The introduction to the council’s State of the Park reports - which evaluate local, state and federal governments and agencies’ environmental actions in relation to the Adirondacks - are traditionally written by the Adirondack Council’s executive director. “There is no Clean Air Act, no Adirondack Park Agency, no ‘Forever Wild’ Forest Preserve without the rule of law and an informed electorate.” “Reliable environmental standards and sustainable communities don’t exist in autocratic societies,” the report reads. In the report, the council calls for a return to democracy, highlighting its State of the Park report as one that doesn’t shy away from calling out government officials who have deepened political divides with fear and hampered environmental progress as a result. The report is titled “Stressed and Challenged,” a reference to what the report’s principal author, Adirondack Council Director of Communications John Sheehan sees as a period of “great change and emotion strain for the Adirondack park” exacerbated by a divisive political atmosphere that has stalled progress on environmental legislation. The Adirondack Council’s 40th annual State of the Park report, released last Tuesday, underscores what the Elizabethtown-based environmental advocacy organization describes as a period of stress in the wake of climate change and political challenges in the Adirondack Park.

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