Overview of the North Country Rural Resilience Roadmap 

The rural, 14-county North Country Region of Northern New York, once famous for its extreme cold, now experiences milder winters, earlier springs, and severe weather events that negatively impact residents and visitors to its small towns and villages. The warming trend affects the region’s temperate-boreal ecosystem by allowing for the increased spread of invasive species, heightened water temperatures in sensitive lake and stream habitats, and disruption to pollinator cycles. The changing climate has caused an increased threat from human pathogens, including vector-borne diseases like Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and equine encephalitis, which were historically not present. As the Northern Adirondack region faces rising temperatures, heavier rainfall, and increasingly unpredictable weather, these shifts are affecting roads, homes, businesses, jobs, safety networks, and overall quality of life.

These ecosystem changes have a direct effect on the farming, forestry, and tourism industries that underpin the regional economy and local way of life. Moderate winters affect traditional activities like ice fishing, sugar maple tapping, and Indigenous cultural practices. 

The residents and visitors to the small, rural communities throughout the region are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to the limited municipal budgets, reduced workforce and housing availability, food insecurity, limited emergency response, and challenging access to healthcare. A climate-resilient North Country is critical for residents and visitors who feel strong family and sociocultural ties to their communities. The region is an asset statewide, and to the nation at large, due to its welcoming communities, captivating landscapes, and critical carbon sequestering forests and wetlands. 

This report is by no means comprehensive, nor could it be for such a large and diverse region, but it does touch upon many topics from the perspective of the numerous conversations held with local and regional leaders, business owners, residents, visitors, students, elders, scientists, artists, and human service providers during Fall 2024 - Spring 2025 through the listening sessions, focus groups, and survey of the Adirondack Climate Outreach and Resilience Network (ACORN) collaborative.