In 1994, a small group of academics and representatives of Adirondack non-governmental organizations and state policy organizations met to discuss forming an interdisciplinary society committed to promoting and disseminating research on the region. At the time, extensive research in diverse disciplines was being conducted in the region with little communication to local stakeholders or researchers across disciplines. A local perception had evolved that viewed the academic research community as acquiring research from the region and only reporting the results to national and international meetings and journal publications. There was little incentive and few formal mechanisms to report research back to the Adirondack community.

As a result of this meeting, and with the support of regional colleges and universities with an active Adirondack research agenda, the Adirondack Research Consortium (ARC) was founded to address barriers to information transfer between diverse organizational, political, and disciplinary boundaries. A Steering Committee convened in February, 1994 to develop a framework for the new society and plan the First General Meeting, held at Paul Smith's College on June 16-17, 1994. The ARC has since sponsored six annual conferences, helped develop the bi-annual Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies, organized an electronic listserv discussion forum, and hosted this web page to aid in regional research. The annual conference has accounted for the bulk of the ARC's activities, where diversity of disciplines and attendance has been the overarching goal. The 7th Annual Conference on the Adirondacks will be held during May 2000 at the Hotel Saranac of Paul Smith's College, Saranac Lake, New York.

It is the intent of this Web page to provide an archive of information on the ARC and its activities, but more importantly, to help guide internet research on the Adirondack region. Please contact Jon Erickson at erickj@rpi.edu if you have any suggestions to improve this page.