U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer delivers on $466,000 promise to help Wild Center build new animal exhibit

by Dan McClelland

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer paid a visit to the Wild Center Tuesday afternoon to celebrate with Wild Center leaders $466,000 in federal funding he delivered for a new outdoor wildlife exhibit planned there.

Two years ago the Senate Democrat leader toured the natural history museum here and promised to arrange federal support for its programming.

“No visit to the Adirondacks is complete without a stop at the Wild Center!” he said that afternoon, after arriving prompting at 2:15p.m., accompanied by several staff members. “Twenty-five years ago this week, I first met Betsy Lowe to talk about her vision for what would become” this wonderful, scientific place. Betsy, who co-founded the Wild Center with the late Donald O.B. Clifford of Big Wolf Lake, was among the greeters that afternoon.

“Since then, I have returned time and time again, both on official visits and with my family.

“It’s a wonderful place,” he told the 30 or so Wild Staff leaders and staff along with Mayor Mary Fontana and Deputy Town Supervisor Tim Larkin. During the comments from Director Stephanie Ratcliffe and Deputy Director Hillarie Logan- Dechene, they reminded the Senator that Mr. Larkin and his company did the excavating work on the original building.

“I have been proud to secure federal funding for the museum several times over the years and am so pleased to help on this most recent effort to enhance and expand these beloved exhibits. “They are one of the most popular attractions at the Wild Center and my grandson still talks about the otters he saw when I brought him here several years ago.

“People from around the world- all 50 states and over 20 countries- visit the Wild Center and its animal collection every year. The Wild Center’s new ‘Wild Encounters Trail’ will contain 16 outdoor habitats, increasing visitor access to popular native animal species. This new outdoor exhibit will boost the North Country’s economy, provide another element there where children can learn and teachers can teach and where government agencies can train.

“For example, the Wild Center plans to welcome students K to 12 to learn about Adirondack animals, college art students to use the center’s animals as subjects and for local veterinary students to study the collection in great detail and more easily.”

Exactly two years ago this week Schumer visited the Wild Center, learned about its expansion plans and promised to support them. His return visit Tuesday was to celebrate the fight he won for $466,000 in federal funding in the recently-passed Fiscal Year 2026 Agriculture-Rural Develop[ment budget bill in Congress.

The senator first met Betsy and Nancy Howard, another Wild Center promoter at Nancy and Norm Howard’s Wawbeek Inn on November 22, 2000, where he learned of Betsy’s vision for a natural history museum here. In the years following that meeting, Senator Schumer worked closely with former Rep. John McHugh to secure $340,000 in federal funding, which served as important seek money to help kick-start the effort, according to Schumer staff.

The U.S. Senator was in attendance at the Wild Center’s ground-breaking in 2004 and has returned with his staff and family many times over the years.

He has helped secure numerous grants for the Wild Center over the years, including one for $570,020 from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, which he wrote during the COVID pandemic to help closed theaters and museums stay afloat.

The senator spent twenty minutes or so in the great hall upon his arrival meeting a number of the animals that call the Wild Center and the staff members who care for them.

A light luncheon followed in the Native American exhibit area. He talked informally with Stephanie Ratcliffe and Hillarie Logan-Dechene, asking about coming exhibits and visitor trends.

His first question was about their visitor-ship this summer in the face of the Canadian boycott, after insulting remarks by President Trump and a break-down in trade talks.

The director said that they were not as adversely effected by the decrease in Canadian visitors as were communities like Plattsburgh and Watertown which are closer to the Canadian border, which saw visitor numbers down by 30%.

Hillarie Logan-Dechene said Tupper Lake does not see as much of the Canadian market in tourism, compared with more northern communities in New York State, closer to the border.

“We, of course, did see a decrease” in Canadian visitors this summer, but overall the impact on us here was less than many of our neighbors saw.

She said the Canadian visitors the Wild Center lost this summer, they made up for in promoting other tourist markets.

She said the new Raquette River Roll recently introduced drew a number of new visitors this past summer.

The senator said his grandson had really enjoyed that feature too.

Director Ratcliffe said all museums strive to regularly introduce new features and exhibits to keep visitors coming. The Wild Center has been no different, introducing the very popular Wild Walk a number of years ago, and more recently the twig village, the winter-time lighted forest and the Raquette River Roll.

Coming this summer, it was noted will be the Troll exhibit by Danish Artist Thomas Dambo and in a year of so the new animal sanctuary, which will be attached to the main building.

“When our new animal exhibit opens in a year or so that’s going to be a very big deal,” Mrs. Logan-Dechene told the senator.

She said their visitors really love to see the animals at the Wild Center and learning about them, before they might see them on their next visit into the woods here.

“In terms of our animal ambassadors here, this new building is really going to change the way we were able to take care of them,” explained Director Ratcliffe.

She explained how the new animal habitat will fit nicely beside and behind their main building, connected by a new path.

She said it will contain up to 16 animal habitats with flexible space that can either be set up for eight or 16. “People will go through here, see the animals and be able to continue on to go around to the front of our building.”

Hillary said that their animal curator, Leah Valeria has been asking for a long time to have a behind the scenes place where they can take care of them and feed them easily, and then visitors can see them at the same time. 


The deputy director said the new animal building will be fully heated to protect the animals from the sometimes severe cold of winter and will have other protective features to keep them safe from diseases like bird flu and West Nile virus.

The two women estimated the new animal building would be up and operational in about two years. Some funding has come from New York State too to fund some of the design costs.

Senator Schumer wondered if private donations are helping too and Mrs. Ratcliffe said it was.

Asked about regular donations in general by the senator, Mrs. Logan-Dechene said the Wild Center enjoys the support of “a very loyal group of people. They share our vision for continuing to grow. 
And so we're very loyal to our base!”

The federal official asked them what percentage of their donors are New York State residents, and he was told about 90% of them were- either full-time residents or part-time residents. “The bulk of our donors are New York residents or New York part time residents. 
They have a big stake in New York and want us to succeed!” said the deputy director.

They told him next year is a milestone year for the Wild Center as its 20th anniversary.

They also briefed him on another coming feature with much of the funding already in place, including a $500,000 anonymous donation and several million dollars in grants from the state. They described it as a multi-million dollar events center that will allow them to stage major events and conferences, which up to now haven’t had the room for. 
”This building is going to be transformative for us…. it's going to allow us to expand our programs, to continue to permit us to do our global work, our local work, our work with school groups, work with organizations around the world


An upcoming capital campaign is aimed at raising the rest of the money to build the new events complex. “It'll transform how we are able to do things around here, bringing more business to Tupper Lake. 
We want to be kind of the Aspen Institute of the East,” explained Mrs. Logan-Dechene.

This new building will enable the Wild Center to host large meetings and conferences on site. There’ll be room too for ever-changing exhibits and major musical events.

The senator asked them the capacity of this new building as was told as many as 400.

Of the upcoming Troll exhibit the artist, Mr. Dambo, is bringing six of his creations and one will be built by volunteers on site in late summer. The trolls are created by the artist using wooden pallets.

Mrs. Logan-Dechene said that right now the Wild Center attracts about 100,000 every summer season. She said according to Marketing Director Nick Gunn’s projections, the Troll exhibit will increase visitor-ship by another 40%.

Said Hillarie, “that’s people buying fuel in Tupper Lake, staying in local motels, eating in local restaurants... it's going to be terrific!

Mr. Dambo’s exhibit will be the first one in New York State, and so is expected to draw thousands here from all over the northeast. It opens June 1. Mr. Dambo’s trolls will be arriving on a flatbed truck in advance of the June 1 opening.

The senator introduced a new member of his staff, a young lady named Charlotte, who used to be a babysitter for his children when she was in high school.

Hillarie told the senator that she recently attended her 40th high school class reunion and the daughter of one of her high school friends had just interviewed for an internship position on his staff. He asked her the name of the student and Hillarie told him.

The senator ended his table conversation that day with a story about his birthday, two days later.

“I was born on Thanksgiving Day. My mom went into labor at 5:30 a.m. and my dad helped her get dressed.. They got into their car, which was a Packard and which was made in New York York. 
They finally to the hospital called French Hospital, run by an order of French Nuns, in Midtown Manhattan. The hospital was at 29th Street and Seventh Avenue...note the location was important!

Dad drops her off, it's about 8:30, and in those days, there was none of this touchy, feely stuff, you know, spouse in the birth room and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 
They would send the husbands to a little room where they paced the floor, smoked cigars, and waited for the blessed event. In those days, of course, you didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl, so there was even more anticipation.

The senator said his dad was something of “a free spirit” and didn’t like being cooped up in the waiting room. It just so happened that four blocks away from the hospital was the staging of the annual Thanksgiving Macy’s Day Parade. So off he went to watch the parade.

“He gets there at 9 o'clock, he stays until noon at the end of the parade and at that point, he meets a friend of his who says, ‘let's go into local pub and celebrate the birth of your new child.’ 
I was born at 11 a.m. and Dad showed up back at the hospital at 4:30 p.m., precipitating what I’m told was the first and biggest fight of their marriage.

He said they obviously got over it and it couldn’t have done that much harm to their marriage, as they were married for 72 years.

After about an hour the Schumer delegation was off to Lake Placid to the arts center there where he secured $1 million in funding as part of the same congressional bill.