Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr. noted in 1981, "I am continually impressed by the work of Scenic Hudson. For the last fifteen years, it has been on the front lines of the fight to preserve the Hudson Valley."

He was followed by Albert F. Appleton, a former NYC Audubon Vice President and Commissioner, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, who said in 1988, "None have more skillfully adapted to the strains of the eighties, or learned its lessons better. Today, as Scenic Hudson mobilizes, initiates, and acts on a regional scale, it is the catalyst of efforts of potentially historic significance and...indispensable value to both the State and Nation.

In November 2003, Scenic Hudson celebrated its 40th anniversary at its birthplace -- the historic Octagon House in Irvington. Delivering the opening remarks was Wint Aldrich, former deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

The following remarks were made by Wint Aldrich:
There are two great epochs in the life history of our beloved river valley that leave an imperishable mark: the retreat of the last glacier...and the advance of Scenic Hudson.

Oh, some things occurred during the years between that are not without interest - and surely one of them is the creation of this extraordinary house, now miraculously revived by our host Joe Lombardi - but the momentous facts are these: 12,000 years ago the glacier left us with the landscape we know, and just 40 years ago at this very spot an organization was born, dedicated to a novel idea: that the landscape must be and shall be preserved.

Against all odds this extraordinary mission has been and is being accomplished. Scenic Hudson has in fact forever altered the landscape here and across the nation - that is, the landscape of environmental protection - the ways we private citizens view and value America's natural and heritage resources, and the means by which society (especially the government and business sectors) is obliged to protect them.

The grandparent organization of Scenic Hudson was the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, a founder of which was William P. Letchworth, conservationist and civic reformer who saved the great gorge of the Genesee River in western New York. When in 1872 Chief Cornplanter conferred on Letchworth the rare honor of making him a blood brother in the Seneca Nation he gave him the name "Hai-Wa-Ye-Is-Ta" - "the Man Who Always Does the Right Thing." Surely the leaders and staffers and particularly the supporters of Scenic Hudson over these past 40 years deserve the same tribute for working so effectively to save this great gorge and the entire valley. And so we salute you, each of you, wherever you are, in this world or the next, Hai-Wa-Ye-Is-Ta!

And where better to begin than with the founders - that intrepid little band of six who met here that November day under the passionate leadership of two of them - Carl Carmer, popular writer and an historian of the valley who had owned Octagon House for many years, and Leo Rothschild, attorney and conservation chair of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. The names of all merit honored mention today - Walter Boardman, executive director of The Nature Conservancy; Robert Burnap, also of the Conservancy; Harry Neese of the Sierra Club; and civic activist Virginia Guthrie.

Less than 26 feverish months after that little meeting at which the name "Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference" was chosen and the mission set, came the world-altering decision of the Federal Appeals Court in the Storm King case. We can only imagine those white-knuckle months of legal maneuvering and argument, of public relations blitzing, and - always - of fund-raising.

What a treat it is for us to greet today one who remembers it, who is the surviving co-conspirator, Ginny Guthrie, and with whom - years later - I was privileged to serve on the board of the Hudson River Conservation Society.

Ginny says about those early, desperate years: "We had fun!" She was present at the notorious annual meeting of what many called "the dear old Conservation Society" (Has any sane person ever spoken of "Dear Old Scenic Hudson"?) when Carmer, responding to a close vote supporting a compromise at Storm King, sarcastically reminded the gathering that the society's members had once upon a time had the nerve to oppose plans for the George Washington Bridge as perpetrating a scenic intrusion, and he then led a walk-out of many members and board members. (Within 20 years the society was to morph into Scenic Hudson's splendid land trust.)

Ginny also remembers a day when Ben Frazier up in Garrison called Carmer, roaring over the phone, "Breakneck Ridge is on fire!" Whether speaking factually or metaphorically (as Breakneck, too, came under threat of imminent destruction), clearly Frazier saw Scenic Hudson as the ultimate fire brigade for the valley. And so it has been.

The Battle for Storm King was to endure for 17 long years; at the end, it was our beloved goad and guru, Franny Reese, who had the matchless satisfaction of co-signing the celebrated "Peace Treaty on the Hudson." But true to form, she and her colleagues had already begun planning for the organization's post-Storm King agenda, and during the admirable directorship of Klara Sauer, Franny and the board steadily enlarged Scenic Hudson's programmatic scope and effectiveness - the land trust and the Wallace Funds being only the most dramatic of these.

How many times we have heard Franny quietly but urgently tell of some new threat or some new hitch in a carefully worked-out solution, saying, "Well, I just about had a kitten!" The fire brigade would soon be on the case, usually with her in the lead.

And now, under the skillful, vigorous leadership of Marjorie and Ned (Sullivan), a versatile, talented staff is making our valley a more wholesome, lovelier, greener, life-enhancing place for all. I particularly revel in the pioneering farmland preservation initiative that has been such a success, and the perfection and peace of Poets' Walk Park, both in my own hometown of Red Hook.

With the continued generous support of its friends, Scenic Hudson ought to be able to continue this magnificent epoch of accomplishment it has so well begun, and continue it for, well, for 12,000 years! And when the next glacier advances on its destructive course in this direction, it will have to deal with Scenic Hudson. It hasn't got a prayer.

May your work of Always Doing the Right Thing go from strength to strength. Hai-Wa-Ye-Is-Ta!