"I am strongly induced to believe that, as in music, the person who understands every note will, if he also possesses a proper taste, more thoroughly enjoy the whole, so he who examines each part of a fine view, may also comprehend the full and combined effect."
Charles Darwin.

If you have some free time this Friday, you might consider attending the first annual Capital District Preservation Conference being held in downtown Troy. The all day conference, at the Northeastern Science Foundation, located at 15 Third St, will host five panels of experts in environment, archeology, historic preservation, the law, and planning. It is sponsored by the Capital District Preservation Task Force, a coalition which includes environmentalists, archaeologists, Native Americans, planners, preservationists and interested laypeople.

More than 20 local professionals in those disciplines will be discussing how preservation issues are dealt with in their areas of expertise, what problems they encounter, and how to come up with workable solutions to insure that preservation becomes a viable alternative to destruction.

For example, while local governments seem to be getting better about conducting archeological investigations prior to developments, some archaeological projects are not allowed to finish and are being destroyed, preventing any further research or possible mitigation.

Most people today realize the need to preserve our historic architecture, but buildings keep getting knocked down every day. Recent problems just occurred last week in Albany when the County of Albany began razing a historic building without proper permission from the city's building department or the historic preservation commission. In Schenectady, two buildings may get razed because the judge refused to allow an injunction against the State which is tearing them down for a DOT office building.

If we can't rely on our own government agencies to do the right thing, certainly it will be harder to stop private developers when they can point to the precedents created by local government mistakes.

Our environmental resources are disappearing fast due to suburban sprawl. Even after 30 years of battles and education to the contrary, development pressure still faces the famous Albany Pine Barrens.

Wetlands still are being filled in and plant and animal communities wiped out.

Acres of good farm land get turned into residential tracts.

Finally, what planning mechanisms need to be put in place to get these issues in the preplanning process. How can we combat the new pressures of bringing suburban development proposals to our urban areas.

Clearly there is a communication problem between those who want to save and those who want to destroy.

The panelists who will be attending the conference are literally a Who's Who in the Capital district and beyond. The conference will be opened by 85 year old John McConnell, the man who started the Earth Day movement in 1970. The environmental panel will follow and will consist of McConnell, Ken Dufty, Eric Daillie, Lou Ismay, and Ed Gomez.

To discuss archeological issues the panel will consist of Karen Hartgen, Ed Curtin, Bob Kuhn, Steve Comer, Louise Basa, and Carol Resetch.

Historic Preservation will be discussed by Ned Pratt, Joe Fama, Lucy Breyer, Art Fleischner, and Tom Carroll.

Legal issues will be presented by attorneys Mark Gerstman, Peter Henner, and archeologist Louise Basa.

Finally the Planning discussion session will consist of Paul Bray, David Church, Ned Pratt, and Todd Fabozzi.

After absorbing the discussions that will take place, the Capital District Preservation Task Force will produce a white paper and distribute it to all local governmental officials, planning boards and commissions, and the media.

It is expected that followup meetings will take place as well and a presence on the World Wide Web will garner further input from interested citizens.

The public is invited to attend and provide their input as well. Call 374 -1088 for more infor.

The Capital District is rich in natural and human history but there gets to a point that if the destruction of these resources outweighs their preservation, all of us will loose a great deal for generations to come.