LOCALadk Magazine

14 Winter 2020 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Saranac Lake is "decidedly different" in a few senses, but most notably in the fight against climate change. The village has recently been awarded Bronze-level certification from the New York Department of Environmental Conser vation (DEC) Climate Smart Community (CSC) Program, due to the work of the Saranac Lake CSC Task Force. The task force has worked to document evidence that Saranac Lake com- pleted specific environmentally focused actions—for exam- ple, hosting a farmers market—in order to gain the points associated with that action, in this case 3 points. The goal for reaching Bronze certification is a total of 120 points, which can come from a variety of actions, such as building upgrades and setting up parts of the task force. Our task force is coor- dinated by Erin Griffin of The Wild Center and includes mem- bers from organizations like North Countr y Community Col- lege, Paul Smith's College, Tri-Lakes 350.org, the Adirondack North Countr y Association (ANC A), the village government, Saranac Lake High School, and more. Along with my friend and classmate Tucker Jakobe, I represent the high school. My involvement as a high schooler on this task force in- cludes both learning and teaching. Tucker and I are the youngest members of the group. Due to this fact, we spend a lot of our time at meetings obser ving and taking note of the steps each action requires on the bureaucratic level. Each meeting, members report out on projects they made progress on or why no progress was being made. Tasks get delegated to members that have the closest connection to the topic or whose department needs to take it on. We also discuss the feasibility of new initiatives, deciding whether they are worth the time and effort to research in the context of Saranac Lake. Some actions took much more time and energy than oth- ers. For example, even just the process of changing the streetlights to LED bulbs has taken years and crossed several department boundaries. It was always a celebration when we finished documentation of a specific action and were able to add the points to our total. The contribution Tucker and I gave, other than a youthful perspective, was a knowledge of social media as a form of outreach. We created an Instagram account (@climatesmart- sl) to highlight the achievements of the Climate Smart Pro- gram and other green initiatives. We attempted to reach a younger audience who might not have other wise been aware of the happenings of local government. Tucker and I craft- ed the posts, both together and separately, sometimes with help from our teacher and advisor, Katie Alexanian. Posts have included highlighting the electric vehicle charging sta- tion downtown; reminding residents of upcoming farmers markets; presenting small, comprehensible breakdowns of our hefty greenhouse gas inventor y; and offering simple tips for reducing your own carbon footprint. Together, the whole task force has taken part in several town-wide outreach events, previously in person, but recently online, allowing us to show off our progress and let community members ask us about our work. All of the work that we did over the last few years finally came to official fruition in September 2020, when we got the good news of our CSC Bronze certification. We also found out that the DEC decided to make their official certification announcements for all of New York State at a ceremony in Sa- ranac Lake. While it was a smaller event due to the pandemic, it was still an exciting opportunity for the whole team, and a UP and Comer: Climate Smart By Cedar Young Photos courtesy of DEC and Adirondack Enterpise

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