HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2023-12-07 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board (CB) Meeting
December 7, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
(In-Person at Town Hall and via Zoom Video Conference)
Final Minutes
Members present: Lori Brewer (Chairperson), Frank Cantone,James Hamilton, Eva Hoffmann,
Michael Roberts, Ingrid Zabel.
Staff: Michael Smith, Senior Planner
1. Persons to be heard (5:30 pm) (none)
2. Members comments/concerns (none)
3. Environmental Review Committee Update (Lori)
a. There isn't anything that is currently being reviewed.
b. Eva—the self-storage facility looks as though some grading work has been done.There is
quite a lot of fill that has taken place.
c. Lori—That work is outside the area where the self-storage facility is being proposed.
d. Lori—Just so folks here have a frame of reference, we have reviewed roughly the same
number of projects this year as last.
4. Chair and Coordinator reports
a. The Chair has nothing to report on this month.
b. Coordinator—Mike S. has an update on the grants that the Town applied for the
purchase of lands (off South King Rd).
1. The proposal to the NYS Parks was unfortunately denied
2. Park Foundation ($50K) did come through.
3. Babcock Ridge portion of the Culver Road Preserve—The RFP had been
released and four proposals have been received. Their review will take
place shortly.
a. 2024 design phase
b. 2025 construction phase
c. Stipend checks for Conservation Board Members will be cut around the first of the year.
d. The Town Board will be looking at the deer program application for the Deer Damage
Permit for 2024.There will be nine locations for baiting and shooting total.
i. Three bait locations around Coy Glen
ii. Six throughout 6 Mile Creek
iii. One Member asked how the bait locations on Town property are marked for
safety, since they are open to the public.
1. Mike—participants cannot use the sites during the day (limited to one
hour before sunset to one hour after sunrise). So their use is out of
phase with non-participants.
2. There is some signage placed around areas being used.
5. Approval of minutes from October 5, 2023 and November 2, 2023
a. James—Moves to approve; Ingrid seconded; all others are in favor.They've been
adopted as written.
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6. Continue discussion of Indigenous Environmental Justice (Mike)
a. Mike R and Steven Henhawk would like to be able to make recordings to link to from the
plant labels using a QR code. Mike R asked if the Town has audio recording equipment?
i. No, but Mike S reports that they have had pretty good results using a laptop in a
quiet room to gather the audio for another project.
b. Anyone here have experience on audio production?
i. Recommendations from members include:
1. Audacity—software
2. Lori has a connection to a video production professional. Anne Michel.
She used to work at IC and may have access to equipment.
3. Eva—Deborah Hoard, has done a lot of work with a local film maker, and
may have equipment to use.
4. The History Center might also have equipment and or funding to help
support this.
7. Town's Deer Management Program; a continuation of the browse monitoring discussion
a. Mike S had sent out a link to the study that compared four methodologies for measuring
deer browse pressure/ecological indicators of overabundant deer.
b. James—Many of the study methods that were described in the paper use a fence, with
plots inside and plots outside of it, differential browse rates across the fence can make
for rich comparisons.
i. Member—Where would we locate such a plot and fence area?Would we look
for an area that was "hit" badly?
ii. Ingrid—Would we really go back to take measurements multiple times a year?
c. Lori—we don't have to be quite as rigorous as a scientific study. What can we do that
would be compelling but not so onerous.
i. Mike R—This is justification for the DEC to issue the permit and agrees this
doesn't need to as iron-clad as a scientific study.
ii. Lori—We could plant bluestem goldenrod,tag it and see if it gets browsed.
iii. James—The bluestem goldenrod is a good candidate since there are not as
many predators for that as other sentinel species.
d. Member—It would be good to try and engage a student group to help collect this data.
e. Lori—We should try some of these methods to see how do-able or onerous any one
method may be.
f. James will read more deeply on the feces census method. Lori will read more deeply on
the twig-age method. Each will report back to the CB in January and we can schedule an
outing to test these two methods.
g. Mike S.—We can even look to public complaints as another source of data for the DEC.
8. Discussion of upcoming NYS Open Space Conservation Plan update (James)
a. The property on South Hill,the one the Town did not get funding to buy, would be a
good candidate for this sort of program.
b. The public comment period is in the summer next year, though individuals here could
reach out to DEC staff in the interim to share their sentiments and recommendations.
c. Mike R—How will these lands be used?Who will have access to them? Is there a way
that these lands could be offered to Indigenous communities whose lands were stolen?
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d. Ingrid—Would like to see lands bordering waterways protected to help protect
communities from flooding.
e. Lori—Would this group like to host one of the stakeholder members (Andy Zepp (Finger
Lakes Land Trust) or Katie Borgella (Tompkins County Planning Department)) involved
with this during our February or March meeting?
i. [General agreement]
9. Regular reports and updates (6:30 pm)
a. Scenic Resources Committee (Eva)
i. No report
b. Communications Committee (James)
i. James doesn't want to be the Committee Chair any more
ii. He got locked out of Facebook again for 3 weeks,then was let back in. He has no
desire to get a cellphone or "key" gizmo for the "2-Factor Authentication"they
now and then demand he gets. Our Facebook page now has 347 "followers"
iii. We have till Feb 28 to nominate the next Fischer Award winner; start
considering a nominee now.
iv. Ingrid—Has been posting material featuring our Town parks and would like to
see more traffic go to the Instagram account.
v. Eva—would like to see social media content on the Town website.
1. Mike S. will work to get those imbeds into the Town website.
c. Tompkins County EMC (Ingrid)
i. Don Barber gave a presentation on Tom pkinsFoodfuture.org
d. Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program (James)
i. Community Science Institute's Biomonitoring Lab has changed its weekly BMI
Open Lab Night to Wednesdays, from 6 to 9 pm at Langmuir Lab, 95 Brown Rd,
Suite 288
ii. Volunteers recently finished analyzing a July sample from Salmon Creek near
Myers Point,finding a "slight impact" in a low diversity of organisms,with
relatively high proportion of pollution-tolerant ones.
iii. The 7/11/23 BMI sample taken at Plain Street is part-way analyzed; samples
from German Cross and 600 Rd wait for volunteers to find the time to analyze
them.
iv. Six Mile Creek volunteers took an early morning synoptic water sample in Six
Mile on November 8.
v. CSI got a grant to support purchase of a very accurate rain gauge for volunteers
to use in the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network
(CoCoRaHS).
vi. CoCoRaHS has more than 20,000 trained volunteer observers helping the
National Weather Service get accurate local precipitation measurements.
vii. James signed on, and will report his local back-yard "station" precipitation as
soon as his gauge arrives.
e. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas Program (James)
i. Volunteers killed woody invasives in the Salt Road fen on November 7 to give
rare American Globeflowers there more sunlight, and returned again on
November 14 for more of that job.
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ii. They planted native trees in Upper Cascadilla gorge,just downhill from Oak
Avenue in Collegetown on a slope where large invasive Norway Maples were
felled.
iii. They weeded out more woody invasives from Fall Creek Gorge south of Risley
Hall above Rocky Falls. The volunteers needed reminders of what Amur Cork
trees look like, but were well-acquainted with Buckthorn, Honeysuckle, Privet,
Multiflora Rose and Oriental Bittersweet.
iv. More woody invasives were removed around Beebe Lake's south bank behind
the Toboggan Lodge this week.
10. Other Business (6:50 p.m.) -Approval of the 2024 Meeting Schedule - Recommendation of a
Chair for 2024- Nomination and Election of a Vice-Chair for 2024
a. Meeting Schedule -James moves we approve all times except for a July meeting; Mike R
seconds. All others are in favor.
b. Chair— Eva moves that Lori remain Chair; Mike R seconds. All others are in favor.
c. Vice-chair—James moves to re-elect Frank Cantone as the Vice-chair; Eva seconds the
motion. All other members are in favor of the motion.
11. Review 2023 Work Goals/ Discuss January Agenda
a. Indigenous restitution
b. Deer browse pressure monitoring conversation
c. Eva-we need to recruit new members
d. Review committees
e. Tallying our 2023 accomplishments
12. Lori moves to adjourn at 7pm; all are in favor.
Meeting Minutes respectfully submitted by Mike Roberts
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