HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2024-03-07 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board (CB) Meeting
March 7,2024, 5:30 p.m.
(In Person at Town Hall and via Zoom Video Conference)
Final Minutes
Members present: Lori Brewer(Chairperson), Frank Cantone (Vice Chairperson), James
Hamilton, Eva Hoffmann, and Michael Roberts.
Staff: Michael Smith, Senior Planner.
Guests: Katie Borgella(Tompkins County Department of Planning and Sustainability), who
attended by Zoom, and Andy Zepp (Finger Lakes Land Trust- FLLT) and a high school student.
1. Discussion of upcoming NYS Open Space Conservation Plan Update: Katie Borgella,
introduced this project. The first plan was done in 1992 and was last updated in 2016. It used to
be updated every other year. It is hoped this current update will be finished in 2025.
Andy Zepp stated that he began working with this plan in the 1990s. There were nine regions
with individual reports and one overarching report. In Tompkins County there were several
large projects: the Emerald Necklace Greenbelt(with about 2,000 properties),the State Park
Greenbelt, the Black Diamond Trail, DEC projects and State Parks.
Current changes involve the NYSEG site, which will be removed from the list because it is
finished. How to deal with taxation is another big issue. There is concern that NYS does not
pay taxes on land it owns. The Land Trust often acquires land for the state to take over. Now
the state owes money to organizations like the FLLT. There are backlog issues to deal with. He
said he will send his testimony on this to Mike S to distribute.
He talked about the 30 for 30 law, which deals with questions about which land should be
preserved by 2030. About issues to cover in the law,he stated as an example that good bird
habitat makes good places for solar panels; asked are there water issues to bring up? Katie B.
stated that climate change and climate resilience need to be covered. She said that when the draft
updated plan is available, they will ask the Town to comment on it.
Lori said that the 30 by 30 law mirrors Federal legislation in trying to conserve 30% of the land
mass. But she asked if wetlands are counted in that figure. It doesn't say they are protected,but
you can't fill a wetland without a permit. American Farm Land people and Urban Open Space
people want to be included in the legislation. Mike R. stated that Honeywell owned property
near Syracuse that was being transferred to the Onondaga Nation. The Finger Lakes Land Trust
does not consider the land suitable for development, because the tribes need land for that too and
they want to collaborate with native peoples. A draft revised plan and a comment period may be
available by this summer
2. Persons to be heard: The student,who stated he is interested in land use and came to
observe the CB.
3. Member comments/concerns: None.
4. Environmental Review Committee Update (Lori): No report.
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5. Chairperson and Coordinator reports: No report by Lori. Mike S. reported that the deer
program started February 1. Seven deer total have been harvested as of now. They aren't
coming consistently to the feeders. The Culver Road project is moving forward and has gotten a
grant, but the Town Board hasn't signed a contract yet. The plan is to provide formal entrances,
parking and trails, including a trail to an open field with nice views. Mike stated that Earth Day
on the Commons is coming up and asked if the CB was interested in setting up a table.
6. Approval of minutes from January 4 and February 1, 2024: Frank moved and Lori
seconded. The minutes were approved as corrected and as written,respectively.
7. Discussion of the 2023 Richard B. Fischer Environmental Conservation Award
nominations and selection of a winner: We received three different nominations for the award
this time: for the Zero Waste Ithaca project, the ICSD Child Nutrition Program and for Adrianna
Hirtler, the biomonitoring coordinator of the Community Science Institute (CSI). James talked
about Adrianna's work and the group's history. We have given the award to the group of
volunteers at CSI before, but this one is for the work of Adrianna Hirtler and the importance of
her many years of leadership to the group in monitoring the health of local streams and Cayuga
Lake. Mike R. moved to give the award to her, James seconded and the motion was
unanimously accepted. Next we need to contact the winner and set the date for the award
ceremony. For next year, 2024, we will send press releases about the Fischer Award to the
Tattler and groups involving high school students to encourage them to make nominations.
Further work involves clarifying the language about the time period the nominee did the work,
discuss whether that's important and whether we could expand that.
8. Town's Deer Management Program—continue browse monitoring discussion: Mike R.
talked about the impact of deer on vegetation. We have discussed the AVID program (Assessing
Vegetation Impacts from Deer) for a while, with Kristi Sullivan looking for good sites to work
with. She found the natural area along Pine Tree Road may have good sites, where leafing out
may have started by mid-April. Mike asked if there was a reason to find spaces on Town land or
could we go for places that Bernd Blossey has already identified. Lori said the idea is that town
land could be used as demonstrations and examples for people to see. They would be trials for
us and for the Town. It would not be a commitment for the Town, but just to find out what one
can and needs to do. Mike said that the CU Botanic Gardens has a few plots where they do
studies like this. He asked if the Town would want to have results from outside, like from
Cornell. The Town has not taken in data from the Botanic Gardens before, but would welcome
any data. CU has used twig age as an indicator in some areas of the town where they have land.
Mike is working on some of these projects and CU, as a land grant institution, needs to share its
knowledge.
9. Continue discussion of Indigenous Environmental Justice (Mike R.): Mike reported that
Steve Henhawk is making progress on plant labels for the nature walk area of Tutelo Park. Mike
is working on QR codes and a connection to an audio presentation in Gayogoh6:n9'language,
with a translation to English. At some point Mike S. and he will have to apply for some county
money for this project. Joe Talbut has been generous in providing supplies. Mike asked where
to post the audio files and said the Town's Web site seemed a natural place. If we make space
for an actual place of interest,we should create a virtual presence as well on the Town's Web
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site.
10. Regular reports and updates:
a. Scenic Resources Committee (Eva): No report, because no news is available.
b. Communications Committee (James): James asked Mike S. to print some of the recently
revised edition of the CB brochure, so members could hand them out as recruiting aids to anyone
they find interested in joining us.
C. Tompkins County Environmental Management Committee (EMC) (Ingrid): No report.
d. Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program (James): Five of the eleven Six Mile
Creek (6MC) monitor volunteers met at noon Friday, Feb 9 via Zoom due to bad cold germs at
Langmuir. We planned only 3 synoptic water samples in 2024, as 6MC has 20 years of water
sample data now, and Community Science Institute (CSI)wants more work done in other
streams. Biological monitoring in the summer will continue at 3 to 5 sites where riffles and flow
meet sampling protocols. Scheduled synoptic sampling will be on 4/3/24, 7/17/24, and 11/6/24
unless we can catch an impromptu storm event. Two years have gone by now without a storm
sample. We'll also sample only 14 sites on 6MC, dropping the Yellowbarn and Brooktondale
Gaswell sites (Yellowbarn is too close to Midline site,which gives very similar results; Gaswell
site in Brooktondale was sampled from 2012 to 2023 mostly because a landowner nearby wanted
to drill a gaswell on his property back when Marcellus shale hydrofracking was threatening, but
it's too close to the Banks site to be needed now). 6MC has proven to be one of the healthiest
streams that CSI monitors. Over 20 years, the chloride concentration has increased significantly,
though this may be due not only to road salt, but also to increased atmospheric pollution from oil
and gas fields upwind, as chloride is produced from industrial waste gas flaring. A biomonitoring
team met at James's house Saturdays Feb 3 and 10 to analyze preserved BMI samples from the
best riffle in 6MC near 600 Rd in Caroline,just east of Slaterville Springs. An independently
verified highest-significance check(by Adrianna Hirtler) on our metrics confirmed that Six Mile
Creek had a"Biological Assessment Profile (BAP) of 9.0 (where any value from 7.5 to 10
proves a stream is "non-impacted"by any water quality problems). See
http://www.communilyscience.or /bg iological-monitoring-2/for CSI's thorough explanation of
the BMI monitoring volunteer procedure.
e. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas Program (James): James reported CUBG NA
Stewardship Volunteers tackled woody invasive plants near the Lick Brook trailhead from the
Finger Lakes Trail: mostly privet, honeysuckle, bittersweet, and buckthorn, pulling up smaller
weeds by the roots, cutting and painting glyphosate on the larger weed stumps. In upper
Cascadilla Creek NA,we twice took advantage of wet conditions to use weed wrenches, shrub
busters, and puller-bears to uproot the same kind of weeds in a small floodplain where a large old
oak blew down, downstream of Game Farm Road, opening a big sky space in the canopy. An
infestation of swallow wort there will need glyphosate herbicide later this year when the timing
is right; native trees and shrubs will be planted there, as well.
11. Other Business: None.
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12. Review 2024 Work Goals/Discuss April A eg nda: Frank stated that he will email everyone
a list of work goals and asked us to get back to him with updates and possible additions.
13. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 6:58 PM.
Respectfully submitted by Eva Hoffmann, April 22, 2024
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