Dave et al., Having been outed, along with Suan, as the “others in the birding community,” I’ll just reiterate what Suan has already stated — that the two of us were approached while birding by the teachers from New Roots, that they briefly explained their idea for the student project and experiment, and that we informally suggested that if they were to plant cattails it might be better to start along the edge of the willows, rather than in an isolated stretch of the lakeshore. Our logic was that a marsh next to the woods could attract more birds.
But we also strongly suggested that (1) they make a presentation to the Cayuga Bird Club (Suan gave them all the contact names and emails), and (2) they consult the many expert resources at Cornell and elsewhere that are part of an entire scientific field of wetland restoration — I even gave them the name of a colleague who’s company has created some of the best restored wetlands in the U.S. including Wakodahatchie in FL and Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson. That’s about all I know. It seems like Dave has taken the time to address most of the issues in a very thoughtful way, and perhaps others in the Cayuga Bird Club will have other ideas. If I recall correctly, John Dennis is involved with the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network, and he may be able to offer suggestions as well. KEN Kenneth V. Rosenberg Conservation Science Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology Office: 607-254-2412 cell: 607-342-4594 k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@cornell.edu> On Nov 10, 2015, at 7:02 PM, Dave Nutter <nutter.d...@mac.com<mailto:nutter.d...@mac.com>> wrote: I attended the BPW meeting yesterday evening and was able to hear the New Roots presentation and BPW discussion. The description was vague in some ways: it's unclear where the cattails would go. And I think it was erroneous and not well thought out in other ways. The BPW discussion was supportive anyway, and next meeting, two weeks from last night, BPW could decide to approve their request. The reason I think the Cayuga Bird Club should be involved is that we may be getting a cattail marsh in Stewart Park. That's a good thing for some species, but cattails grow tall & thick enough to block views, and depending on where it is located it could hide more currently viewable birds from us than it shows us. If it gets established along the lakeshore (I'm not sure it could) it could spread widely, block a lot (all?) of lakeviewing, and cause trouble to remove. The Swan Pond (Fuertes Bird Sanctuary) is a potential site which the Superintendent of Public Works supports off the top of his head. I suspect he considered the pond unused space, not a bird sanctuary. Cattails might fill up the entire pond and block views across the pond but also allow close viewing of the cattails from many angles. Establishment there seems more likely because they won't be destroyed by wave action, but it seems like a less useful location if New Roots is serious about studying how cattails filter water, since there is relatively little flow in and out of the Swan Pond. Suan & Ken, I assume you are the "others in the birding community" the principal refered to who have "been involved." Anyone else fit that description? Where exactly did you suggest the cattails should go, and why? Anyone else, do you have opinions? I sent the letter below to New Roots staff, the BPW, and Rick Manning. I tried to send it to CayugaBirds-L but I think the attachment from New Roots describing the project made it too large. Or it's just plain too long. Anyway I can send their proporal separately to anyone who is interested. --Dave Nutter - - - - - - Thanks for writing, Ms Nilsen-Hodges. I've been thinking about the proposal as written and as presented yesterday to the BPW. I urge the sponsors at New Roots to review their reasoning, to consider carefully what they are trying to accomplish, and, if they still intend to create a cattail marsh at Stewart Park in summer 2016, to work with the Cayuga Bird Club to identify a mutually agreeable site. I urge the Cayuga Bird Club to identify where, if anywhere, in Stewart Park a cattail marsh would be best for overall bird habitat and for overall viewing of birds within the cattail marsh, and around the Fuertes Sanctuary / Swan Pond, and on Cayuga Lake, considering the value of the existing birding opportunities and the potential for uncontrolled expansion of a cattail marsh. And I urge the BPW to delay approval until New Roots and the Cayuga Bird Club agree on a location for the cattail marsh. The reasoning behind the project seems to be this: Swimming is fun. Therefore we want to swim at Stewart Park. Swimming was banned decades ago at Stewart Park. Therefore, pollution must be a problem. Cattails are used elsewhere for some stage of sewage treatment. There is no longer a huge cattail marsh filtering the water flowing into Cayuga Lake. But we can plant cattails in the lake and a marsh will grow. This can solve the pollution problem (and help birds, too). We will test the water before and after to show this. Then we can swim at Stewart Park. The project can't do any harm, because cattails are native, and nobody is using the lake there. Several facts are strung together by many assumptions. I question the assumptions. I believe that the reason swimming has been banned at Stewart Park for decades is not pollution. It is lifeguarding standards developed in the 20th century after some bad experiences. The water at Stewart Park is shallow very far out. Anyone in water deep enough to swim is too far from shore to be rescued because one cannot get out there quickly by either swimming or running. The viewing angle at that distance does not allow one to see into the water. The bottom is muddy. Anyone wading or touching the bottom stirs up silt. Waves stir it up, too, and every rainstorm brings another dose of silt. A person underwater in the shallows off Stewart Park would be too difficult for a lifeguard to see. The water is too turbid. It's not safe. When we Ithacans filled in a couple square miles of wetlands in order to build our city, we found that the land still flooded occasionally. So we channelized the streams, and we even dug out Cayuga Inlet to become the Flood Control Channel to send stormwater as rapidly as possible into the lake. In the lake that brown water spreads, slows, and drops its silt. As mud builds up it makes a place for aquatic plants. Eventually a marsh might be regenerated through natural succession. Cattails are prolific volunteers other places in Ithaca. There are some cattails in the Cornell Biological Field Station on the other side of Fall Creek from Stewart Park, and there is a large stand of cattails near the lake in the western part of Allan H Treman State Marine Park. There are even a few cattails which recently started growing within the Fuertes Bird Sanctuary pond. Why aren't cattails already growing in the lake where you plan to put them? Is the problem just battering by waves, or do the unnatural water level changes also make that area worse for cattails? If you plant cattails in the lake, are they apt to survive? The "weeds" which the DEC lamented attach to the bottom and extend upward in the water toward the light. The recreation which the DEC says the weeds deter includes motorboat propellers, and people swimming. Even if swimmers tolerate weeds, lifeguards should not, because they obstruct the view of a victim on the floor of the lake. But birds eat the plants, and fish and other critters live among their strands. Different birds eat those animals. In late summer broken pieces of pondweed may form floating mats on the water surface or accumulate at the edge of the water, and shorebirds pause in these places to forage while migrating through our area. Birding is a popular type of recreation at Stewart Park which the DEC did not include in their statement against aquatic vegetation. I don't think the plants' presence means the lake is unhealthy or polluted. Trying to get rid of the aquatic vegetation would be a wasteful disruption to the ecosystem, in my opinion. Another source of turbidity comes from trees and branches which get washed into the lake. Driftwood gets battered by waves until it disintegrates. Meanwhile the driftwood is a distinct and useful feature of the habitat, providing safe and picturesque perches for birds to rest and preen. To me, it doesn't make senese to burn fossil fuel to haul out all the driftwood and grind it up as was done a few years ago. I think that checking for pollution is a worthy project. If there was pollution from human waste before swimming was banned I bet that pollution risk is a lot less nowadays. Maybe some pollutants, such as medicines or laundry treatments pass through our sewage treatment plants into the lake, but I bet the effluent is pretty clean. It's worth asking the operators and checking the water. I don't think there's much agriculture along Cascadilla Creek, Six-mile Creek, or even Cayuga Inlet, but far upstream Fall Creek drains farm country. Maybe there's fertilizer and pesticide from lawns in Cayuga Heights and Ithaca as well. I'm sure birds contribute feathers and droppings directly into the water by Stewart Park. In the warmer months this area is used by hundreds of ducks, geese, cormorants, gulls, and swallows, plus dozens of terns, an increasing number of ospreys, herons, a few kingfishers... the list goes on. In the colder months the south end of the lake is home to thousands of ducks of 2 dozen species, half a dozen species each of geese and gulls, some of which come from the Arctic, occasional swans, plus an assortment of grebes, loons, coots, et cetera. Plus eagles live here. Suppose we find that the effect of bird droppings is measurable, and it helps pondweed grow. Given a choice between (1) fighting nature in order to maintain a swimming area in the lake's muddy shallows during the month that the lake is tolerably warm, or (2) swimming at the base of a waterfall and still having our wildlife at Stewart Park, I choose the latter. I think you'll need at least a year's worth of data to get a useful baseline. Shifts in the wind or sporadic heavy rain may affect the things you are trying to measure. They may also vary due to seasonal fluctuations in temperature, water level, stream flow, day length, leaf-out and leaf-fall in the watershed, spreading of manure on bare farm fields, ice cover on the south end of the lake, and populations of humans and birds. (You may want to talk to the folks at the Ithaca Wastewater Treatment Plant about how they cope with the sudden doubling of the number of people in Ithaca in mid-January and mid-August after an absence of a month or two, during which time the water treatment organism population has also shrunk.) Perhaps one reason no one collects data in the southern shallows is because conditions vary so much that it's hard to make sense of what you measure. Another reason may be that such murky water would not be desirable as a drinking water supply. When I first saw this item on the BPW agenda I asked the birding community if they had more information. The president of the Cayuga Bird Club had not heard about the project, but I was told that 3 of you happened upon 2 birders, one of whom works at the Lab of Ornithology, the other being an active member of the club, and they talked about a possible location for your project. I still have not seen exactly where the experiment is proposed to happen, and that location seemed to become more uncertain even as BPW members voiced support. At the BPW meeting I heard that the Parks Commission has already approved it. Parks' approval happened in the absence of Rick Manning of Friends of Stewart Park. He has worked closely with the Cayuga Bird Club and myself to create signs to inform the public about the amazing bird life to be seen in our parks. The Fuertes Bird Sanctuary, known to some as the Swan Pond, is a site we have been considering for one of these signs, which would also tell how this small sanctuary was created and how it functions today. The lakeshore not far from there is a potential site for additional panels about the many birds which use the lake and shoreline at different seasons. At the BPW meeting I heard the casual suggestion that the project be done in the pond, apparently without considering what already happens in and around the pond or the relationship of the project to the lake. I'm not saying the project should never happen. I am saying that if it does happen it should be on the basis of an informed decision as to where the cattail marsh should be started so as to be compatible with existing birding and lakeviewing. That discussion should happen before it gets approved. Perhaps the effect of the project would only be a disturbance during a single breeding season if the plants fail to grow. If they do survive they could make good habitat for certain birds, but with a cost. Cattails marshes grow so tall and thick that people cannot see over or though them. We should also be prepared for the "successful" scenario, in which the cattails within the 50'x 50' experimental plot will spread out along the lakeshore re-creating a vast marsh. This might help clean the lake, to the extent that lake water flows through the marsh, but it would block views of the lake and of the birds we love to see there. And deep water would still be too far from shore for swimming. --Dave Nutter On Nov 09, 2015, at 05:03 AM, Tina Nilsen-Hodges <tnilsenhod...@newrootsschool.org<mailto:tnilsenhod...@newrootsschool.org>> wrote: Good morning Mr. Nutter, Thank you for your interest in learning more about our students' proposed project at Stewart Park. I have attached their proposal to the Department of Public Works, and am cc'ing science teacher David Streib and Dean of Student Life Jhakeem Haltom, who are the staff members responsible for the project. I hope that you find this overview reassuring, especially knowing that others in the birding community have been involved in giving feedback and have offered support. To address one of your questions not addressed in the proposal, this is a small scale project that we will be funding with school operating funds designated for community-based projects supplemented by small grants. Outside funding would enhance the project but is not necessary given the scale. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions. Best, Tina Tina Nilsen-Hodges Principal and Superintendent New Roots Charter School Growing Students for a Just and Sustainable Future Located in the Historic Clinton House 116 N. 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