Journey to Big Bend

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Tony

In this episode of Walk in the Park TV (#46), Tony travels to Texas, first to visit Big Bend National Park along the Rio Grande in the Chihuahuan Desert and the Chisos Mountains of southwest Texas. See this episode on Ithaca, NY’s public access channel 13 (see the schedule below) or watch it right here on this page, below.

Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Texas

He also visits Historic Fort Stockton which was manned by African American “Buffalo Soldiers” following the Civil War, during the war against the Comanches, Apaches, and other Indian nations in the campaign to conquer the Southwest and secure the southernmost wagon train route to California.

Historic Fort Stockton, Texas

Then Tony camps in the Texas Hill Country west of San Antonio, spending several days at the birdwatching hot spot South Llano River State Park in Junction, TX. There he sees many birds new to him, including the painted bunting, and has an encounter with a rattlesnake! See all the Walk in the Park TV episodes and more online here.

Painted Bunting in South Llano River State Park, Junction, Texas

Watch the half hour show right here….

Or catch it on Ithaca, NY’s public access cable TV channel 13 this Saturday and Sunday (April 27 & 28) at 10:30 a.m., and next Tuesday (April 30) at 8:00 p.m. The video quality on your TV will be better than in this online version.

Blue Ridge Parkway, Part 2

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Tony

See it on TV* or online here!

The Blue Ridge Parkway approaches Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina.

Grandfather Mountain looms above the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

Tony completes his journey on the Blue Ridge Parkway in this episode (#45) of Walk in the Park TV. We enter North Carolina, stopping at Cumberland Knob, Grandfather Mountain, Linville Falls, Mount Mitchell (the highest summit in the East!), Craggy Gardens, and many other sites along the way. Then we return to Virginia, visiting Mabry Mill and Rocky Knob before heading home. Hear the melodious song of the winter wren, see wild rhododendrons in bloom, and find out about the exotic insect pests attacking our eastern hemlocks and the fraser firs of the Black Mountains. Tony shares his observations about driving the Parkway and camping along the way in this national park that is nearly 500 miles long.

* This is showing today (Saturday, April 5, 2013) and tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. on Ithaca, NY’s public access cable TV channel 13; also on Tuesday, April 9, at 8:00 p.m. The show will repeat on this schedule, beginning Thursday, April 18, at 9:00 p.m. Blue Ridge Parkway, Part 1 will show again on channel 13 beginning Thursday, April 11, at 9:00 p.m. and will continue through the following weekend until Tuesday, April 16. See the full schedule of Ithaca public access shows.

“Walk in the Park”
A richly illustrated look at things happening at parks within and beyond the Finger Lakes region. 30 minutes. Produced by Tony Ingraham of the Town of Ithaca.
Thursdays at 9pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30am, Tuesdays at 8pm on channel 13.

Blue Ridge Parkway, Part 1

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Tony

In this week’s episode of Walk in the Park (#43, recorded 3/20/13), we celebrate the arrival of the spring equinox and then take a trip last summer on the Blue Ridge Parkway, from its northern end near Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, to the Peaks of Otter in George Washington National Forest. Then we look at the hazards of entering our Finger Lakes gorges too early in the season, including a dramatic video of high water at Buttermilk Falls. Stay tuned for a future episode of Walk in the Park TV where we continue on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Black Mountains of North Carolina and the highest mountain in the eastern U.S.!

You can watch this episode on Ithaca’s public access cable TV channel 13 on Sunday, March 24 at 10:30 a.m. and once more at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26. Or, you can watch it online right here!

Grand Canyon & Finger Lakes Compared

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Tony

Huh? What could such different regions have in common? Well, there are some commonalities, and there are great differences. The two regions are parts of much larger river basins, the Colorado and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence respectively. Both are eroded into ancient sedimentary rock layers. One is arid, and often desert, while the other receives abundant rainfall. One has been drastically altered by glaciation, while the other apparently has not. In this week’s episode (#37) of Walk in the Park TV, we return to the Grand Canyon (following last week’s show, “Walk Across the Grand Canyon“) and look at the bigger picture.

South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The South Kaibab Trail hugs the base of this cliff near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

After that, in honor of the Super Bowl champions, the Baltimore Ravens, we take a look at real ravens, including ravens at the Grand Canyon. And finally, we briefly discuss uranium mining at the Grand Canyon.

See it here online, or watch it on Ithaca, NY public access TV channel 13, this Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. each day, or next Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 8:00 p.m., and at other times the station may schedule it until Wednesday, Feb. 13 (check just before the hour and half hour and the day’s cablecast schedule is usually posted briefly).

See all of my Walk in the Park episodes and short videos.

Go Ravens!

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Tony

As we Americans prepare our couch potato chips, wings, and beer for Super Bowl Sunday between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, how many of us really know what a raven is? Well, yes, there is that creepy Poe poem we read in high school.

“But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore –
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking ‘Nevermore.’”

Common ravens are in the family Corvidae that includes crows and jays. As the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology describes them, “Not just large but massive, with a thick neck, shaggy throat feathers, and a Bowie knife of a beak. In flight, ravens have long, wedge-shaped tails. They’re more slender than crows, with longer, narrower wings, and longer, thinner ‘fingers’ at the wingtips.”

Raven perches on a tree on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

A raven perches on a tree on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Ravens are one of the most commonly seen and heard birds in the national park.

Common ravens, or Corvus corax, are not so common in the eastern U.S. as the Cornell range map shows. They are common in the western U.S. and in much of Canada and do venture down into the upper Midwest, upstate New York, northern New England, and farther south along the Appalachians. I remember “Raven’s Roost,” a stop at a cliff top on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.

Years ago, one did not notice ravens around Ithaca, NY, though they had been here historically. But with the regrowth of forests on abandoned agricultural land, ravens are returning to our landscape. For the last 20 years or so, one has been able to hear their croaking squawks over our gorges. For ravens love to nest on cliffs, and many of the gorges of the Finger Lakes region provide secure ledges, safe from predators, where they can raise the year’s new brood of these large, black, corvids.

Waterfall at Sweedler Lick Brook Preserve of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, Ithaca, NY

Some years, ravens nest on the far cliff near the high falls in the Finger Lakes Land Trust's Sweedler Preserve at Lick Brook in the Town of Ithaca, NY.

Are ravens common around Baltimore? Maybe not, and fewer still, perhaps, in New Orleans, this year’s Super Bowl venue. But I don’t expect that will stop them today!

Read more about ravens on the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology webpages.

Walk Across Grand Canyon

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Tony

“If I can do it, anybody can do it,” remarks Tammy Lovell in my newest episode of my Walk in the Park TV series on Ithaca, NY public access channel 13. She’s speaking of hiking across the Grand Canyon, a 25 mile trek from the North Rim to the South Rim in this famous national park in northern Arizona. “But you do have to know what you are doing; you have to be careful,” she cautions.

Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Jim & Tammy emerge from the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail on their way to Indian Gardens and the South Rim. Photo provided by Jim Rundle

Tammy and her husband Jim Rundle joined up with two others to spend five days on their “trip of a lifetime” last November. In their story here, they tell us about their trek, how they prepared, the equipment they chose, and they share dozens of gorgeous photographs from the trail.

You can see their story online here, or watch it on Ithaca’s public access channel 13 over the next few days, including 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday both, and finally next Tuesday, February 5, at 8:00 p.m. (and at other times they station manager may select).

But if you can’t get it on TV, see it right here! Jim and Tammy share valuable tips for planning your own trip of lifetime.

Watch all of my Walk in the Park episodes and short videos.

Bright Angel Bliss

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Tony

Jim Rundle and Tammy Lovell joined two others to walk across the Grand Canyon last November in a trek that dazzled their senses with awe. They tell their story on this week’s episode of Walk in the Park TV series on Ithaca’s public access channel 13. It is showing now: next scheduled showings are this Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and next Tuesday, February 5, at 8:00 p.m. And at other times as the station chooses. I will post the show online very soon!

Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon National Park

The Bright Angel Trail ascends toward the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Photo by Jim Rundle

Jobs in Parks

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Tony

For the second year, I was asked to come to DeWitt Middle School in Ithaca to be a speaker during their “Looking to the Future Day,” their annual career day for 8th grade students. So, on November 30, I used my Powerpoint to explain the broad range of parks, preserves, and similar sites and organizations where one might pursue a career in “Parks and Recreation.” After fumbling for several minutes with wires, I hooked up a lapel mike to myself and started my video camera and recorded my talk for Walk in the Park TV (episode 31). Later, I exported all the Powerpoint slides as jpegs and then imported them into my video editor to illustrate my talk. 95% of the show is the slides with my voice beneath, while I navigate across each image on the screen as I discuss the topic. This is essentially a version of a talk I gave at Wells College last winter. You may find it interesting. It also is being shown on Ithaca’s public access cable TV channel 13, with airings scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday, each day at 10:30 a.m., and finally on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m., though the station manager does show it at other times as well.

Below is my description of my talk for the students when they signed up for it:

Mary is a bookkeeper, Doug is a carpenter, Jane is a Jack-of-all-trades, Mike likes working with people, Brittany loves hiking, Sam loves landscaping, Jody loves kids, and Jorge is interested in law enforcement. Which among them could find a satisfying career in parks and recreation?

All of them.

It takes a broad team of professions to run a park, or a park system. Parks are natural places, but parks serve people. Every park has to strike a balance between preserving nature and making it accessible, safe, and enjoyable for the public. There is a career for you in parks and recreation, whether you are purchasing land, making a landscape plan, mowing lawns, or training staff; or constructing and maintaining park trails, roads, campgrounds, buildings, swimming areas, boat launches and marinas, golf courses, and playgrounds; or conducting nature education activities, running a concert series, staffing a recreation center, designing publications and exhibits; or managing a payroll, personnel records, grant writing, or secretarial and administrative work. If you want to be a biologist, geologist, historian, or biological technician, there are jobs in parks and recreation.

Sandy Slams Seashore Parks

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Tony

Hurricane Sandy, Jones Beach State Park boardwalk damage

Hurricane Sandy heavily damaged the boardwalk at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island. Photo by Joe Rao

This week, Walk in the Park TV goes to coastal New Jersey and Long Island to look at the damage from Hurricane Sandy to state and national parks and communities on the barrier islands. We also also look at Sandy’s snow in the mountains and national parks of Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. And we finish with a walk along the surf of Fire Island listening to the poetry of Walt Whitman. Walk in the Park episode 27, recorded 11/7/12.

This episode begins showing this evening (Nov. 8, 2012) at 9:00 p.m. on Ithaca, NY’s public access cable TV channel 13 and will repeat at various times for the next week. You can watch the entire episode here online, as well:

The scheduled cablecasts on channel 13 in Ithaca are at:

Thursday, 9:00 p.m.

Saturday, 10:30 a.m.

Sunday, 10:30 a.m.

Tuesday, 8:00 p.m.

It also is shown at other times as the station manager chooses.

Finger Lakes Fall from the Sky

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Tony

In this episode of Walk in the Park TV, we go up in the air again with Bill Hecht’s dazzling photographs of the Finger Lakes at the peak of fall colors. See it here online!

We see Ithaca, Sixmile Creek valley, Buttermilk Falls State Park (including the effects of Hurricane Sandy), Cayuga Lake, Myers Point in Lansing, Keuka Lake, Bluff Point, Keuka College, Canandaigua Lake, Naples NY, the Hi Tor State Wildlife Management Area, and the Great Hill (or South Hill) at the south end of Canandaigua Lake, considered (and celebrated) by the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois as their birthplace. Great Hill is now a Finger Lakes Land Trust Preserve.

Bluff Point Keuka Lake Finger Lakes fall colors

Bill Hecht's photo looking south over Bluff Point at the confluence of the East Branch and West Branch of Keuka Lake in New York's Finger Lakes region.

We fly over Cliffside State Forest in Schuyler County and Cornell University’s Arnot Forest in Tompkins County. We also go back to Ithaca Falls for a couple of short videos of the waterfall, fall colors, and fly fishermen in Fall Creek, set to music. And we reconsider a couple of maple tree species in the western United States, the bigtoothed maple in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, and the bigleaf maple on the West Coast, from California through Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and just into southeast Alaska. Join host Tony Ingraham in this scenery-packed episode of Walk in the Park (#26).

Click here to see all Walk in the Park TV episodes, or go to Tony’s YouTube Walk in the Park playlist .

Produced by Owl Gorge Productions at PEGASYS Studios, Ithaca NY’s public access television center, run by Time Warner Cable.

You can watch the show online right here,

Or, you can catch the show on Time Warner Cable public access television channel 13 in the Ithaca area: