70. Wildlife Conservation Society
(Formerly New York Zoological Society)
(Latest update 2001)
Headquarters
2300 Southern Blvd.
Bronx, NY 10460
(718) 220-5100
Fax: (718) 212) 220-7114
E-mail: join@wcs.org
Web site: www.wcs.org
Adirondack Communities and Conservation program
Heidi Kretser
(518) 327-6989
Key Personnel
William Conway, Pres.
Heidi Kretser, program coordinator for the Adirondack Communities and Conservation program.
Membership (1998)
80,000
Finances (1998)
Budget: $67,000,000
Coalition Involvements
Adirondack Park Agency (jointly applying with WCS for grant for the CIC)
Organizational Description and Goals
The Wildlife Conservation Society began as the New York Zoological Society in 1895 and owns the Bronx Zoo.
Comments
CIC’s/Wolf Reintroduction. The Wildlife Conservation Society has taken a special interest in the Adirondacks, by proposing and sponsoring the CIC’s, or Community Information Centers, throughout the Park, including four in Hamilton County. WCS calls this their Adirondack Communities and Conservation program. The CIC project is tied to the “Twinning” program that the APA and Paul Smith’s College have arranged with Abruzzo National Park in Italy, in conjunction with the National Parks and Conservation Association. The communality with Abruzzo Park is the issue of wolf reintroduction. In the New York publication of the National Parks and Conservation Association, it was pointed out the harmonious wolf reintroduction in Abruzzo Park bodes well for a similar success in the Adirondacks. The Wildlife Conservation Society has taken a big interest in wolf reintroduction, a feature article in one of the recent issues of their monthly flagship magazine being an example of this interest.
Under the Adirondack Communities and Conservation program that WCS is spearheading, WCS is developing the first Adirondack Park Community Information Center with the town of Inlet, working with town officials, including the town historian and the tourism director. The CIC is scheduled to open on May 12, 2000.
“The front room will house information on the Adirondack Park as a whole, with displays and a tour guide to answer questions. Walking into the larger room will be like entering a boat house, with displays of area waterways and their history, both related to natural resources, tourism and the economy.”-Hamilton County News, Apr. 18, 2000, p. 13
This approach is part of a long-range design to co-opt the message conveyed to tourists and to suck Adirondackers into the programs the can only succeed if there are fewer local residents.
The Wildlife Conservation Society name represents a change
of emphasis for the Bronx Zoo from focus on the zoological matters
to one of environmental/wildlife preservation. The Wildlife Conservation
Society.
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