A staunch advocate for the Adirondack Park, activist and writer Paul Schaefer deeply influenced conservation policy in New York State. His work and writing inspired countless conservationists, with his tireless efforts paving the way for the protection of “forever wild” forests in the Wilderness Act of 1964. Until his death in 1996, Schaefer continued to strive to instill the same care for the Adirondacks in the next generation.
Among that next generation is David Gibson, who is the current managing partner of Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve and the former executive director of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, groups founded and led respectively by Schaefer. Gibson has written the first biography of Schaefer, A Force for Nature: Paul Schaefer’s Adirondack Coalitions (Syracuse university Press, 2025).
A Force for Nature is a testament to a lifetime of advocacy, community, and life in the Adirondacks. Gibson, who was mentored by Schaefer, traces the impact of a man who helped ensure the continued integrity of the largest protected parkland in the contiguous United States.
Drawing on Schaefer’s own writings, as well as interviews and family narratives, Gibson paints a vivid and comprehensive portrait of the icon and the Adirondack Park that serves as his legacy.
A Force for Nature sheds light on the storied life of a dedicated conservationist and examines how environmental devotion has contributed to the Adirondacks remaining forever wild and protected for future generations to love.
David Gibson, who is a regular contributor to the New York Almanack, says “I was happy the publisher chose to publish this first biography of Paul Schaefer during the 80th anniversary year of Friends of the Forest Preserve, a group Schaefer began in 1945 to embrace wilderness and expand New York’s ‘forever wild’ state constitutional protection of the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve.”
The book is dedicated to “all Friends of the Forest Preserve, 1945 – Present.”
“The three-million-acres in the public’s Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve continue to distinguish New York because of their crucial role in watershed protection,
climate mitigation, wildlife habitat preservation, free-flowing rivers, wild lakes, and vast recreational trail networks and opportunities. Without Paul Schaefer’s contributions and coalitions during the 20th century, many of these wilderness benefits would have been lost or compromised,” Gibson says.
Schaefer’s work in New York directly inspired the drafting and passage of the National Wilderness Preservation Act of 1964. The biography sheds light on these and other contributions he made nationally
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