HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 2021-05-06 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board (CB) Meeting
May 6, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
(via Zoom Video Conference)
Final Minutes
Members present-- Lori Brewer (Chair), Lindsay Dombroskie, James Hamilton, Eva Hoffmann,Joann
Kowalski, Carolyn Lee, Mike Roberts
Staff: Michael Smith, Senior Planner
Guest: Suzy Strickler, possible interested Board member; works at Boyce Thompson Institute and lives at
Commonland
1. Persons to be heard: none
2. Members' Concerns: Lindsay voiced concern that someone from the CB should view a series of DEC
Wetland Seminars forwarded via an e-mail from Mike S. since they are providing information regarding
regulatory protection for wetlands and this is an area of oversight the board provides. They are being
presented on May 511, 1211 and 191"from 3 —4:30 pm.Joann has agreed to view the two remaining
programs on the 121" and 191" and report back to the board as to whether it would be important for
others to view the recordings.
Eva commented the town has maps of wetland locations, if needed to be reviewed.
3. Chairperson and Coordinator Reports.
Chairperson, Lori Brewer: Lori sent a CB Volunteer Member Position Description for consideration.
Initial comments and possible edits were offered as to the content with the intent to discuss
further at the June meeting.
Coordinator, Mike Smith:
a) Mike S. reported on a grant opportunity from the DEC for private landowners offering up to
$50,000 with a 20% share from the landowner. Landowners with 10 to 10,000 acres of forest land
are encouraged to apply for project funding to cover costs to plant trees, control competing
vegetation (including invasives), restore a degraded forest stand, or exclude deer. To find out more
about getting funding for your forest, please visit, p.s. rr ..ry.g.pv_I .r .s 1.19950.html.
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b)The Town website is being redone by a company out of California and is expected to be a six-
month process. The existing information on the website will be transferred to the new site with
new format.
c)The Town is looking at OpenGov, a cloud-based software program to manage internal projects
and enable staff to store files. Permits and approvals will be available online for the public to apply
for environmental and project review. Digital storage space may be available for various town
boards but is yet to be determined.
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d) Meetings in a month or so may be a hybridized version with some members being able to
continue meeting via zoom while others can attend in person in the Aurora Room at the Town Hall
building. Mike S. will need to be in the meeting room to greet any public who may choose to
attend a meeting. Mike took a preliminary poll as to which members would like to continue on
Zoom and which are open to meeting in person.
4. Approval of minutes from April 1, 2021: Eva would like to submit suggestions for changes to the April
minutes and requested they be reviewed and approved at the June meeting. All agreed to do so.
5. Discussion of deer management (Mike R.): Mike reported to Board at the last meeting the information
he had obtained from the Deer Impact Assessment and Mitigation Summit he attended that was
presented by Penn State Cooperative Extension. Sensing some lingering questions about the history and
reasoning behind the program, Mike proposed an open, honest discussion among the board members.
James raised a concern about the dumping of the discarded bait on Cornell's Coy Glen Natural Area that
was used to attract the deer during the management period. Mike addressed the concern and agreed
that although it was not a major issue, people discarding the bait should be instructed to spread it out
rather than leave it in a pile.
Mike provided information to the effect that DEC recognizes the impact the deer population has on
landscape and humans, i.e., car collisions and Lyme disease. Region 7 has a high number of deer present
that cannot be controlled by seasonal hunting. The deer damage permits allow for baiting to control
population. The Town program was started in 2019.
At the next meeting, it was suggested there be time to have specific examples offered of how the deer
population creates an ecological impact, informational resources, and the impact the program has had
on the deer population over the duration of the program. It was suggested members look at the deer
management plan located on the website.
6. Planning for the 2020 Richard B. Fischer Environmental Conservation Award tree planting (James): The
event is planned for Sunday, May 23 at 10:00 a.m. at the Culver Woods Preserve. The event is honoring
Primitive Pursuits and, in their honor, (12) hazelnut trees will be planted. The trees were obtained by
Joann from White Oak Nursery. James has visited the potential site twice, the second time with Joe
Talbut. Mike S. is to send out an invitation with directions to the site to all parties and will also prepare a
certificate to be awarded. The tags for the trees have been obtained by James and Mike has the tag for
the plaque which will be on display at the Town Hall lobby.
7. Discuss ideas for a 2021 NY Invasive Species Awareness Week Event (June 6— 12): Suggestions were
solicited as to what the board might want to do for the event in 2021. It was suggested that perhaps
meetings or presentations could be held in public but with the uncertainty of COVID restrictions, that
was decided against since June might be early for a public gathering. James will provide information to
the Communications Committee regarding plans to repeat a Facebook campaign similar to what was
carried out last year. He also offered to inform Hilary Mosher, coordinator at the Finger Lakes PRISM
(Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management) organization of our plans since she reached out
to Mike S. to find out what the board might be doing this year.
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8. Regular Reports and Updates:
a. Environmental Review Committee (Mike R.): Mike indicated there is a pending project on the
Cornell campus and that the committee will begin to think about it.
b. Scenic Resources Committee (Eva): no report
c. Communications Committee (James): Fischer Award tree planting has been planned and
everything looks to be in place for the event on May 23. James questioned the status of the
revised brochure for the CB and Mike S. indicated they updated brochures are in the Town Hall
lobby available for folks to pick up. The updated brochure is not uploaded to the website and
with the revision taking place on the website design, it is unsure when it might be on the website.
d. Waste Awareness Committee (Lori):
Lori thanked members for sharing their responses to the committee's questions about waste.
Our perspectives were insightful and diverse. It reinforced that the greatest challenge is
getting the committee member's heads around the topic of waste. They will continue to
identify and recruit others to offer their perspectives. They also want to try using 5 minutes
during our committee report time for a mini discussion on a small nugget. An example was
listed in the chat-- consider how you respond to: Zero Waste America defines waste as "a
resource that is not safely recycled back into the environment or the marketplace." Waste
was created by humans for short-term convenience and short-term profit. Responses were
welcome from the board members.
Eva reported on the Earth Day event she hosted at Kendall Ithaca: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Mike Smith provided items to be distributed as well as brochures on invasives. Eva and a
fellow resident offered a list of do's and don'ts of how to dispose of waste that was well
received.
e. Tompkins County Environmental Management Council (EMC), (Lindsay):
EMC Meeting April 8, 2021:
1. Cayuga Lake Watershed Intermunicipal Organization (CLWIO) will be looking for money,
—$4700 from Town for their work The Town could reach
out for more information about the cost share. The town rep on the CLWIO is Tee Ann Hunter.
The purpose of the CLWIO is to bring municipalities together to work collectively and
collaboratively on monitoring, protecting, and restoring the health of the watershed. To
achieve this purpose the CLWIO needs funding for staff to coordinate efforts, write grants,
identify problem areas, educate, and generally assist municipalities. Also, funding is needed to
help pay for priority projects identified by the CLWIO membership. Currently all municipalities
pay the same amount in dues regardless of their size or how much of their municipal land is
within the watershed. Other watersheds within the Finger Lakes use a formula that more fairly
calculates dues based on logical mathematical factors, so CLWIO is hoping to switch to a similar
process.
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2. EMC Municipal reps will be giving overviews of what their town has been up to in the next
few meetings, so we should prepare! What would we like to highlight?
3. The climate group is working on a document and would like local inputs, believe Vlad was on
this committee so our info is probably accurate. Check it out and forward comments to Lindsay
to share:
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4. EMC is in support of the Finger Lakes National Heritage designation efforts
5. Community round-up email produced by the EMC has a good list of local eco activities.
Lindsay will forward to the entire CB or just communications committee as received, if desired.
f. Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program (James): City gave CSI permission to install a Six
Mile Creekside Observation Kiosk in Titus Triangle park, downstream of Plain St bridge where
the channelized creek has an access ramp. The kiosk is now under construction and will allow
creek enthusiasts to post news about the creek, the BMI in it, and issues related to water
quality and community science monitoring opportunities.
g. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas Program (James): no report—still not able to volunteer
due to COVID restrictions.
9. Other Business: It was suggested meetings be contained to 1 % hours by designating a time for each
section of the agenda. Indicating a start (5:30 pm) and end (7:00 pm) would help.
10. Review 2020 Work Goals/ Discuss June Agenda: Joann mentioned exploring ways to get more
people to the Conservation Board's Facebook page. She mentioned that the Town has a Twitter account
and it was determined that Rod Howe, the Town Supervisor, is the person who handles the account.
Joann will contact Rod to see how we might be able to partner with our social media efforts.
June agenda --The Volunteer Member Position Description will be reviewed at the June meeting. Also, it
was suggested there be time to have specific examples offered of how the deer population creates an
ecological impact, informational resources, and the impact the program has had on the deer population
over the duration of the program.
11. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 PM.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Joann Kowalski
5/24/2021
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