts to create forever-wild habitat linkages between the Adirondack Park and the similarly sized Algonquin Park in southern Canada.

“Rewilding is all about reconnecting large, protected landscapes, so plants, animals, fish and fungi can adapt to rapid environmental changes as a result of climate change,” Aguirre said. “Rewilding in the Adirondacks has meant recovering from a period of timber overharvesting in the 19th and early 20th centuries that led to widespread droughts and wildfires. Both of those calamities are much less likely in the Adirondacks today than they were 100 years ago, because of New York’s rewilding efforts in the Park. NEWT is carrying that torch forward and beyond the Adirondacks.”

“The council’s recognition of our conservation impact is a profound honor for Northeast Wilderness Trust,” said Jon Leibowitz, president and CEO of the Wilderness Trust. “The Adirondack Park is the world’s greatest modern example of rewilding and a source of enduring inspiration in our mission to protect the northeast’s precious landscapes. We are delighted to accept this award, and to help uphold the promise that the park will remain a bastion for wildlife, nature and people into the future.”

During the celebration, the council will also recognize the work of environmental and justice activist Benita Law-Diao. In addition to her more than 30-year career as a New York state licensed public health nutritionist/dietitian, Law-Diao has worked in the environmental space to increase access to and promote environmental stewardship of the Adirondacks and beyond. In 2022, Law-Diao was appointed to the Adirondack Park Agency board. She is also an Outdoor Afro Leader for Albany and upstate New York, bringing people of all backgrounds to the Adirondacks for connection to nature, community and fun. Among her many other roles, Law-Diao works with John Brown Lives!, Adirondack Experience, Eagle Island Camp, and is a Master Gardener.