On Thursday afternoon (July 26) of the Council’s ReLeaf Conference in Rochester, panelists Cornell Extension Associate Mark Whitmore, NYS Parks Natural Heritage Program’s Julie Lundgren, and Finger Lakes Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) Coordinator Hillary Mosher will be screening “The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid: A Film About the Loss of an Ecosystem.”
This award-winning, 23-minute film is an educational visual resource to engage, raise awareness, and create momentum on this destructive forest pest and invasive species in general. A panel discussion will follow the film.
One of ReLeaf 2018’s (July 26-28 in Rochester) Saturday morning workshops is “EcoDistricts: Resilient and Sustainable Cities from the Neighborhood Up.” Rochester’s High Falls neighborhood is the site of the first registered EcoDistrict in the State of New York. The international EcoDistricts organization provides the protocol for EcoDistricts. Leadership for the EcoDistrict at High Falls is provided within Rochester-based nonprofit, Greentopia, which is also working to develop a High Line-style Garden Aerial around the Genesee River Gorge. EcoDistrict Coordinator Rachel Walsh will be presenting on the exciting new EcoDistrict at High Falls.
Values of the EcoDistrict:
Neighborhoods and districts are the building blocks of sustainable cities.
Everybody – regardless of class, race, age, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation – deserves to live in a healthy, safe, connected and vibrant neighborhoods.
Economic opportunity, community well-being, and ecological health are fundamental ingredients for sustainable neighborhoods and cities.
Neighborhood sustainability requires a new model for action – rooted in collaboration and greater inclusion – to co-create innovative district-scale projects.
Social equity, inclusion, and democracy are essential to sustainable neighborhood development.
One of the tour options for ReLeaf 2018 in Rochester (July 26-28) is the sublime Mount Hope Cemetery. If you can’t make the tour, you can visit this public cemetery at another time during your stay in Rochester.
Dedicated in 1838 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1974, Mount Hope Cemetery is the oldest municipally operated Victorian cemetery in the United States. Mount Hope is a rare example of rural Victorian cemetery design, a uniquely preserved urban park, a year round recreational resource and arboretum, a historic outdoor museum and, often most notably, the final resting place of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony.
The Cemetery is situated on Mount Hope Avenue on 196 acres of land adjacent to the University of Rochester. The geology of Mount Hope is complemented by the original forest in which Mount Hope’s design carefully took shape. Mount Hope has more than 2000 inventoried trees, many of them mature. In 2009, more than 20% of the trees in Mount Hope were characterized as historic, including 250-year-old native oak trees as well as rare specimen trees gifted to the Cemetery in 1848 by famed 19th-century horticulturists George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry.
Congratulations to 5th grader Sydney Starkey from Pocantico Hills School in Sleepy Hollow, who won the 5th Grade 2018 NY Arbor Day poster contest! This year’s theme was “Trees for Bees.” She is seen here with her parents, Catherine and David, at the DEC Urban Forestry Awards ceremony in Albany in March.
Scenic Hudson’s Long Dock Park Estuary. Photo by Robert Rodriguez, Jr. for scenichudson.org
Healthy urban forests protect the health of watersheds by slowing down stormwater runoff and sediment transport. Note that one category of the projects funding by these Hudson River Estuary grants is:
Using green infrastructure practices as a means to reduce combined sewer overflows.
Grants Will Improve Water Quality and Protect Natural Resources
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos today announced that $350,000 in competitive grant funding is available to help communities in the Hudson River Estuary watershed increase resiliency to flooding, protect water quality, fish, and wildlife habitat, and enhance natural resources. The grants are provided through New York’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) and are administered by DEC’s Hudson River Estuary program.
Open-grown (full sun) American chestnut trees can flower in just three years. Photo by Allen Nichols
“We need people all over NY and in other states to plant pure wild American chestnuts so they have ‘mother trees’ to cross with our blight-resistant tree, when it is approved for release, hopefully in the next few years,” says Allen Nichols, president of the NY Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF). This is a continuation of 28-plus years that TACF-NY has been supporting the chestnut restoration work at SUNY ESF.
“I have American chestnut nuts that are starting to sprout,” he says. I send these nuts out free of charge to people that are interested in starting some mother trees, so they have a tree to cross with our blight resistant tree, when it is available.”
Nichols asks that folks read this post and the previous post about chestnut restoration, this document about mother trees and this one about planting your chestnut seeds, and then let him know how many nuts you want to plant! fajknichols.75@gmail.com or call 607-263-5105
Thank you to Town of Plattsburgh Planning Technician Malana Tamer for providing this report.
The Town of Plattsburgh (population app 12,000) is located in Clinton County in the northeastern part of New York State, approximately 65 miles south of Montreal, Canada and on the western shore of Lake Champlain. The Town of Plattsburgh surrounds the separate and more populous City of Plattsburgh.
With the help of a $400 Arbor Day grant through NYSUFC, the Town of Plattsburgh purchased two river birch trees, which were planted at the Cadyville Town Beach on Arbor Day, April 27, 2018. The Town beach provides public access to the Saranac River with a lifeguard patrolled beach and non-motorized boat access. In summer months, the beach provides river access to approximately 1,098 users per month. The two new trees will provide erosion control and shade for beach users.
