RAQUETTE LAKE — The Adirondack Council will jointly honor Akwesasne Mohawk historian, artist and educator David Kanietakeron Fadden and Dr. Curt Stager, ecologist and professor at Paul Smith’s College, as its 2026 Conservationists of the Year during its annual Forever Wild Day celebration July 18 at Great Camp Sagamore.
Historically, the Conservationist of the Year award is presented to individuals, organizations, institutions, businesses or government entities whose actions exemplify the protection of the Adirondack Park’s natural and cultural character.
It is the organization’s highest annual honor.
“David and Curt have earned respect and admiration individually over the years for their powerful and impactful work in their respective fields,” Adirondack Council Executive Director Raul J. Aguirre said.
“This joint award is to honor their individual contributions, as much as it is their recent collaborative work, which is a timely and necessary addition to our understanding of the true history and culture of Indigenous peoples in the Adirondack region. A history that, for so long, had been obscured, ignored or overlooked.”
Fadden and Stager recently released the book, “The First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Indigenous Peoples in the Adirondack Uplands,” that brings Indigenous history, archaeology, oral tradition and ecological knowledge together in a comprehensive account of the region’s first inhabitants.
“The story of the Adirondacks began thousands of years before the Blue Line was drawn. Because of this important book by Dave and Curt, the deep and vital connections Indigenous people have to this place — to their home — will now be more fully recognized as an integral part of that story,” Aguirre said.
“It challenges us to see the park through a fuller historical lens and inspires a more informed approach to conservation.”
Fadden, a member of the Wolf Clan of the Kanien’kehá:ka, Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, is an acclaimed artist, storyteller, historian and director of the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center in Onchiota.
Stager, the Draper-Lussi endowed chair in lake ecology and paleoecology at Paul Smith’s College, has spent decades using scientific research to document evidence of long-standing Indigenous communities in the Adirondack uplands.
ADIRONDACK LEGACY LEADER AWARDS
The council will also recognize the Brandreth Park Association, celebrating its 175th anniversary, and the Shingle Shanty Preserve and Research Station with Adirondack Legacy Leader Awards for their contributions to conservation, research and private-lands stewardship in the Adirondack Park.
The Adirondack Legacy Leader Awards recognize two organizations whose long-term stewardship and scientific research have had lasting impacts on the Adirondack Park.
Shingle Shanty, directed by Steve Langdon, leverages over 15,500 acres of permanently protected private land to advance ecological research and education in the Adirondacks.
The preserve encompasses remote northern hardwood forests, boreal peatlands and nine lakes and ponds that, together, form one of the Northeast’s most ecologically intact landscapes.
Through partnerships with colleges, universities, government agencies and conservation organizations, Shingle Shanty has become an important biological field research station, supporting nationally significant research on biodiversity, climate change and wetland ecology while providing hands-on training and mentorship for the next generation of conservation scientists.
The preserve demonstrates how private conservation lands can generate lasting public benefits through scientific discovery, education and environmental stewardship.
The Brandreth Park Association is being recognized during its 175th anniversary for its stewardship of Brandreth Park, the oldest continuously family-managed, private conservation landscape in the Adirondack Park.
For generations, the association and its member families have demonstrated how responsible stewardship of working private lands can protect biodiversity, support scientific research and sustain the park’s wild character.
Their commitment is reflected in a voluntary 100-year conservation plan for the entire property, a long-term vision for conservation that was highlighted in the Adirondack Council’s 1994 publication 2020 VISION: Volume IV, Private Land Stewardship.
Reservations for Forever Wild Day are required and available at adirondackcouncil.org/how-you-can-help/events.