Dear Friends,

I was honored to be asked to serve as President of the Adirondack Research Consortium in August of 2017. It was a bittersweet moment for me and the Board of Directors. We as an organization were still grieving the loss of our former President Bruce Selleck who passed away unexpectedly the previous July. Bruce was a valued member of our organization and will be greatly missed by his colleagues and friends in the Adirondacks.
 

We have a lot going on in 2018. In February we held the fourth Women in Leadership Series Workshop on “Women in Conservation Advocacy and Policy” at Paul Smith’s College which featured a keynote by DEC Deputy Commissioner Kathy Moser.  Nearly 85 women and men participated in the event which the survey results tell us was a great success.  I thank the Walbridge Fund for supporting this project.
 

Now we look forward to the 25^th Annual Conference on the Adirondacks May 22^nd and 23^rd  in Lake Placid. This is an anniversary celebration! As we ask ourselves, “Have we made a difference?”,  we will look at a variety of issues as they were 25-years ago, today, and what research gaps and needs have we identified for the future. We are working on a fantastic program and I hope you are able to join us. 
 

This spring we are publishing Volume 22 of AJES which is a more broadly themed edition and featuring such organic stories as “Adirondack Voices”. We publish AJES in partnership with Union College. We are working with the College on a new webpage for the Journal on Union’s digital commons which should be available by summer. It will feature past volumes on-line and a streamlined process for submitting articles for publication.
 

This fall, we are holding the Annual Forestry Roundtable in partnership with the Empire State Forest Products Association. This has become a very popular event which focuses on issues related to private forest land management. 
 

I welcome your ideas and suggestions for future programming and invite you to consider supporting our work. We can’t do it without you!  I hope to see you soon at an upcoming event. 

 
With best regards,

Amanda Lavigne
Spring 2018

 In Memory of our Past President Bruce Selleck (9/30/49 - 7/31/17)

Bruce Selleck pictured above at the “Women in the Arts and Humanities’ workshop held at the VIEW in Old Forge on June 21^st, 2017.  Photo by Frank Pine

Read a tribute to Bruce from 
Tracey E. Hucks, Provost and Dean of the Faculty,
James A. Storing Professor of Religion and Africana & Latin American Studies,
Colgate University.