Saranac Lake, N.Y. –July 14, 2014–The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) recently received a grant from the International Paper Foundation to help publish the Northern Forest Atlas​.The Atlas, which will be released in a series of books, charts, digital applications, and posters, will document the habitats and ecosystems of the Northern Forest (forested areas located in northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine). The project is a joint effort between WCS and the Northern Forest Atlas Foundation​ (NFAF). ​

Jerry Jenkins, WCS ecologist and Atlas project director, will consolidate the enormous body of his highly-specialized ecological research from the past 45 years into a natural history interpretive collection to be released over the next five years.

The program will provide professionally-designed graphic representations of the natural world. It will complement existing environmental education programs in the region and be a resource for field studies.

“Our goals are to inspire conservation and inform environmental education for those who live in and study ​the region,” said Jenkins, who has conducted extensive ecological studies of the Adirondacks as well as botanical and ecological inventories and surveys on hundreds of thousands of acres throughout the Northeast.

Through this grant, IFP is contributing to the printing and publication of Atlas products this summer.

​Jenkins is the author of several comprehensive books on the Adirondack region, including “Climate Change in the Adirondacks: The Path to Sustainability” and “The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Portrait of the Adirondack Park,” coauthored by Andy Keal and Bill McKibben, and published as a project of the Wildlife Conservation Society in 2004.

CONTACT:
Carmen Cusido, 718-220-5076 ; ccusido@wcs.org >
Stephen Sautner, 718-220-3682 ; ssautner@wcs.org>
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. VISION: WCS envisions a world where wildlife thrives in healthy lands and seas, valued by societies that embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on earth. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in more than 60 nations and in all the world’s oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: www.wcs.org; facebook.com/TheWCS; youtube.com/user/WCSMedia; follow: @theWCS.