No preview available
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2023-02-02 1 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board (CB) Meeting February 2, 2023, 5:30 pm (In Person at Town Hall and via Zoom Video Conference) Final Minutes Members Present: Lori Brewer, Elise Edwards, James Hamilton, Mike Roberts, Ingrid Zabel Staff: Mike Smith (Senior Planner) and C.J. Randall (Director of Planning) Guests: Frank Cantone 1. Persons to be heard: Frank has submitted an application to join the CB as voting member. C.J. was welcomed and introduced to those present. She has taken recently retired Sue Ritter's job as Director of Planning. 2. Members comments/concerns: Mike R hopes members will look into the email he sent us Jan 25th with URL links and info relevant to a "Verdant Views" episode Cornell Botanic Gardens is holding online February 23rd from 2:00 to 3:30 pm. "Capturing Carbon" will show how Cornell is relying on its forests as "nature-based solutions to the climate crisis." 3. Environmental Review Committee update: a) The Burger King at East Hill Plaza has been abandoned, and the Town has received a Sketch Plan for a proposed combined Mirabito gas station and Burger King that would site a drive-through loop over land where beautiful trees now stand. Lori wanted to know how the sketch plan relates to the Environmental Assessment Form, and how the present zoning would require special permit for the proposal. Mike S explained that the sketch was a preliminary plan for comments and complaints before an Environmental review would be required later in the process. Now the gas station and Burger King lots are in different zones, and combining them into one building would need a variance in one or the other. James wanted to be sure we do all we can to preserve the trees now growing around those buildings; he especially likes the evergreens and the big catalpa that the sketch plan proposes to demolish. The ERC will plan a site visit soon. b) Lori would like a more detailed work plan for the ERC's reviewing proposed development; she wants to be sure the Committee preserves an organizational memory from past work so it can learn from its history. 4. Chair Report: Lori and Elise attended a Community Partnership gathering hosted by the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement at Cornell on 1/19/23 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm in the Tompkins County Public Library. Members were given two pamphlets from the Einhorn Center about Community Engagement and Social Justice Programs. She reported from these (slightly edited) notes: "a. Holly Payne from Cornell Cooperative Extension suggested connecting with the Ithaca Bike Share to promote the CB's map and guide to scenic views to folks who don't have a car. We thought putting a QR code on the bikes, or on the map brochure might be a good idea." James agreed the scenic views map tour should be promoted that way. "b. Deanna English (deanna.l.english@gmail.com) from Trees Up Tompkins mentioned a desire for a joint effort for tree planting or as a source of possible volunteers. She seemed interested in joining a town board meeting. They clear invasives and then plant native trees and shrubs." 2 "c. Nicole MacPherson, the Community Work Study Program Coordinator, mentioned that we could be in touch to get Cornell volunteers (which we can advertise on their website) or to have a work study student. It might be good if we have some specific job descriptions we can share with them based on our needs for the different committees (for example an ERC project review guideline document that might help improve our process and articulate it to others)." Mike S noted that now is a good time to suggest projects for summer interns, as the Town is now looking for a good job such summer hires could do. He gave as example the hiring of a student to help monitoring a deer browse study of natural areas in the Town that Bernd Blossey at Cornell's Natural Resources & The Environment Department is doing. "d. Might we want to find out if one of the Social Justice programs connects with our discussion and interests in Indigenous Environmental Justice?" We'll try to address this later in the agenda when we discuss it as planned. "e. United Way in collaboration with this Cornell center is developing a searchable database of community engagement/ volunteer opportunities. Keep an eye out for the launch of this." "f. There are Community Engaged Learning grant opportunities for faculty and staff (in partnership with a community group) https://einhorn.cornell.edu/opportunities-for-faculty-staff/. Just a couple examples: Public Issue Network Grants—Funding teams who are creating or expanding networks around a shared issued of public concern; Engaged Opportunity Grants—Providing seed support for a wide range of community-engaged learning projects." "g. In our Office 365 shared folder in sub folder "For consideration" there is an excel spread sheet listing 50 community partners who participated in this event. Are there others on the list we might reach out to about shared interests?" The New York State Association of Conservation Commissions (NYSACC) will be holding its next annual Conference on the Environment in Tompkins County this Fall. The Tompkins County EMC is planning to hold a meeting in May with all local Conservation Board’s and Commission’s. We might want to cancel our May CB meeting to be sure we attend this event. 4. Coordinator Report: Mike S noted that the Town's Newsletter online will need a new subscription. Those currently getting it via Internet will have to register online to continue getting it via a different cyberplatform. Mike has received Frank Cantone's application to join us as a voting resident member; he should be approved by next meeting. When Sue Ritter vacated her office for C.J. Randall, she gave Mike two articles she'd found in her files from the late 1990s that Dick Fischer had written, probably for Town Newsletters; we may be able to use them some way. Mike R took photos of them with his phone and we all checked them out. Mike reported the beginning of the Town's special deer management program in 9 locations in Town, some in the Six Mile Creek watershed owned by the City. The treestands and deer feeders he installed will let deer get used to them for a week before archers use them to reduce deer over-population. Frank asked whether the deer had been counted; Mike S explained the program had not used a census, but relied on deer browse studies and traffic accident reports to see that too many deer here were a problem. 5. Minutes could not be approved, as we had no quorum. No minutes for 11/3/22 have yet been received from Eva. Elise and Mike R will straighten out a problem mentioned by James in a 1/29/23 3 email to CB members about the draft minutes for our 1/5/23 meeting concerning an Indigenous Environmental Justice Committee. 6. Mike R promised a succinct report on his concerns about Indigenous Environmental Justice, and presented an explanation of the Morrill Land Grant Acts that established public colleges by offering gifts of land expropriated from Indigenous People and traded through scripts traded by speculators like Ezra Cornell who could make fortunes from mining and logging lands taken from tribes who didn't understand the notion of real estate property. He suggested we go to www.landgrabu.org to see how our federal government funded land-grant universities like Cornell with unethical treaties and land seizures. He wants us to honor and acknowledge the Haudenosaunee confederacy, and the Gayogohono whose homeland was taken by whites coming to settle Ithaca. Lori wondered whether indigenous folks find "land acknowledgement" valuable. Mike could not say he'd noticed. But indigenous people themselves meet after acknowledging "Words Before All Else," so we might well do so, too. The Town's Tutelo Park could benefit from the development of an Interpretive Trail in order to educate visitors about prior indigenous inhabitants. On May 6, 2023, 11:00-3:00 pm there will be a Haudenosaunee themed gathering there. The CB should help with the development of an ethnobotanic walk there. Elise wonders if the CB meetings should have a preliminary values ritual like the Words Before All Else. She and Mike R will think about it. Lori wonders if other parks besides Tutelo Park should also get special ethnic land acknowledgement. 7. Ingrid reported her work on Garden Tours and turning lawns into Wildlife Sanctuaries. We'd like to show Ithacans how their lawns could be replaced by pollinator gardens. She hasn't found a resident with no lawn, but hopes to. When would a garden tour work for everybody? Would it be a sort of open house, or a guided tour from garden to garden? What sort of info do people want, if they want to replace their lawn? She noted the importance of planning several months ahead, but had never organized an event like this and wondered if we could do it. She was encouraged to keep trying, as mowing lawns was not ecologically appropriate, and reducing lawns in Ithaca should be part of our CB mission. We'll keep this idea on our agenda for next month. 8. Regular reports and updates: a) SRC is still waiting on Cornell for legal permission to plant an interpretive view sign on CU property at the Pine Tree/Snyder Hill Rds intersection. b) Communication Committee: James had posted FB promotions for various events that Mike and Ingrid asked our FB page to "share." Cornell Botanic Gardens' Verdant Views webinar will show how Cornell's natural areas and forests capture atmospheric carbon, an important part of Cornell's aim to becoming carbon neutral. Check out https://events.cornell.edu/event/capturing_carbon_nature- based_solutions_to_the_climate_crisis to see more, and to find the link for registering to attend on Thursday, 2/23/23 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm. The Finger Lakes Land Trust, whose founding president A. Carl Leopold won Ithaca Conservation Board's Fischer Conservation Award for 2009, is planning a Finger Lakes Ecology Series: free evening (7:30-8:30) webinars about deer, invasive species, and algal blooms Feb 9, Mar 16, Apr 4. See https://www.fllt.org/events/ for more info and links for registration. We still need official nominations for the 2022 Fischer Award. JoAnn & James are having problems with James' emails not getting through to her gmail account. We want to get Ingrid on the CC committee, and she's willing, so therefore she's thanked for joining. James has been able to get back on FB, which had blocked him for supposed "security" problems, without any need for its "two factor authentication" hardware. Maybe someone more cyberliterate and smartphone enabled should take over the chair of this committee? 4 c) Ingrid enjoyed her first meeting as Ithaca Town liaison with the Tompkins County Environmental Management Council. The EMC is planning to change its format for meetings with longer presentations about environmental concerns. CB members thanked Ingrid for taking this important job connecting Town and County environmental work, as it had been vacant for too long, tho Lindsay was filling in unofficially, due to the lack of members willing to take it on. d) Six Mile Creek water quality monitor volunteers worked 7 hours Saturday 12/1/23 to analyze 2 replicate BMI samples preserved in alcohol from a riffle near 600 Rd in Slaterville Springs on 8/20/22. All metrics proved Six Mile is very healthy at that site. All three BMI samples taken last summer from 6MC have now been analyzed; results will be posted on CSI's website soon. CSI recently received a $50,000 gift from the Tapan Mitra Estate and will use most of it for an environmental education fund. CSI's latest newsletter is one of their best; check out http://www.communityscience.org/wp- content/uploads/2023/01/Final-2022-Water-Bulletin.pdf. 6MC volunteers will meet some time in the 3rd week of Feb to figure out this year's sampling schedule and to get "refresher training" to follow "requirements of CSI's Quality Assurance Project Plan." e) Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas volunteer stewards are working every other week as stewardship activities are slowed by winter weather and reduced CU staff to supervise. Woody invasives in the Varna side of Park Park preserve south of Fall Creek and east of the arboretum were cut down and their stumps painted with glyphosate to prevent resprouting: piles of honeysuckle, multiflora rose, privet, buckthorn, Norway maple and Japanese maple (escaped from arboretum) were stacked short distances away from the Park Park Trail through there. The former trailer park at 440 Forest Home Drive across the road from this NA is for sale now, priced at $3,950,000! 9. The Other Business of recommending Ingrid Zabel as official Tompkins County Environmental Management Council member was approved by all present. Though we had no quorum, Mike S is sure the Town Board will be glad to appoint her as Town of Ithaca representative to that county council. 10. March's CB Agenda will continue discussion of items 5 & 6 on today's agenda. 11. We adjourned at 7:00. Draft minutes submitted 2/3/23 by James Hamilton.