HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2026-04-02
Conservation Board Members and Associates (*)
Lori Brewer (Chair), Frank Cantone (Vice-Chair),
James Hamilton, Eva Hoffmann, Pete Loucks, Richard Martinez
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TOWN OF ITHACA
CONSERVATION BOARD
4:00 p.m., Thursday, April 2, 2026
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Aurora Conference Room
215 N. Tioga Street
Ithaca, New York 14850
(The rear entrance is handicapped accessible)
(607) 273-1747
Members of the public are welcome to attend in-person at Town Hall
or virtually via Zoom (https://zoom.us/j/6750593272).
AGENDA
1. Persons to be heard
2. Members comments / concerns
3. Environmental Review Committee Update (Lori)
4. Chair and Coordinator reports
5. Approval of minutes from March 5, 2026
6. Plan for the 2025 Richard B. Fischer Environmental Conservation Award tree planting
7. Continue discussion of ideas to support the Town’s parks, trails and preserves
8. Continue the recap of the scenic resources sign project (Eva)
9. Regular reports and updates (5:00 pm)
a. Scenic Resources Committee (Eva)
b. Communications Committee (James)
c. Tompkins County EMC (Pete)
d. Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program (James)
e. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas Program (James)
10. Other Business (5:20 p.m.)
11. Review 2026 Work Goals (Frank) / Discuss May Agenda
12. Adjourn (5:30 p.m.)
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Town of Ithaca Conservation Board Meeting
April 2, 2026, 4:00 pm
(In Person at Town Hall and via Zoom Video Conference)
Final Minutes
Members Present: Lori Brewer, James Hamilton, Eva Hoffmann, Pete Loucks, Frank
Cantone
Staff Present: Michael Smith (Senior Planner)
1. Persons to be heard:
None.
2. Members Comments/Concerns:
None
3. Environmental Review Committee:
a. Southworks development. The developers plan to build residential units on
property just north of the South Hill Business Campus and south of the old
Morse Chain factory. Currently, there is only one access point, across from
Rogan’s Restaurant. The developers received $38 million from a NYS
Development Fund, and $5 million for infrastructure development.
4. Chair & Coordinator Reports:
Coordinator report (Mike):
a. Sage Preserve on South Hill. The Town received funding from two sources.
The Public Works Department will maintain the existing paths through the
property.
b. South Hill Recreation Way extension, between Burns and Banks Roads.
Tompkins County Tourism provided money and the Town hired MJ
Engineering to develop concept plans for the extension. Volunteer groups
have been clearing the path to make it walkable.
c. Town deer program ended on 31 March. There were a total of eight sites,
five of which hunters harvested 16 deer. An employee from the City of
Elmira contacted Mike for information about the Town’s program, as they
are exploring creating a program in a portion of their city.
5. Approval of Minutes from March 2026 Meeting:
The Board accepted the minutes, with one correction. Eva noted that on page
four of the first paragraph should read New York State Association of
Conservation Commissions (NYSACC), of which the CB is a member. The
NYSACC has monthly calls with individuals from around the state. The CB
should consider participation.
6. Fischer Award:
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Mike has been in touch with Robert Wesley and started talking about potential
tree types (White Oak) and planting locations (Tutelo Park or Culver Road
Preserve). Mike is coordinating with Joe Talbut to confirm these.
See 9b below on steps to complete award presentation.
7. Ideas to Support Town’s Parks, Trails, and Preserves:
Continue to post signs about Town resources at trailheads.
8. Recap of Scenic Resources Sign Project:
Postponed until Richard can be present. In the interim, members are
encouraged to review Saving Ithaca’s Views Document describing the rationale
to identify views. https://townithacany.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Saving-
Ithaca_s-Views-Scenic-Resource-Committee-Report-Appendices.pdf.
9. Regular Reports and Updates:
a. Scenic Resources Committee (Eva): Eva was on the Codes and Ordinance
Committee when there was a discussion on a comprehensive plan for the
Town. The 1993 plan was ahead of its time, and input on scenic views was
a goal of the plan. In a 2014 plan, the Town legislature passed a resolution
to protect the views. Eva commented that the scenic views of Cayuga Lake,
along Route 13 south to the City, are blocked by overgrown trees and
shrubs. Perhaps the CB can have a conversation with Cayuga Heights to
petition the State to address the height and concentration of the vegetation.
b. Communications Committee (James): Fischer Award process.
1. Notify awardee, Robert Wesley (completed).
2. Identify possible dates in May when most CB members and Town
officials can attend.
3. Identify a suitable location for the tree planting.
4. Select tree with assistance from Joe Talbut.
5. Engrave label and attach to Town Hall lobby plaque.
6. Draft invitation to tree planting party.
7. Draft “prize” certificate, signed by CB Chair and Town Supervisor.
Print and frame certificate.
8. Plan tree planting ceremony: secure tools and materials from Joe
Talbut; intro speech on Dick Fischer by Lori and introduction by Town
Supervisor; speech on tree planting tradition; acceptance speech by
awardee; tree planting by all in attendance; refreshments; photographs;
hanging of tree tag.
c. Tompkins County EMC (Pete): The EMC did not yet distribute minutes.
Pete was unable to attend.
d. Six Mile Creek (SMC) (James): The annual volunteer meeting at the
Community Science Institute’s Langmuir Lab on 9 March, 2026, brought
seven volunteers, four CSI staff, and two Ithaca College biologists to review
sampling safety, quality control procedures, and select three dates in 2026
for water sampling. Dr Cynthia Becker from Ithaca College, and her student
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James Preston, presented their results from the first microbial DNA
sequencing of a Six Mile Creek sample taken last year. Cynthia and James
came with me to the sampling site on 25 March to see how that site was
accessed and sampled for the usual CSI analyses, and for their new two
liter sample for microbial DNA. The CSI sampling has always taken one
small sample for E. coli colony cultures, but the new IC creek science will
seek a much wider range of microbial DNA sequences. Adriana Hirtler and
volunteers finished the final analyses of the last remaining 2025 preserved
BMI samples stored in CSI’s lab.
e. Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas Program: Volunteers weeded
woody invasive species, mostly honeysuckle, privet, and buckthorn, along
the bank of a fen (accumulated peat) in McLean Bogs Natural Area; pulled
up bittersweet vines invading the north shore of Beebe Lake; pruned and
cut back bittersweet climbing trees in Palmer Woods, north of Cornell’s disc
golf course; built 30 insect sticky traps and hung three of them in hemlock
woolly adelgid (HWA)-infested hemlock trees in a hemlock swamp on the
east side of Ringwood Ponds Natural Area to see if the beetle predator,
Laricobius nigrinus, which has been released in other areas, might be
migrating to this site. The New York State Hemlock Initiative won our
Fischer award for 2018, though the hemlock tree we planted for them in
Forest Home Park died in a drought and has not yet been replaced.
10. Other Business:
None.
11. May Agenda:
a. Discuss work goals.
b. Parks, trails, and scenic views.
c. Fischer award tree planting event planning
12. Adjourn:
5:16 pm.
Minutes drafted by Frank A Cantone