Join with PROTECT staff and other Adirondack organizations to advocate State Legislators in Albany for Adirondack Park-specific funding! If you are interested in participating in the Adirondack Park Lobby Day, register online using the registration form below to attend or call the office at (518) 251-2700. Please register soon to ensure that you have a spot on one of the teams for our Adirondack Park Lobby Day in Albany. This is a great opportunity to stand up for the Forest Preserve and Adirondack Park.
Join us at the State New York State Capitol on Monday February 24, 2025
We will gather at 9:30A.M on the Third Floor Terrace of the Legislative Office Building (LOB) to hear from environmental leaders about our lobbying priorities. Afterwards we will break into groups, with a point person for each group, to meet with various Legislators in the Senate and Assembly. Guidance and lobbying materials will be provided to each participant so that we have concise and consistent talking points. The meetings with Legislators will probably last for a few hours.
Meet in Concourse Room 7 in the Empire State Plaza.
Lobby Day 2025 Agenda
Here’s the tentative agenda:
9:30 AM: Check-in (LOB Third Floor Terrace)
10:00 AM: Welcome and morning program
11:00 AM – 3:30 PM: Meetings with elected officials and staff (with break for lunch)
3:30 PM: Debrief/Wrap Up
We need you with us in Albany to show state leaders that there is strong grassroots support for environmental protection in the Adirondacks!
Funding Priorities We Want in the Budget
The funding that we will be requesting includes, among other critical programs, funds for:
- Land stewardship and acquisition in the Park to protect lands like Whitney Park and to meet the goals of the State’s 30 by 30 law
- Adirondack Visitor Centers: ADK High Peaks, Catskill Center, Paul Smith’s Visitor Information Center, and SUNY School of Environmental Science and Forestry Adirondack Interpretative Center in Newcomb
- Adirondack Watershed Institute and Whiteface Mountain Field Station
- A carrying capacity study on major waterbodies in the Adirondacks
- Survey of Climate Change and Adirondack Lakes Ecosystems (SCALE) study
- Timbuctoo Summer Climate and Career Institute
- Invasive species control and prevention
- Water, sewer and septic system infrastructure to keep our water clean
We are also advocating for legislation to implement the road salt pollution prevention measures that were identified in the Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force Report.
Additionally, we will be educating Legislators on the fact that the Adirondack Park Agency Act (APA Act) is seriously out of date. The APA Act should be amended to slow climate change and make the Adirondack Park more climate resilient by protecting sensitive lakes and shorelines, preventing forest fragmentation, applying science-based development standards, and assisting Park communities to plan for their futures.
Click here to read a joint letter to Governor Kathy Hochul from Protect the Adirondacks and other groups outlining Adirondack Park priorities for the new 2025-2026 state budget.
Click here for our analysis of Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed Executive Budget and the changes that we are requesting that the Legislature make to the budget.
