Ron Tipton, whose resume reflects a career spent on advocating for the outdoors, has been chosen to lead the Appalachian Trail Conservancy as its executive director.
Mr. Tipton most recently has worked as the senior vice president for policy for the National Parks Conservation Association. He will leave that job next month to join the Conservancy.
Mr. Tipton has spent most of the past 30+ years as an advocate for public land preservation and national park protection. A graduate of George Washington University with an undergraduate degree in American Studies and a law degree from GW’s National Law Center, he first worked as a program officer at the National Academy of Sciences and on the oversight/investigative staff of the House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee.
Since 1978 he has been a part of the advocacy and/or management team of four non-profit national conservation organizations: The Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society, World Wildlife Fund, and National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).
Mr. Tipton was the senior vice president for programs for NPCA from 2000-2008, when he became the senior vice president for policy. Currently, he is focused on expanding the number of national park units to increase the natural and cultural diversity of the park system as the country approaches the 2016 centennial celebration of the National Park Service.
“Ron has the passion, management experience, and advocacy skills that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is looking for, plus a strong connection to the Appalachian Trail and the Trail community. His high standards and experience will help move the organization forward to serve the next generation of Trail users," said Bob Almand, who chairs the Conservancy's board of directors.
Mr. Tipton has been a member of the board or governing council of numerous recreation and trails organizations, including the ATC, Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and the Benton MacKaye Trail Association.
“I feel incredibly privileged and honored to be asked to be Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s executive director/CEO. Since I hiked the Trail I have served as a volunteer for more than 25 years with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and helped found the Appalachian Long Distance Hiker’s Association," said Mr. Tipton.
Mr. Tipton enters the ATC at a time of growth and an expanding agenda for preserving the rich natural and cultural resources along the Trail corridor. The ATC currently has more than 43,000 members, a vast network of more than 6,000 volunteers, and an operating budget of $7.3 million.
The ATC is the only organization dedicated solely to protecting and promoting the world’s most famous long-distance hiking Trail, providing outdoor recreation and educational opportunities for Trail visitors.
Founded in 1925, the ATC is a 501(c)(3) organization headquartered in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and has regional offices in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. The ATC is both a confederation of 31 local Trail-maintaining clubs, with assignments to maintain the Trail, and a membership organization with support from all 50 states and more than 15 foreign countries. Under agreements that date back to the 1930s, buttressed by federal legislation, the ATC leads a cooperative management system for the Trail in close cooperation with federal, state and local agencies and Trail-maintaining clubs.
Given the Trail’s historic legacy of volunteerism, many of the ATC’s programs are focused on supporting and encouraging volunteers. Some of the key activities and initiatives include Trail management and support, conservation, advocacy, and environmental monitoring and research. Some of the ATC’s new initiatives include the Trail to Every Classroom and the Appalachian Trail Community™ program.
The Appalachian Trail (A.T.) is a unit of the National Park System, stretching from Georgia to Maine, at approximately 2,180 miles in length. Volunteers typically donate more than 220,000 hours of their time doing trail-related work each year, and about 2 to 3 million visitors walk a portion of the A.T. each year.
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Comments
No, a lot of federal land has been ruined and a lot more that should be protected is not and will soon be ruined.
Buxton,
Please identify what Federal Lands will be ruined soon and how.
ecbuck,
There is no factual basis for claiming that we need to exploit public lands to use wood, eat meat, etc. That is a misconception perpetuated by extractive industries since the 1800s. Most of the U.S. is public and state land, and our federal lands were the least desirable, least productive, leftover lands.
Moreover, if we want to address the growing problem of climate change, then one of the top priorities should be to stop making it worse by liquidating forests, extracting fossil fuels, grazing livestock, and allowing other climate-unfriendly activities on our public lands. These activities will continue on private and state lands.
Considering how little of America is protected from logging, grazing, drilling, mining, and other development, yes, every piece of Federal dirt is special. And the more we can protect from the destructive activities you are advocating, the better. That includes preserving a lot more land as national parks and wilderness.
As I suspected, you couldn't provide a single example.
No Federal lands aren't the only sources for grazing, mining, petroleum, et al, but they provide a significant share. Shutting them down to these activities would substantially reduce the supply and increase the cost with little if any offsetting benefit. For example, 30 percent of our coal production comes from federal lands.
http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/regional_studies/fedlands/fedcoal.html
But then, you worship to the "climate change" god despite the overwhelming evidence so its obvious your concern isn't for the lands but for an entirely different agenda.
ec,
Yes, I would agree that I have a dramatically different agenda than you do.
I could list dozens of areas across the country, covering tens of thousands of acres, that are threatened by resource extraction and you apparently cannot think of even one. I consider coal mining on public lands to be a disaster for wildlife habitats, air and water quality, recreation, and cultural sites, but you think it is a good thing. I think we should be weaning ourselves away from fossil fuels, but you apparently think we should keep on mining, drilling, and burning them indefinitely. I believe there is overwhelmig evidence of rapid, human-caused climate change, and you apparently are a fervent climate change denier.
In reading your comments, you sound like an extractive industry representative, not someone concerned about national parks and conservation. I see no reason to take your opinions on national parks and public lands seriously.
Glen Canyon flooded aritfacts and Colorado river, Tongas National Forest old growth, White Sands. I'm sure more will come to mind but come on EC you and I both know you will never acknowledge a problem, that is telling. A bureaucracy like the US federal goverment had to make a mistake somewhere. Are you saying no project on Federal Land ever had a negative environmental affect or said land would not have been better served for present and future generations as a National Park?
Nope - no doubt there were abuses in the past. What I am saying is that I am not aware of any Federal Lands that are currently being or about to be "ruined" by any of these activities.
Michael
Then please explain how CO2 emissions have continued to grow significantly but world temperatures haven't increased in the last 16 years.
But I am not. And of course you don't take my comments seriously because they don't fit your agenda. I take yours seriously but then use the evidence to reject them.
EC, perhaps you missed this when I posted it in response to the last time you claimed world temperatures haven't increased in the last 16 years. It's from scientists at the University of Alabama, who seem to disagree with your claim.