Our district is home to the Adirondacks, and we know firsthand

Hear the words of Elise Stefanik, spoken as one who knows the land of her people: “Our district is home to the Adirondacks, and we know firsthand that clean energy development and environmental protection are critical to our economy.” This is not the voice of distant theory, but of lived truth, drawn from the mountains, forests, and waters of a region that has long taught its inhabitants the delicate balance between prosperity and preservation. In her words we hear the wisdom of a land where nature itself is wealth, and where the protection of that wealth ensures both survival and flourishing.

The meaning of this quote lies in the union of economy and environment. Too often, the two are set as enemies—commerce as destroyer, nature as victim. Yet Stefanik declares that in the Adirondacks, the two are bound together as allies. For what is the economy of a mountain region without its rivers for power, its forests for beauty, its landscapes for travelers? To poison the waters or scar the mountains is not only to wound the earth but to wound the livelihoods of the people who dwell upon it. Thus, clean energy development and environmental protection are not luxuries, but necessities, as vital to the district’s wealth as any mine or market.

The origin of these words rests in the history of the Adirondacks, a vast wilderness in northern New York. For generations, this region has been a place of timber, hunting, and industry, yet also of conservation. In the nineteenth century, when logging threatened to strip the mountains bare, voices rose to defend them, leading to the creation of the Adirondack Park in 1892. This park, unique in its blend of public and private land, enshrined the principle that protection of nature could coexist with human settlement and economic life. Stefanik’s words are the echo of this tradition: the recognition that the economy is not apart from nature but rooted in it.

History itself confirms this truth. Consider the Netherlands, a land reclaimed from the sea. The Dutch people understood that their economy was inseparable from environmental protection, for to neglect their dikes and waterways was to invite ruin. By mastering water management, they not only preserved their land but built a thriving commerce that spanned the world. Just as the Dutch built prosperity by respecting their environment, so too must the people of the Adirondacks and all nations remember that protection of nature is protection of livelihood.

The lesson is clear: to destroy the earth is to destroy the foundation of wealth itself. The forests, rivers, and winds are not obstacles to growth but the very engines of a sustainable future. Clean energy harnesses the gifts of sun and wind without exhausting them; environmental protection ensures that the land remains fertile, the waters pure, and the skies clear for generations yet unborn. An economy that ignores these truths builds on sand; an economy that honors them builds upon rock.

What then must we do? As citizens, we must reject the false choice between profit and preservation. Support policies that bring renewable power to our communities, that guard parks and rivers, that see beauty not as wasted space but as enduring wealth. In our daily lives, we can choose the path of stewardship—conserving energy, reducing waste, and honoring the land around us. For every small act of care is part of a greater covenant between humanity and the earth.

Thus remember the words of Elise Stefanik: “Our district is home to the Adirondacks, and we know firsthand that clean energy development and environmental protection are critical to our economy.” Let these words be not only the lesson of one district, but of all lands. For every nation is home to its own “Adirondacks”—those places where nature and livelihood are inseparable. Teach future generations that the true measure of prosperity is not the gold in the treasury, but the health of the land, the clarity of the rivers, and the strength of the forests. In this harmony, both people and earth may thrive together.