Author: Maddie Sauders, 2025 Summer Community Engagement Intern
As a Community Engagement Intern this past summer, I had the opportunity to sit down with Barbara Glaser, a long-term resident of Saratoga Springs, to learn more about her work in conservation and environmental advocacy across New York State. As a co-founder of the Saratoga Springs Open Space Project, Glaser helped lay the organizational groundwork for what would eventually become Saratoga PLAN. Based on our conversation, this blog post looks back at the beginnings of the Open Space Project and PLAN, while also exploring Glaser’s extensive career in environmental conservation and advocacy.
Over the years, Saratoga PLAN helped protect over 14,000 acres of land through partnerships with landowners, assisted with the development of more than 200 miles of trails and managed 13 public nature preserves. These efforts have protected a variety of important ecosystems and continue to foster connections between community members and nature.
PLAN’s ongoing conservation work builds on the vision and actions of leaders like Barbara Glaser, a local conservationist and co-founder of the Saratoga Springs Open Space Project. In fact, throughout the 1990s, her dedication to engaging the community and protecting open spaces in Saratoga Springs would eventually lead to the official creation of Saratoga PLAN in 2003.
Glaser’s career in environmental conservation began long before she arrived in Saratoga.
Growing up in Minnesota, she frequented the North Shore of Lake Superior with her family, where her early adventures in nature sparked a lifelong connection to the outdoors. That connection followed her into adulthood, when in her mid-20s, she took a job at an educational conference center and moved to the Adirondack region. Soon after, in 1975, Glaser played a major role in helping facilitate the purchase and preservation of Great Camp Sagamore– a historic property situated near Raquette Lake that once served as a private wilderness retreat for members of the Vanderbilt family. Driven by her interests in community education and historic preservation, Glaser stepped into the role of co-director of the camp for many years, saving it from demolition and transforming it into an educational site where visitors of all ages could experience the fascinating history and natural beauty of the camp.
As a result of her role at Sagamore, Glaser was invited to serve on the boards of several regional conservation organizations, including the Adirondack Council (where she served for 25 years as a board member), the Adirondack Land Trust, and the Adirondack Nature Conservancy. Eventually, Glaser made her way to Saratoga Springs, bringing with her a wealth of experience and knowledge about environmental conservation initiatives across the state.
In 1989, she and a small group of community members formed the Saratoga Springs Open Space Project– a grassroots effort organized around the goal of preserving open spaces within the city. For such a rapidly developing area, creating well-planned and accessible open spaces throughout the city would have both positive environmental and economic benefits. One of the group’s earliest proposals involved turning the abandoned railroad tracks near Bog Meadow Brook into a public nature trail. Recognizing the importance of bipartisan community engagement, they made sure to seek input from a wide variety of residents and stakeholders, gradually crafting an official Open Space Plan. While they faced, at times, resistance to their efforts (notably over a proposal to limit development near Exit 14), an initial Open Space Plan was eventually adopted by the City Council in 1994 and was later updated in 2002. Several years later, the Open Space Project championed the Open Space Bond Act, adopted in Saratoga Springs in 2002, which created a $5 million fund for open space acquisition in the region.
Following these initial successes, the Open Space Project continued to build momentum. As their small team expanded and took on larger projects, the group made the decision to hire its first Executive Director, Alane Ball. Around the same time, there was another conservation organization in the area, the Saratoga County Land Conservancy, that was struggling to sustain its operations. After Glaser invited them to work in the same office as the Open Space Project, the two groups gradually began to collaborate on small conservation projects. The relationship became mutually beneficial, as the Land Conservancy could acquire land, while the Open Space Project provided a more established organizational presence. By 2003, the two groups were regularly working together, sparking a proposal to merge into a single organization. After careful consideration and planning, they officially merged, adopting the name Saratoga PLAN (Preserving Land and Nature). The formation of PLAN established an “efficient, sustainable land conservation organization and community planning advocate for the Saratoga region.”
Thanks to the efforts of local leaders and environmental advocates like Glaser, PLAN has continued to grow over time. What began as a grassroots effort among local residents to preserve open spaces in a developing urban environment evolved into a successful conservation organization navigating new challenges. With the support of staff, board members, and dedicated volunteers, PLAN now provides “comprehensive land conservation services to governments, organizations, and individuals, while simultaneously striving to achieve regional coordination and cooperation in land use, open space, and recreational trail planning.”
Today, Glaser remains as active as ever with numerous local conservation efforts and non-profit organizations. An educator at heart, she believes strongly in supporting young people: providing them with opportunities to do meaningful, hands-on work in the company of great mentors. Throughout her career, Glaser has helped establish several internship programs for students pursuing careers in conservation, including the Clarence Petty Internship Program, named in honor of the Adirondack Council co-founder who was also her dear friend and mentor. For Glaser, mentoring and inspiring the next generation of leaders is one of the best ways to ensure that ongoing conservation efforts and movements endure well into the future.