Karyn B. Richards

Alumni Spotlight: Karyn B. Richards ’81 & ’84

11/01/2022

Karyn Bartow Richards' love of the Adirondacks began during childhood summers spent in Raquette Lake, New York. A third-generation seasonal resident of Raquette Lake, Richards developed her appreciation of the forest from her family and built on that knowledge as an undergraduate and graduate forest resources management and planning student. Through her positions with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) and the Adirondack Park Agency, Richards made a lasting and positive impact on forest policy and the lives of the people who live, serve, and govern in the Adirondack and Catskill parks where the Forest Preserve lands are protected by the state of New York.

In 1981, Richards began a four-decade career in public service as the Policy and Planning Chief with the Division of Lands and Forests at the NYS DEC, then as Deputy Director of the Adirondack Park Agency. For the last 20 years of her career, she served as the DEC Forest Preserve Coordinator, managing and protecting the New York State Forest Preserve, which includes 3 million acres of public lands within the Adirondack and Catskill parks.

Richards facilitated policies and programs that protect these Forever Wild lands. She approached her policy and programmatic efforts with a sound understanding of law and precedent in the Forest Preserve, and an appreciation of the interests of stakeholders, which include local officials, private landowners, and environmental non-governmental organizations.

She provided objective and sound advice on Forest Preserve policy and litigation, worked with state and local officials on the acquisition of over 1 million acres of land in the Adirondacks and Catskills, and helped shape Forest Preserve policy. In her role, she has advised three state governors, 11 DEC commissioners, and four state foresters within the DEC's Division of Lands and Forests.

Richards strived to ensure that these lands would be protected and stewarded for their wilderness and resource benefits and that the region's forest-based economy could survive. She is recognized by her peers as an expert in legal and land management policy decisions in the New York State Forest Preserve.

For her impactful service in forest resources management we proudly confer the Lifetime Achievement Graduate of Distinction Award upon Karyn Richards.