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Home My WebLink AboutCB Minutes 2018-06-07 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board June 7, 2018 5:33 p.m. Final Minutes Members present: Lindsay Dombroskie, Elizabeth Hageman,James Hamilton, Vladimir Micic, Mike Roberts, William VanDyke Staff: Mike Smith Guests: Mark Whitmore (Forest Entomologist, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University); Justin Smith (interested in CB membership); Sue Ritter(Planning Director, to hear about HWA) 1. Mr. Whitmore noted that his first professional job in Washington State was research on the Balsam Wooly Adelgid (BWA), when that pest's food source was his favorite tree. Now he likes hemlock even better.The BWA has begun to infest trees in New York's Adirondacks. Hemlocks are the third most common tree in NY, after red and sugar maples. Next to climate change, hemlock tree loss is the biggest ecological problem in New York State. On the west coast, the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) has native parasites, which are able to keep some hemlocks alive; but these predators are not established here. HWA came from south Japan in the early 1900s, to Virginia's Blue Ridge, where few hemlocks have survived. Last summer, HWA was found in Nova Scotia. It seems the HWA spread by sticking to birds' feet when they move from an infested branch and bring sticky HWA crawlers to another hemlock. In the northeast, the HWA life cycle does not depend on a sexual stage of adult feeding on spruce. All the HWA killing our hemlocks results from asexual reproduction, and the young of each generation compete with their mothers; so even if a harsh winter kills many mothers (an effect known as the "Progrediens Rebound") shows elevated populations, probably because the young progrediens generation doesn't need to compete with the winter-killed parents. Biological control with parasites must predate both the parent and the offspring generations, with a life cycle that synchronizes hungry predators with abundant HWA to feed on. A clear sign of HWA tree damage is a lack of bright lime-green buds and new needle growth in early summer, as feeding HWA kill the buds first, which prevents new needle growth. As there are no native predators, nor any resistance to HWA in our hemlocks, an infestation can kill trees in 4-10 years. Hemlocks play a crucial part in our natural ecology, cooling streams for native brook trout, and keeping snow insulated in their shade to prolong snow melt. Mr. Whitmore explained the many difficulties of rearing beetles and flies to predate the HWA, as they need to feed in different seasons, and must eat only HWA so they don't cause other problems. He hopes that we might have a working biocontrol in twenty years, though till then we'll need to use pesticides to keep hemlocks alive long enough for biocontrol to be effective. Mr. Whitmore also noted that the Emerald Ash Borer, on its way to killing ash trees and recently found in Ithaca, will require some very expensive hazardous tree removal when ashes die and start dropping limbs. Planning ahead will be much more affordable than waiting until trees become too fragile for affordable removal. Mike R asked if Mark's lab had any problems with NY State's biocontrol releasing regulations. Mark explained that getting the proper permits for safe introduction of new predators was not a problem.The main bottleneck is rearing the predators. All present expressed thanks for Mark's interesting presentation. 1 2.There were no persons to be heard. 3. Members concerns: none 4. Chair and Coordinator Reports: Chair: Mike R thinks a plastic bag ban would be well worth promoting for certain bags. He's glad that Will has volunteered to attend a webinar on banning plastic bags, and hopes we'll further address this issue. Coordinator: Mike S noted that the Planning Board has no news.The Town is looking to get about 30 acres of more nature preserve next to Coy Glen, but has no firm deal yet. Several grant opportunities for acquiring park land might help.The Town has an Open Space Account that might go towards purchase of Culver Rd property across from our Dress Preserve.There's a DEC Forest Management Plan for Town property, and another for Town Park invasive removal and tree planting.The CB encouraged Planners to get whatever grants they could and will provide letters of support for these applications. 5. Minutes for the January 4(James moved to approve, Elizabeth seconded) and May 3, 2018(Elizabeth moved to approve, Mike seconded) minutes meetings were approved with slight revisions. 6.The 2018 NY Invasive Species Awareness Week(ISAW) Event found members agreeing that they could help run it in Tutelo Park on Thursday,July 12, after a brief Conservation Board meeting in the Pavilion (at our usual time of 5:30) as long as we were able to reserve that space.James noticed on a short walk in the park woods with Tony and Liz after their Fischer Award Tree Planting ceremony that there were more invasives than native plants there. Most members present agreed they could attend, and that Mike S should sign us up for a Thursday evening ISAW show focusing on what we can do to stop the spread of such invasives as multiflora rose, privet, buckthorn, bittersweet, barberry, and honeysuckle. James will try to get Tony to make a "Walk in the Park" video of the event. We'll put out a Press Release for the ISAW show on 7/12/18 at 6:00 PM, and register it with NY State's Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management(PRISM), as we've done in previous years. 7.The draft Good Faith Commitment struck all members present as a good idea.There were no suggestions for revising the draft. All agreed to sign the statement promising to do the bestjob they could. 8. Regular Reports and Updates: Environmental Review Committee: no news Scenic Resources Committee: Rich Schoch, trying to get NY DOT approval for planting the Danby Road Longview sign at the north edge of their scenic pull-off, heard from DOT that they'd misinformed us about that deal, and now wanted an application fee for putting it there and an annual fee.Though Eva's away now, Rich left her a message about talking with Longview to see if we could place it on their property adjacent to the DOT parcel. Communications Committee:Will noted that the Fischer Award tree party went well. He has posted a photo of the planting on the CB Facebook page. Tompkins County EMC:Vlad left the meeting early, and left no report. 2 Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitors:James reported that the group took a scheduled synoptic water sample of Six Mile on May 23,just hours after a big flood event in which the USGS flow gage measured a maximum flow more than 2.5 times bigger than the last maximum flow for that date in the previous 28 years. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas:James reported that volunteers had worked on a new trail in Newfield in the Bandler Preserve, a new addition to the Fischer Old Growth forest. Deer Management Committee: Lindsay reported that the Public Comments to the Deer Management Plan on May 22 went very well, with several CB members commenting, as well as other supportive Town residents.There was no public comment opposing the plan.Though Town law would have to be changed to allow weapons to kill deer in our parks and preserves, there may be other places where herd reduction could begin sooner.The Town needs to coordinate with Cornell Botanic Gardens and the City's Six Mile Creek watershed. 9. Other Business: Elizabeth noted that she had applied to the City to be a Town liaison for their recently reorganized natural areas commission, now a part of parks, recreation, and natural resources commission. 10.July Agenda:As our next meeting will be held for only a half hour in Tutelo Park before the ISAW event, no particular business was proposed. We'll probably be busy getting the Invasives show going. 11. We adjourned at 7:32 pm These draft minutes by James Hamilton 6/21/18 3