HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 2021-04-01 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board Meeting
April 1, 2021, 5:30pm
(via Zoom Video Conference)
Final Minutes
Members Present: Eva Hoffmann,James Hamilton, Lori Brewer,Joann Kowalski, Lindsay Dombroskie,
Carolyn Lee, Michael Roberts
Staff: Michael Smith, Senior Planner
Guest: Christianne M. White (Agriculture Committee,guest)
1) Persons to be heard
a. Ms.White- Lives in the inlet valley between Buttermilk and Treman State Parks.The
Town has been studying economic development in the valley. Since this area is partially
undeveloped, a biological survey could be done to catalogue what is there before
development takes place.
i. Mike Roberts—There have been County UNA surveys,which did review this
area. Robert Wesley, Cornell Botanic Gardens' Botanist, performed the surveys.
ii. There has been talk of a road proposed to cut through that area.The consultant
hired to review the proposed site for the road produced a report, which is not
publicly available.
iii. Mike R. is also concerned that there may be Native American artifacts or other
evidence of settlement in the area.
1. Eva believes that, even though this is not conventionally thought of as
being an environmental conservation concern,this was in our
wheelhouse.
iv. Ms. White noted that Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is in the area there.
v. Carolyn - How much are biological surveys, as a service? Do municipalities
undertake these before development?
1. Lindsay-Asked what the SEAR review requirements were.
2. Mike S. - Phase 1 studies requires that before development takes place,
a third party must analyze excavations for artifacts and do further
excavation and analysis if they are found.
vi. Ms. White is happy to comeback with more information, including potential
costs.We can then come up with recommendations to the Town Board on what
to do.
2) Member concerns
a. Mike R. - Parks v Preserves Protections-There are currently no codes that distinguish
between the two even though they each serve very different functions, and ought to be
treated differently.
i. Mike S. -There is anew plan in development that would draw a distinction in
the treatment and use of the two.
ii. Lindsay-There are plenty of organisms that do not favor fractured, edge-rich
landscapes. She would like to see the comprehensive plan incorporate a
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landscape perspective when reviewing what development/habitat
fragmentation would do to organisms in the area.
iii. Eva -This sounds like an old concern under anew name: wildlife corridors v.
habitat fragmentation/landscape-level perspective.
3) Chair and Coordinator Report
a. Lori (Chair)
i. Elizabeth has resigned from the committee. We are now six members strong
with four associate members.
ii. Joann -We need to be spreading recruiting messaging that we need members.
iii. Eva is going to set up a table at Kendal as part of Earth Day and can help solicit
residents to become new members.
iv. Mike R. will ask a neighbor to use her chalkboard for a recruiting message.
b. Mike S. (Coordinator)
i. The Town Board and staff have been talking about how to bring meetings back
to in-person meetings.There is equipment in the main meeting room to
conduct hybrid meetings.This is a few months off, but it is good to for this
Board to start thinking now about their options.
ii. Deer program
1. The last day of management activities was yesterday.
2. 42 deer were taken this year under the Town in the program, compared
to 20 in 2020.
3. Plan to have a meeting with Dr. Bernd Blossey and Mike R.to present to
and answer questions from members on the Town Board.
4. 8 of the deer were donated to the Venison Donation Coalition, and four
were donated to the Fort Drum venison donation program.
5. Carolyn -Does not agree with premise of the deer program, but
graciously asked that we consider a public education event on the
program and the need for it.
6. Mike S. provided a link to our report from 2017 in the chat and is
available on the Town webpage for deer management.
4) Approval of meeting minutes from March 4, 2021
a. Motion to approve was made by Mike R. and seconded by Eva with minor edits.
5) Report on the Deer Impact Assessment and Mitigation Summit
a. Mike R. presented top line take-aways on the Deer Impact Assessment Summit
i. Deer population per square mile, as presented in the summit,that
municipalities and agencies ought to be aiming for is around 10.
ii. Non-lethal means of impact control were presented, including, large deer
fences, individual plant cages, and walls made from logging slash and non-mill-
able logs.
6) Town of Ithaca Scenic Views Presentation (Eva)
a. Eva was influenced by a trip she took to Greece in 1992, where what were spectacular
views were ruined by unregulated development, which encroached on and destroyed
the views.
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b. After that, she and other members of the Town CB did a review of the views in the
Town, photographing, mapping, setting up a classification system, etc., including doing a
survey of residents'favorite views.An effort began to conserve them. It was decided to
deal only with views that can be seen from public places like roads and parks.
i. New York State has a program where roads can be designated as scenic. With
such a designation,the placement of utility poles can be altered or moved,
when they need to be replaced, to accommodate the preservation of a view.
ii. The Pine Tree Road view is a panoramic view but it has been hemmed in by
thoughtless development.
iii. To illustrate how easily a view can be compromised, Eva showed a series of
slides from Snyder Hill Road (driving north)which showed spectacular views of
Cornell's clocktower and hills to the west and north. The closer one gets to the
Pine Tree Road intersection,the more the view is now blocked. The Cornell
Campus and Collegetown buildings could earlier be seen from this intersection,
when one stopped at the stop sign. Then the low utilitarian buildings housing
Cornell University piglets were built, marring a large part of this panoramic
view. Eva remains hopeful that Cornell will one day raze the barns, relocating
the piglets, and restore the panoramic view of the location.
iv. Similarly on South Hill there is an opportunity to reclaim a view from
encroaching trees as seen from the scenic pull off on Route 96B. Should Ithaca
College ever decide to develop the area north of Longview, we could ask them
for some maintenance of the trees in that area to open up the view more again.
c. Eva would like to know the location of the Town of Ithaca Scenic Resources Report,
which provides detailed information about how the view protection in the Town came
about. She recommends that CB members look it over. It's available on the Town's
Web site at http://www.town.ithaca.nV.us/planning(click Scenic Resources Inventory).
7) Regular Reports and updates
a. Environmental Review Committee—no update
b. Scenic Review Committee—no update
c. Communications Committee
i. Fischer Award -An announcement will be sent in the upcoming Town
newsletter. Primitive Pursuits is this year's awardee.
ii. An article on compost will also be included in the next newsletter.
d. Waste Awareness Committee
i. They developed some questions they would like this Board's feedback on.
Responses can be emailed to Lori (Ijb7@cornell.edu) by April 22nd.
1. Is it important to waste awareness to create a common or
comprehensive definition of waste?
2. Do you know of any formal definitions promoted by any entity?
3. What is your personal definition of waste?
4. What issues, concerns, or other thoughts come to mind when you
consider waste in the Town of Ithaca?
5. In the scheme of environmental priorities,where does waste reduction
fit in for you?
e. Tompkins County EMC- Lindsay didn't make it to the meeting.
f. Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program
i. Volunteers took water samples at 14 sites on March 315`
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ii. BMI Samples from this past summer were fully analyzed.The health of the creek
at those locations was good.
g. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas Program
i. Visitors and volunteers are still prohibited unless they are in the University's
COVID surveillance system,still. No activities yet.
8) Other Business- none
9) Topics for Next Month
a. Joann offered outreach topics to Eva from our Communications Committee.
b. Mike S. informed the Board that he would like to have the Parks and Open Space Plan by
the end of the year.
10) Adjourn—7:38pm
Minutes drafted by Michael Roberts.
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