Environment DEC
From the August 2005 issue
Governor Announces $100,000 for Adirondack Research Library at Paul Schaefer House
One of the center's goals is to establish an educational facility designed to be in harmony with its natural setting
Governor George E. Pataki announced $100,000 in state funding to assist in the completion of the Center for the Forest Preserve and Adirondack Research Library located at 897 St. David's Lane in the Town of Niskayuna, Schenectady County, the former residence of the late conservationist, Paul Schaefer.
The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks is restoring the Schaefer home, built by Mr. Schaefer himself, and has constructed a 4,000-square-foot library to house its Adirondack research collection, a unique and valuable collection of works depicting the natural, cultural and political history of the Adirondack and Catskill parks.
Center's Goals
A goal of the center and the library is to advance conservation education. For those who have not known the inspiration of growing up with nature, the center will offer a series of educational programs, teacher training, curriculum development, seminars and workshops. It also will establish a model educational facility designed to be harmonious with its natural setting and to serve as a superior environment for both adult visitors and school children.
In addition, the center links its activities to an adjacent wildlife sanctuary, owned by the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club, containing trails and rich woodlands. It is a superb example of suburban protected space and a place where concepts learned in the center could be used.
Paul Schaefer
Paul Schaefer worked closely with a wide range of individuals and organizations, including governors and legislators, sportsmen and women, labor unions and garden clubs, to rally public support behind the preservation of the Forest Preserve in the Adirondacks and Catskills. He also worked with the founders of the national wilderness movement, and his personal and organizational activity on behalf of the Forest Preserve and the wilderness movement is the subject of three books and two documentary films.
Schaefer's commitment to natural resource protection earned him dozens of state and national awards. In 1990, he earned the national Alexander Calder Conservation Award. In 1998, Audubon Magazine listed him as one of the 100 most prominent conservationists of the century.
