HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2023-11-02 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board (CB) Meeting
November 2, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
(In Person at Town Hall and via Zoom Video Conference)
Final Minutes
Members present: Lori Brewer (Chairperson), Elise Edwards, James Hamilton, Eva Hoffmann,
Mike Roberts, Ingrid Zabel
Staff present: Michael Smith (Senior Planner), Joe Talbut (Parks Maintenance Manager)
1. Persons to be heard: none
2. Members comments/concerns
James mentioned an email he had sent to CB members, with news that the DEC will
soon be updating its Open Space Conservation Plan. We should be prepared to respond
during the public comment period.
Elise announced that she will be leaving the Conservation Board because she has a job
offer and will be leaving Ithaca. This is her last meeting. The chair, members, and staff
thanked her for her service and wished her well.
3. Environmental Review Committee Update (Lori)
There are no current projects to report on, but Mike Smith mentioned that a project was
submitted earlier in the week for Longview. It is not complete yet but will likely be coming
soon. It involves parking lots and changes to an entrance way.
4. Chair & Coordinator Reports
a. Chair Report: none
b. Coordinator report:
i. The East Shore Drive Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Corridor project is
underway. The goal is to enhance safety between Boynton Middle School
and Ithaca Youth Bureau / Stewart Park. The project is currently in the
first phase (design). There will be a public meeting about the project on
November 15th, 2023 at 5:45 p.m. at the Boynton Middle School
cafeteria.
ii. On Monday, November 13, 2023, a training is offered that might be
appropriate for the ERC. It will present different mapping tools and
resources. Mike sent an email to the CB.
iii. The Oct. 14, 2023 tree planting event at the East Ithaca Preserve went
well. Three members of the public attended, along with four CB members
and four town staff. The participants planted all the trees!
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iv. Project at Babcock Preserve: the Town has funds for trails, etc. A
Request for Proposals went out for designs, and proposals are due on
November 27, 2023.
V. Planning staff are starting to work on updates to the Town subdivision
regulations. The first draft will go to the Codes and Ordinances
Committee next week, and eventually it will come to the CB.
The regulations have several references to the Town of Ithaca's 1992
Open Space Report. This report was done pre-GIS. In the next year or
two, should the Town update the Open Space Report? There's been a lot
of development since 1992. Staff and consultants will want input from the
CB.
A scan of the 1992 Open Space Report is available online; see the
"Publications" section of the CB webpage:
https://www.town.ithaca.ny.us/boards/boards/
Related document-1997 Town of Ithaca Park, Recreation and Open
Space Plan Full Report:
https://www.town.ithaca.nV.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/1 1/TOI-FuII-
Open-Space-Report-85pgs.pdf
5. Discussion with Joe Talbut, Parks Maintenance Supervisor
Motivation for this discussion: sometimes people give us comments about public spaces.
We want to learn more about public space in the Town of Ithaca, the work that the Town
does, the challenges, and messages we could share.
Earlier this year the CB heard some concerns about mowing native wildflowers along the
South Hill Recreation Way and in Tutelo Park. Joe mentioned the roadside mower used
for mowing along trails and ditches. These incidents of mowing down native plants were
accidental and followed after a staff person retired. It's a staffing and communications
issue—people rotate in and out and sometimes the communications don't get through,
and staff mow down things they shouldn't.
We did hear from a member of the public that the issue had been addressed along the
S. Hill Recreation Way: the mowing had stopped and the plants were growing back.
Joe mentioned that he gets a lot of requests, sometimes contradictory. For example,
some people like screening from plants along the recreation trails and other people do
not. Also, there has been a petition with a request to make a dog park area within
Tareyton Park.
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Question from Mike Roberts: Would the Town consider reducing mowing in some Town
parks to let grasses and native plants grow taller? For example, in Tutelo and Grandview
Parks? Maybe some areas could be put on a rotation to be mowed just occasionally to
keep out the growth of woody plants, but be allowed to grow wildflowers and tall grasses
instead of having lawn.
Eva: It would be good to keep some flat areas mowed for recreation uses, since flat,
open space is hard to find in the Town with all the hills.
Ingrid has observed residents of her neighborhood using the flat, mowed area of
Grandview Park for soccer, football, etc., so the mowed area does get used. But the
playing field is so large that maybe some of it could continue to be mowed and some
could be left to grow wild.
Mike R. noted that people use a slope in Eastern Heights Park for sledding in the winter.
This slope could be put on a two-year rotation for mowing, and maybe a mowed path
could be left for walking, but having tall grass and wildflowers would not interfere with
sledding since the plants get packed down by snow in the winter.
James noted that reducing mowing is in line with our efforts to encourage pollinator
habitat. He suggests that if we go ahead with this, we should have signs to let people
know that the lack of mowing is intentional, not neglectful (like the signs on Cornell's Libe
Slope). The signs could list the benefits of reduced mowing such as
• using less gasoline, thereby reducing costs to the Town
• lower carbon emissions
• pollinator habitat
• etc.
Joe noted that the Department of Public Works has been looking into electric vehicles for
its fleet, including electric trucks and electric mowers. Unfortunately, they had a bad
experience with a battery-powered mower they purchased.
Action items:
• Ingrid - send a message to her neighborhood listsery asking people's
opinions about this idea for Grandview Park
• We should all think about these ideas and how they could apply to specific
Town parks, and come up with suggestions for parks where we could do
this.
6. Minutes: minutes from October 2023 meeting are not yet available for approval.
7. Indigenous Environmental Justice report (Mike Roberts)
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Robin Wall Kimmerer's talk at Cornell on Nov. 1 on decolonizing land care was aligned
with our work. Recordings: htti)s://cals.cornell.edu/land-justice-engaging-indigenous-
knowledge-land-care
Mike expects to meet with Steve Henhawk next week. They will walk Tutelo Park, look at
plants, and decide which to have on the trail. After that, Mike can do a lot of the work
and not take so much of Steve's time.
Steve is not a paid consultant, but perhaps he should be. Mike has talked with Rod
Howe about this.
Lori brought up the idea of giving Tutelo Park back to the Gayogoho:ng' people in some
way or having some type of shared management.
Questions:
• We should ask Steve for his perspective on this. What would he and others like to
happen?
• Could we establish some co-use of the land, or a cultural lease/land trust?
• Has this been done elsewhere? Note there was a NYSACC conference talk about
something similar being done on private land in Danby.
• What are the legalities?
• Should the CB make a resolution to the Town Board?
8. Report on deer management work (Mike Smith)
The Town Board recently talked about the overall deer management program, which has
operated for 5 years. They discussed how it has been going and whether it should
continue. The DEC staff person who issues the permit came and visited deer
management sites with Town staff recently.
Mike wrote a memo to the Town Board with the results of a review of the program. Some
key points:
• History: In May 2017, the CB presented a report on deer. The program started in
2019.
• Coddington Rd. has been the best location
• Deer killed by year:
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
1 20 42 40 17
• The DEC commented that we have a small impact over a big area. They
suggested concentrating sites, so we have a large impact in small areas. The
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Town will drop some sites, such as Overlook Apartments, and focus largely on
Coy Glen, Six Mile Creek, and Coddington Road.
• Mike R. noted that West Hill has a lot of deer. Maybe in the future we could find
another site there.
• A landowner in the Six Mile Creek area contacted Mike S. He has just bought
property and wants to participate in the deer management program, so if
approved, this will expand the Six Mile Creek region.
• Mike S. is still working through some other comments.
• The Town Board would appreciate it if the CB would help with measuring browse,
monitoring within the Town to show the deer impact. Or, do surveys via the town
newsletter or with specific neighborhoods.
• Surveys are good; residents are aware of deer and deer-car collisions.
Neighborhood-specific surveys would be good in areas where management is
being done.
Action Items:
• Homework: read through the report that Mike Smith shared
• Put on the agenda for next time to familiarize ourselves with browse
measurements
The Town Board asked about costs: supplies, equipment, Mike's time (he provided an
estimate; most of his time on this program is spent from October to April).
The Town Board said yes to moving forward and is overall supportive.
Mike S. noted that Indian Creek Farm has a deer fence around their entire property. Mike
does an annual inspection and is curious to see what the impact will be in the next few
years.
9. Committee Reports
a. Scenic Resources (Eva): no report
b. Communications Committee (James)
i. Mike S posted on our facebook page a good link to a very comprehensive
19-page scientific article: "Humanity for Habitat: Residential Yards as an
Opportunity for Biodiversity Conservation" published in BioScience, 2023,
Vol 73, pp 671-689. Written by S.B. Lerman of the USDA Forest Service
and 4 others, it's in the public domain in the US and should be read by all
of us to help with our mission to stop lawn mowing and promote native
plant gardens. Our facebook page now has 344 followers and follows 107
other facebook groups.
ii. Ingrid now has access to Instagram and will start posting there
c. EMC (Ingrid)
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Discussion at the last EMC meeting focused a lot on a resolution with
questions and concern about the sale of the Cargill salt mine. Should
each municipality create their own resolution, and would that add value?
Ingrid will ask.
d. Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program (James)
The Thursday night Benthic Macroinvertebrate (BMI) Sample analysis
sessions are being held again at Community Science Institute's (CSI)
Langmuir lab (95 Brown Rd, next to airport). From 6 to 9 pm, volunteers
can help turn preserved summer BMI into data for statistical indications of
creek health. Tomorrow, Nov. 3, '23, CSI is hosting a "Data Jam" at
Tompkins County Public Library in the Borg Warner room from 10 am to
noon. Folks interested in water quality of local streams and lakes can
learn how to use CSI's extensive water quality database. The next
synoptic water sampling of 13 sites in Six Mile Creek will happen
Wednesday morning next week unless we reschedule to try to catch a
storm surge; we have not yet managed a storm sample this year.
e. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas Program (James)
The volunteer stewardship crew cut and painted glyphosate on woody
invasives' stumps in Fall Creek gorge below the Foundry. Some of the
invasive trees there have come from seeds shed from the Arboretum
upstream. Amur cork (Phellodendron amurense), for example, grows real
well in the Arboretum just across from Cornell's water treatment plant,
and has moved into Cornell's natural areas downstream. We also weeded
out woody invasives, including crabapple trees, from the Salt Road Fen,
where a rare American globeflower (Trollius laxus) needed less shade to
survive there. This week we harvested seedpods from a locally rare
fringed gentian (Gentianopsis crinita) at several sites in Etna; they'll be
used to continue a fringed gentian conservation project in an Etna
preserve gardened to promote their growth under deer exclosure cages.
Harvest varies a lot, but was good this year.
10. December agenda items:
a. End of year items
b. Deer browse
c. Public comment on DEC Open Space Plan
d. Indigenous Environmental Justice
11. Meeting adjourned at 7:01 pm
Minutes drafted by Ingrid Zabel
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