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Wild Center students represent North Country at White House Climate Summit | NCPR News

Wild Center students represent North Country at White House Climate Summit
Amy Feiereisel (Community Engagement Reporter)

The North Country had two representatives at the White House this week for its Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities.

Those representatives weren’t elected officials or CEOs. They were two students who serve on the Youth Climate Advisory Board of the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. Cedar Young, 20, is from Saranac Lake. Andrew Fagerheim, 21, is from Homer.

Since 2006, the Tupper Lake Wild Center has been hosting Youth Climate Summits. They bring hundreds of Upstate students together each year to talk about climate change, justice, and activism. Fagerheim and Young both attended those summits as high schoolers.

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"This program is honestly why I’m interested in climate work to begin with," said Young. "This is where I learned about the problem and this is where I learned where I could be in the solution."

"You know, for young people especially, this is something we're going to be dealing with for the rest of our lives," said Fagerheim. "This [the Wild Center Youth Climate Summit] is where I first learned about climate change. And also where I felt like I could do something that made a difference."

As teenagers, they worked with their local town governments to make it happen.

"I started working on that program in Homer, New York, with my friend Shaniqua Perry," said Fagerheim. "We both co-led a Climate Smart communities task force for the village of Homer."

Young was a student representative on Saranac Lake’s task force.

"It was such a valuable experience, getting to learn about like how local government functions," she said, "and that really cemented my interest and passion in policymaking and that sort of thing."

Because of that work, Young and Fagerheim, who are college students these days, were invited to attend the White House Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities on Thursday, Sept. 28.

The summit brought together local, state, and tribal leaders to talk about community-driven climate resilience strategies, and how to spend $50 billion earmarked by President Joe Biden for climate resilience.

There were about 70 attendees. Young and Fagerheim participated in a round table about policy, science, and implementation.

They were accompanied on their trip by 30-year-old Hannah Barg, who works at the Wild Center. "I'm kind of being the climate mom for this group," said Barg.

But Barg didn't attend the summit with Young and Fagerheim. Instead, they watched from a live stream, which they said is important.

"Cedar and Andrew are the representatives who got invited to this event, and I'm really just here as a support role," Barg said. "It makes me feel really honored to be with you today," they told the students.

Before the students headed off to the White House, I asked Young and Fagerheim what they were most excited for.

"I'm really looking forward to getting to meet so many people from around the country who are doing climate work on different levels," said Young. "I haven't really had the chance before to do such a professional event and get to like network with such professional people ... it's going to be like scientists, tribal leaders, government officials."

Fagerheim said, like Young, he was excited, "to meet the other people there and to learn from them."

"To hear how other people are approaching this issue, engaging their communities, building resilience in their communities, I think is really exciting. And if we have something to offer to the group as well, I think that's great."

Fagerheim and Young were some of the youngest attendees at the summit.