The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutCB Minutes 2026-06-04 1 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board (CB) Meeting June 4, 2026, 4:00 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 Pete Loucks. Staff: Michael Smith, Senior Planner. Guests: Alex Thornton, potential new board member and Madison Arthur, Ithaca High School student. 1. Persons to be heard: Alex Thornton introduced himself. He recently moved to the town and is interested in joining the CB. 2. Members comments / concerns: James and other members commented on the success of the recent Fischer Award ceremony honoring Robert Wesley. 3. Environmental Review Committee Update (Lori): There was nothing new to report. 4. Chair and Coordinator reports: Lori mentioned that the DEC has recorded Webinars on various topics. One from 2019 is about the differences between Conservation Advisory Councils (CAC) and Conservation Boards (CB, such as ours). To qualify for becoming a CB a CAC has to prepare an open space inventory and a natural resources inventory and incorporate them into their legislation. Our former member Elise Edwards has a PDF available about her work. She will be defending her thesis work at Cornell soon and has invited us to share in it. Mike mentioned progress on the trails and parking at the Babcock Preserve and held a small opening for the Sage Preserve on South Hill. In September, it is possible Randall Arendt (wrote Rural by Design) may come to the Town to present on conservation subdivisions, and the CB would be invited. 5. Approval of minutes from May 7, 2026: Frank moved and Eva seconded; minutes were unanimously approved as written. 6. Continue discussion of ideas to support the Town’s parks, trails and preserves: Lori mentioned Richard’s mapping work on this topic. The CB needs to discuss what information should go on the Town’s Web site. Alex offered a number of ideas based on his previous and current work/employment experience, most of them centered on park and trail promotion. The Visitor Center is working on this topic and the Cayuga Trail Club could be a partner. Mike mentioned the Web site of the Town of Canandaigua, where they have three types of badges for people that visit their facilities. Mike cautioned us to be careful about which parks we concentrate on and promote. Most town of Ithaca parks are considered neighborhood parks and don’t have parking facilities for visitors from other areas. Trails like South Hill Rec Way and East Ithaca Rec Way are well known, but also have limited parking available. James stated that we are promoting knowledge about parks and trails mainly for local residents rather than for tourists generally. We are promoting neighborhood use of neighborhood parks. 2 Lori asked about a timeline for reaching our goals and which neighborhoods parks to concentrate/experiment on. West Hill sites were suggested. 7. Continue the recap of the scenic resources sign project (Eva): Eva urged the CB members to get acquainted with the history of the Town’s Scenic Resources (Committee (SRC) projects by reading the various reports that have been written over the years. Mike distributed copies of the 2007 SRC report “Saving Ithaca’s Views”. It, and other reports, can also be found at the Town’s Web site: https://townithacany.gov/scenic/ under Publications. Eva offered her general comments about the SRC’s efforts to educate local residents, as well as visitors to the Town of Ithaca, about the many values of beautiful views and the need to preserve them as seen from public spaces like roads, parks and trails. The sign project is a part of that effort. We have already placed two signs at two important locations and are now waiting for permission from Cornell University to put a third one at the intersection of Snyder Hill and Pine Tree Roads. She pointed out the importance of revisiting the materials about the current inventory of views and to make sure changes are accounted and adjusted for. She showed pictures of views and related materials. Eva then showed a Powerpoint slide presentation about how easily a special, panoramic view can be altered by the bad placement of even a small or low building, in this case the low, utilitarian corrugated metal sheds built to house piglets on Pine Tree Road. This structure now obliterates about a quarter to a third of the view as seen along Snyder Hill Road from close to the town’s boundary with Dryden and going west toward the intersection with Pine Tree Road. At the stop sign as one joins Pine Tree Road, where one used to be able to enjoy a quick glimpse of this close to 180 degree view to the south, west and north, seeing more fields, Collegetown and Cornell buildings, including Uris clock tower, one now faces just an unattractive structure with no redeeming features. But what remains of the view is still very much worth protecting. Lori asked about ways to update the view situation. Mike suggested that several new places like Culver Road Preserve and Saunders Park on E King Road deserve being considered for being added to the list of special view sites . 8. Regular reports and updates: a) Scenic Resources Committee (Eva): Frank might visit some of the scenic views spots to get new photos to see what has changed. b) Communications Committee (James): James reported that the 2025 Fischer Award for Robert Wesley went very well. He liked the white oak, and a good crowd of his fans that came. The hole augured by Joe Talbut’s crew made transplanting a pleasure. Mike got some fine photos and posted them on our Facebook page. Mike noticed that these posts got a lot of Facebook visitor traffic. Mike mentioned that two recent events got more Facebook comments than usual: The opening of the Sage Preserve on South Hill got 316 views and the posting after the Fischer Award ceremony got 198. For comparison, the usual postings are 20 to 30 views. c) Tompkins County EMC (Pete): The EMC is very concerned that the landfill capacity for Tompkins County is coming to a halt and nobody seems to know about it. There are no longer any sites within the county. Also, the EMC is developing tools to help people who have Unique Natural Areas (UNA) to manage them. County staff discussed the greenhouse gas inventory and provided highlights and barriers. d) Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program (James): The results of a November 12, 2025 synoptic water sample have been published recently on Community Science Institute’s website. The creek was saltier than its 20-year average, continuing a trend for chloride and specific conductance. It had less phosphorus than average, with new record lows at Banks, Gasline, and Barrile sites. Biomonitor volunteers attended a brainstorming party at the 3 Community Science Institute’s lab in Langmuir near the airport on Monday night, 6/1/26, 7 to 9 pm. Adrianna Hirtler discussed her progress in getting the Benthic Macroinvertebrate sampling results published in an interactive format similar to CSI’s chemical and bacteriological results. Volunteers debated new ideas for expanding the hunt for interesting BMI samples. Volunteers have another scheduled synoptic water sampling scheduled Wednesday morning, June 24th. e) Cornell Botanic Gardens Natural Areas Program (James): 1) Volunteers weeded woody invasives on the slope above the Morgan Smith Trail in Park Park, near the arboretum. Lots of multiflora rose, privet, buckthorn, hedge maple (Acer campestre), and bittersweet vine in there. 2) We especially enjoyed an afternoon working in the New York Hemlock Initiative’s lab in Morrison Hall, finding Laricobius negrinus beetles caught in sticky traps hung from hemlocks infested with hemlock wooly adelgids in natural areas where the biocontrol predator beetles had NOT been introduced. Five of six sites had Lari beetles who traveled from six to thirty miles from the nearest site where beetles had been released in previous years. Twenty-four L. negrinus beetles caught in traps at Ringwood, Mclean, Fischer and Carter Creek NAs will be sent to another lab for DNA sequencing to determine their relation to the west coast ancestors brought to NY for this pest management program. A native Laricobius that does not eat HWA (L. rubidus) may be interbreeding with the predator. 3) Clones of “lingering ash” found in natural areas where nearly all the other ash had died have been grafted on green ash rootstock. Volunteers repotted these green, white, and black ash clones into larger air-pruning containers where they’ll grow for a year at the Plant Production Facility near Flat Rocks and then get transplanted in three different test plots on Turkey Hill and Mount Pleasant to see if they are genetically resistant to the emerald ash borer. If they do survive EAB maggots, research might determine why. 9. Other Business: Mike mentioned that in July and August we will get an update on the town’s revised Subdivision Regulations to review and comment on. 10. Review 2026 Work Goals (Frank) / Discuss July Agenda: Lori mentioned a possible review of our goals from January this year. 11. Adjourned at 5:26 pm Respectfully submitted, Eva Hoffmann July 30, 2026