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2008 Thomas W. Keesee Jr. Conservation Award Luncheon
George Pataki, Former Governor of New York

George Pataki

George Pataki grew up on his family’s farm in the small town of Peekskill in New York’s Hudson River Valley. His time spent on the farm served to form George Pataki's core governing philosophy: a strong belief in people, not bureaucracy; pursuit of smart ideas that work; and the expansion of personal freedoms so that hardworking citizens can enjoy the benefits of their work.

After graduating from Yale University and Columbia University School of Law, George Pataki political career when he was elected mayor of Peekskill, NY in 1981. He next served in the New York State Legislature as an assemblyman and then a senator from 1985 to 1994, before becoming governor.

During his tenure as New York’s chief executive, Governor Pataki advanced award-winning, cutting-edge policies in the renewable energy and environmental fields. His initiatives included the protection of over one million acres of open space, the adoption of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the implementation of the nation’s first green building tax credit, landmark brownfield legislation and programs to enhance the production and use of alternative energy like biodiesel, ethanol, fuel cells and clean coal.

As Governor of New York, Pataki worked to set aside more than one million acres acres from areas as diverse as Montauk Point on eastern Long Island to the shores of Lake Erie. In the Adirondack Park, long a conservation battleground, Pataki has protected more than 100,000 acres of wilderness, while remaining sensitive to the livelihoods of local residents.

Pataki’s Bird Conservation Area initiative, based on Audubon's Important Bird Areas program, uses scientific criteria to safeguard and enhance bird populations and their habitats on state lands. The criteria vary by habitat type: A seashore, for example, must routinely support 2,000 waterfowl or 300 shorebirds or 100 wading birds. The Pataki administration designated 11 BCAs in the state, covering 46,500 acres, including Fahnestock. The BCA can be applied to any public land owned by the state. Once BCA criteria have been met, it acts as an extra level of state protection for wildlife. It is not a regulation program but an information program. It brings scientists in early on in any development process and prevents potential environmental train wrecks like golf courses or parking lots if they may alter important bird habitat in any way.

The governor recounts a visit to the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, New York, where he saw his first Carolina parakeets and passenger pigeons--mounted, of course, since both species have been long extinct. “You just think how lack of foresight resulted in two magnificent endangered species going extinct, and no one will ever see them alive again,” he says. “I wish we had the chance to turn back the clock, but we can't. But what we can do is turn the clock forward and make sure the children of the 21st and 22nd centuries won't experience that kind of disappointment when seeing a red-shouldered hawk, a whippoorwill, or some other species--not in the wild but as a specimen in some museum.”

Governor Pataki, who serves as a public delegate to the United Nations, and his wife Libby reside in Garrison in New York's Hudson River Valley. They have four children: Emily, a Yale Law School graduate; Teddy, who serves in the United States Marine Corps; Allison, a student at Yale University; and Owen, a student at Cornell University.