For 18 years, the Adirondack Common Ground Alliance has been working to create a culture of cooperation inside the park's blue line. But, as Pat Bradley reports, the group surprised some when it recently announced it will be ending its operations.
The alliance worked to coordinate and bring together diverse stakeholders in the Adirondacks, including local governments, environmentalists, businesses and state agencies. An annual forum brought the groups together to find cross-sector solutions to issues facing the region.
Now, the alliance's core team says, it's mission accomplished -- they've established "a lasting culture in which listening, learning and good-faith dialogue are central to solving our region’s challenges.”
Adirondack Council spokesperson John Sheehan is pleasantly surprised to hear that the group is ending.
“Having been one of the founders of this organization, the Adirondack Council really was interested in its mission from the very beginning and was hopeful that it would help us to bridge some of the divide between the conservation community and local government. And I think that it has largely accomplished that. I’m pleased to say that we think that we’ve made enormous progress on that front and that while in the past the Adirondacks might have been considered a place where people did more arguing than agreeing, we’re seeing a reversal of that trend now.”
Protect the Adirondacks Executive Director Claudia Braymer was also surprised that the alliance is ending. But she says work to address issues facing the Adirondacks is ongoing.
“I think of the constitutional amendment on the closed correctional facilities and trying to get those converted into affordable housing. I mean, that kind of work is happening all the time with the groups around the Park. Common Ground wasn’t doing the day-to-day work to make things like that happen. Common Ground doesn’t have staff. One of the things that I liked the best about it and I thought was helpful was for networking.”
Town of Keene Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson says the alliance’s core team had extensive discussions on its future.
“It was a very thoughtful decision informed by the work that people were doing that was a reflection of the ideals of CGA (Common Ground Alliance) and what kind of need there might still be for a group dedicated to just bringing people together.”
A release announcing the alliance’s end states that collaboration across sectors is far more common than it was 18 years ago and “from the beginning, CGA’s goal was not to become a permanent institution." Instead, the release said the alliance's purpose was "to change the conditions in which important decisions were made and to make a space where collaborative leadership was commonplace."
Wilson said the Adirondack Common Ground Alliance has created a model for addressing diverse issues and has inspired a new generation of leadership discourse.
“The goal of CGA was to be the bridge when an issue was so difficult that productive conversations weren’t happening. My first involvement with Common Ground Alliance opened my eyes to a different way to approach the issues and how we solve them.”
