The synergy between the efforts of arborists and conservationists came apparent in the New York State Association of Conservation Commission’s 2023 Conference on the Environment: Local Steps for a Better Climate Future, Challenges and Opportunities, held in the last days of summer in Tompkins County. Events included a one-day virtual slate of speakers on September 21, followed by two days of in-person field trips in the Ithaca area.
The agenda for virtual gathering included diverse presentations. Todd Bittner of Cornell Botanic Gardens discussed the Carbon Sequestration Inventory of its 3,800 acres. The Fischer Old-Growth Forest, for example, sequesters 437 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. “The goal is to accelerate removal of CO2 from the atmosphere using afforestation,” said Bittner.
Jeanne Grace, Ithaca City Forester for the last fourteen years, spoke about the importance of urban trees. They clean the air, she said, “taking CO2 out of the air and turning it into sugar – even the smoke from wildfires gets stuck in the nooks and crannies.” It’s important to go beyond the science and focus on how trees create a livable community, how being in an urban forest improves health outcomes, overall well-being and quality of life. “Encourage planting and care of trees.,” said Grace. “It’s not an extra, not an add-on, but critical to have for livable communities. Get the community involved to share with officials that they value trees… I find that to be very successful.”
Andrew Newhouse, director of the American Chestnut Restoration Project at ESF, spoke about “Transgenic American Chestnut Trees for Environmental Restoration.” The chestnut blight early in the twentieth century was the result of an invasive pathogen from Asia, a fungus that enters through cracks in the bark and releases toxins.
“Chestnut trees are not extinct, however, not even listed as endangered,” he stressed. It’s possible to treat individual trees through “biocultural mechanisms such as hypovirulence or mud-packing.” He described the project initiated in 1989 by Herb Darling to develop an American chestnut variety with enhanced blight tolerance using genetic engineering, called Darling 58.“You want to incorporate genetic diversity from as many kinds of wild chestnuts as possible,” said Newhouse. Darling 58 has not yet been approved by the USDA, EPA or FDA, “but we hope for that sometime this year.” They’re now “branching out” to look at how similar projects might help other devastated species, like American elm, beech or ash. The American Chestnut Research & Restoration Project at ESF can be accessed at https://www.esf.edu/chestnut/index.php.
Robyn Bailey, Project Leader with Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch initiative, also presented.
The nest-monitoring citizen scientist project has assembled 58 years of data from nature centers, birding clubs and individuals, with 34,000 monitored nests submitted annually “from Alaska to Mexico.” (https://nestwatch.org)
Jeremy Hurst presented on the topic of “New York Deer Management: an Ecological and Social Imperative.” He cautioned, “If your community is not already involved with active deer management, it will be.” It’s important to modify the human/deer interaction with speed limits, fencing, enforcing a feeding ban, facilitating access to private and public lands, and implementing controlled hunts.
Holly Hutchinson, the Finger Lakes Climate Fund Coordinator at Sustainable Finger Lakes, explained the critical value of carbon offsets, saying that the vision is “to see offsets as routine as recycling.” It’s important to “change the misperception that our waste just ‘disappears’.”
Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, Chair of the State’s Committee on Environmental Conservation, also spoke, declaring herself “excited and energized by the people I’ve met around the state.”
The Committee’s advocacy has included wetlands as well as expanding the New York City tree canopy. “It’s going to be a busy year,” she said. “People want to help and we wat to make it easier for them to do the right thing in terms of their environmental concerns.”
For more on the Conference and NYSACC, go to https://www.nysacc.net/home.
