The Adirondack Council released its 45th annual State of the Park Report on Wednesday, assessing more than 90 local, state and federal actions affecting the six-million-acre preserve over the past year. The report credits Gov. Kathy Hochul with directing funding and protections to the Park, while warning that federal environmental changes and upcoming turnover in government could affect the region.
Adirondack Council Executive Director Raul J. Aguirre said “we've seen federal environmental protections weakened and unprecedented threats to some of our most cherished public lands,” according to the Adirondack Council. The nonprofit, founded in 1975 and privately funded with no government money accepted, says the report addresses federal changes affecting air quality, roadless lands, endangered species and wetlands, as reported by NEWS10 ABC. The Park spans 9,300 square miles and includes roughly 130,000 year-round residents across 92 towns and nine villages.
State Funding and Protections, With Policy Disputes Ahead
The Council's report praised Hochul for environmental funding, opposing efforts to motorize wilderness areas, pausing state approvals of data centers and committing funds toward protecting the 36,000-acre Whitney Estate in Long Lake. NEWS10 ABC reported that the state rejected a proposal to open 1.2 million acres of wilderness to motorized vehicles and enacted a one-year moratorium on high-demand data centers.
New York's 2026-27 state budget approved $525 million for clean-water infrastructure and septic-system replacement, a $25 million increase over the prior year, according to the Council's report. It also added $2 million for the Survey of Climate and Adirondack Lake Ecosystems, bringing total appropriations for that research to $8.5 million, and dedicated $10 million to Adirondack and Catskill visitor safety and wilderness protection.
Separately, Hochul announced water-infrastructure grants for ten North Country communities, with Elizabethtown in Essex County set to receive $14 million for a municipal sewer and wastewater-treatment system, according to North Country Public Radio. Hochul also received praise for up to $150 million in funding for residential heat pumps, per NEWS10 ABC's account of the report.
State Climate Rules Draw Council Criticism
The Council also criticized changes to New York's climate law and State Environmental Quality Review Act made during budget negotiations. NEWS10 ABC reported that the Council objected to the closed-door talks involving Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The station reported that state officials moved the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act's first compliance deadline from 2030 to 2040 and changed how greenhouse gas emissions are counted under the law.
In comments to NEWS10 ABC, Hochul's energy and environmental advisor, Ken Lovett, said the SEQRA changes apply only to previously disturbed sites and not within the Adirondack Park. Lovett also said the state's new greenhouse gas accounting method is used by 48 other states, including California and Massachusetts, and that Hochul has prioritized affordability, housing construction, and keeping energy affordable and reliable. NEWS10 ABC reported that state Sen. Dan Stec, who has petitioned to repeal the CLCPA and sponsored legislation to delay its deadlines, cited a NYSERDA finding that 2030 targets would cost upstate households more than $4,000 a year.
The Council's report also says New York's executive and legislative branches remain overdue in delivering a cap-and-invest program that a court ordered in 2025, according to NEWS10 ABC.
Turnover Could Reshape Local and State Decision-Making
The report points to a series of departures ahead of the November 3 election, which will determine new state and county lawmakers. Twelve members of the New York Legislature retired this year, including key committee chairs, while seven of Essex County's 18 supervisors also stepped down, the Council says. NEWS10 ABC reported that longtime Manhattan Democratic Assemblymember Deborah Glick, who chaired the Environmental Conservation Committee for 35 years, is leaving the Legislature, and Assemblymember Bill Magnarelli lost his primary election in June. Voters will also choose new leadership for New York's 21st Congressional District on Election Day, the station reported.
Federal Policy Changes Reach Park Communities
Federal policy changes in 2025—from social-service cuts to tariffs and stepped-up immigration enforcement—affected communities across the Park, according to the Adirondack Explorer. The outlet reported that roughly 250,000 North Country residents relied on Medicaid that year. It also reported that the number of Canadians returning from the United States by car fell 23% in February and 21% year over year in June. A 20% drop in Canadian visitation was estimated to mean a $12 million economic hit and roughly $583,000 in lost tax revenue for the region. NEWS10 ABC separately reported about 3.4 million fewer Canadian visitors to the Adirondack region in 2025 and the closure of three U.S. Forest Service offices in New York. The Explorer also reported that a June 12 letter from four U.S. senators warned that 11 rural New York hospitals, including Clifton-Fine and Lewis County General Hospital, which serve the Adirondack Park, were at risk of closure with Medicaid cuts, according to its report on rural hospitals.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has challenged some federal actions, defending the Adirondack Park Agency in court and suing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin over rollbacks affecting soot, commercial refrigerants and greenhouse gases, according to NEWS10 ABC. The station also reported that federal judges upheld New York's All-Electric Buildings Act, blocked cuts to public broadcasting and required EPA enforcement of clean-air initiatives. After the federal government removed $57 million in public broadcasting funding, the New York Legislature raised public television support to $13 million and separately increased state public radio funding by $4 million.
Environmental Gains and Agency Disputes
The Council's report also recognizes state conservation work. NEWS10 ABC reported that the Department of Environmental Conservation, under Commissioner Amanda Lefton, received praise for a High Peaks visitor plan, an algal bloom roadmap, brook trout restoration and the release of 1,000 endangered spruce grouse from Maine and Canada to rebuild native populations. The agency also awarded $46 million in grants for tree planting, timber businesses and private land conservation, along with $3.2 million in smart growth community grants, and offered free electric wheelchairs at Great Camp Santanoni.
The DEC also faced criticism: New York's highest court ruled that the agency violated the Park's “forever wild” classification by cutting trees for snowmobile trails, and the agency chose not to appeal an April ruling that struck down its updated wetlands rules, according to NEWS10 ABC. The Council warned that federal rollbacks threaten decades of progress on trout-water recovery, which the U.S. Geological Survey has linked to long-term chemical recovery from acidic deposition in Adirondack mountain streams.
Park Agency Oversight and Land-Use Questions
The report flags a gap in Adirondack Park Agency oversight: the agency, which regulates public and private land use across the Park, does not have a park-wide solar energy policy, NEWS10 ABC reported. The agency approved a 5-megawatt solar array on a closed Queensbury landfill and launched a Lookup Lite zoning map website showing overlapping land-use rules and property records. The Council recommended consistent review of solar projects and stronger protections for remote woods, which the report defines as public land more than three miles from a road or snowmobile trail and says makes up less than 5% of the Park.
The agency approved use of the herbicide ProcellaCOR in Minerva Lake, despite a Lake George Association finding that the chemical lingers in lake mud, according to NEWS10 ABC. Separately, the agency voted unanimously to hold an adjudicatory hearing on December 2 to review proposed military howitzer testing in Essex County.
Preparing for Incoming Leadership
With familiar names leaving Albany and Essex County government, Aguirre said the region's response will depend on cooperation among communities, advocates, businesses and conservation interests. He called on the conservation community to work together to educate incoming lawmakers, according to NEWS10 ABC's report on the Council's findings.
The Park remains nearly three times larger than Yellowstone National Park, draws an estimated 12.4 million visitors annually and contains the headwaters of the Hudson, Mohawk, Black and St. Lawrence rivers, along with Lake Champlain, NEWS10 ABC reported. Almost half of its 9,300 square miles has been enshrined since 1894 in the state constitution as forever wild public forest preserve; another 775,000 acres are protected by conservation easements that block subdivision. The legal framework now faces its latest test as the November 3 election approaches.
