Category Archives: Stewart Park

Getting a Haendel on Cayuga Lake

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For ten years, the tour boat/floating classroom MV Haendel has chugged up and down Cayuga Lake revealing the lake’s stories, taking its vital signs, and expanding our awareness of this dominant, beautiful body of water in New York’s Finger Lakes region. I have worked on the Haendel since late in its first season in 2003, mostly as an interpreter of the natural and cultural history of the lake on the boat’s tours out of Cayuga Inlet in Ithaca. The company, Tiohero Tours, has changed its name now to Ithaca Boat Tours, and we look forward to the new season sharing Cayuga’s waters with thousands of visitors, residents, and students.

The tour boat MV Haendel in Cayuga Inlet, Ithaca, NY

The MV Haendel heads down Cayuga Inlet toward Cayuga Lake on another tour from the Ithaca Farmers Market.

The other part of the Haendel’s mission is the Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom, where the crew takes school groups, college classes, camp groups, public eco-tours, and scientific monitoring teams out on the water to probe and learn more about what is happening below the surface. Besides teaching thousands about lake science, the Floating Classroom has played a vital role in assessing the health of the lake; most notably in discovering the aggressive, and potentially disastrous, exotic, invasive, aquatic weed hydrilla in Cayuga Inlet, setting off a major institutional and governmental response to try to control and eradicate the infestation.

Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom public eco-tour

Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom director Bill Foster instructs a public eco-tour participant during a lake sampling outing.

In this week’s episode of Walk in the Park TV, we take a visual tour of Cayuga Lake on the Haendel, from the Ithaca Farmers Market to Wells College in Aurora, as if we were on the boat itself. There is a lot to see from the water (and from the air in this case as we integrate Bill Hecht’s amazing aerial photography.) You can watch the show on Ithaca’s public access cable TV channel 13 (next scheduled showings: Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m., and Tuesday, March 5, at 8:00 p.m., and at other times the station may add).

Or you can watch it online right here!

Headwaters of Cayuga Lake

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See it here or see it on TV!

In this episode (#39, 2/20/13) of Walk in the Park TV (Ithaca, NY public access cable channel 13), I take you on a tour of the major tributaries and subwatersheds of Cayuga Lake, in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Using beautiful aerial photography by Bill Hecht, we visit Cayuga’s Inlet Valley; the Lindsay Parsons Biodiversity Preserve of the Finger Lakes Land Trust; Enfield Glen and Lucifer Falls in Robert H. Treman State Park; Buttermilk Falls State Park; Sixmile Creek Nature Preserve; Cascadilla Gorge; Cornell University; Fall Creek and its gorge and Ithaca Falls; Salmon Creek and Myers Point in Lansing, NY; Taughannock Falls State Park; and the rest of Cayuga Lake including the Seneca River and Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Finally, we trace the flow of Cayuga’s waters through the Seneca and Oswego River system to Lake Ontario, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence River. Watch it here!

This show can also be seen on Ithaca’s public access TV channel 13 this Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and next Tuesday, 2/16, at 8:00 p.m.; and at other times the station may decide.

 

Winter Arrives in the Finger Lakes

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Two snowstorms left more than a foot on the hills, fields, towns, and gorges around Ithaca, NY, as winter began at the end of 2012. Join host Tony Ingraham in this first episode of 2013 in his public access cable TV series, “Walk in the Park.” Go on a video visit to Taughannock Falls accompanied by Duke Koistra’s ethereal piece, “First Snow.” See photographer Deanna Stickler Laurentz’s pictures of a beaver feeding along the bank of Fall Creek on January 6. Travel into winter in Ingraham’s video, “Winter Water,” visiting Buttermilk Falls, Taughannock Falls, Ithaca Falls, Cayuga Lake, and Watkins Glen State Park. Hear about the award-winning documnentary, “Chasing Ice.” Learn about the extra deer hunting season that began today and will continue until the end of January in the state’s new Deer Management Focus Area in Tompkins County surrounding Ithaca. See more Walk in the Park episodes and short videos.

This is episode 33, recorded on January 9 at PEGASYS public access TV studios in Ithaca, NY. Walk in the Park appears on Ithaca’s cable access channel 13 on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 a.m., and Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m., and at other times of the station manager’s choosing. As of this posting, the next showings of this episode will be tomorrow, Sunday, January 13 at 10:30 a.m., and Tuesday, January 15, at 8:00 p.m. Or, watch it right here!

 

Jobs in Parks

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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.

Fall Colors in the Finger Lakes

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Episode 25 of Walk in the Park TV, “Fall Colors in the Finger Lakes,” is now showing on television and online. It begins this evening at 9:00 p.m. on Ithaca’s public access cable TV channel 13 and continues for the next week according to the schedule below. Meanwhile, you can see “Fall Colors in the Finger Lakes” online.

Cornell University Fall Creek Gorge Cascadilla Ithaca NY Fall Colors aerial photograph

Most of the Cornell campus is bounded on the north and south by gorges: Fall Creek Gorge on the north (left) and Cascadilla Glen on the south (right). Photograph by Bill Hecht

Join me, Tony Ingraham, in this visual trip around the Finger Lakes region, from the ground and in the air, marveling at the fall foliage extravaganza nature has put on for us in October. Visit Taughannock Falls and Buttermilk Falls State Parks, Cascadilla Gorge, Ithaca Falls and Fall Creek Gorge, Cornell University campus, Cayuga Lake, Myers Park and Salmon Creek, Seneca County, Seneca Lake, Keuka Lake, Canandaigua Lake, Watkins Glen State Park, Sixmile Creek in Ithaca, and more. Photographer Bill Hecht’s views of Taughannock Gorge from the air are incomparable, as are his views of the Cornell campus situated between Fall Creek Gorge and Cascadilla Glen and other aerial vistas around the region. We also visit Cesar Chavez National Monument in California, Fishlake National Forest and Zion National Park in Utah, and Glacier National Park in Montana.

See the show right here!

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

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.

Episode 21: Flying Over Cayuga Lake and Other Adventures

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This week’s new episode of Walk in the Park, the TV show, will first air this evening (Thursday, Sept. 20) at 9:00 p.m. on Ithaca’s public access cable channel 13. Or, you can see it here online!

Taughannock Falls State Park, Cayuga Lake, Finger Lakes, Tompkins County, Seneca County, Cayuga County, NY

Taughannock Gorge cuts toward Cayuga Lake, which winds to the north. Photo courtesy of Bill Hecht

Recorded on Sept. 19, 2012, “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” Host Tony Ingraham invites you to Heritage Day at Robert H. Treman State Park near Ithaca, then flies you over Cayuga Lake and Taughannock Falls with the East Hill Flying Club. Next over to Watkins Glen State Park to look at invasive species, to a waterfall and pool in Buttermilk Falls State Park, and  to look at white snakeroot up close!

Walk in the Park, the TV show, airs weekly on Ithaca, NY’s public access cable TV channel 13:

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.

Walk in the Park TV Show, episode 20

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Ithaca Falls, Fall Creek, Cornell, Finger Lakes, Cayuga

Ithaca Falls on Sept. 7, 2012

See it here or on TV! Recorded on September 12, 2012, and cablecast on Ithaca, NY’s cable public access TV channel 13. Host Tony Ingraham acknowledges the anniversary of the floods caused by Tropical Storm Lee a year ago by showing the popular short video he made at the time, called “Ithaca’s Gorges Flood.” We also look at the flood’s effects on Owego and Binghamton, NY. For levity, see Granny’s Pig Race at the Northampton, MA Tri-County Fair. And we visit Ithaca Falls, Buttermilk Glen, Enfield Glen in Robert H. Treman State Park, and take a close look at one of our native wildflowers.

There is one more scheduled showing on Ithaca’s channel 13 this week, on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012, at 8:00 p.m.

The next episode will be shown first this Thursday, Sept. 20, at 9:00 p.m.

Walk in the Park, the TV show, airs weekly on Ithaca, NY’s public access cable TV channel 13:

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.

Walk in the Park, TV Show, episode 19

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Ithaca, Cayuga Lake, aerial

Cayuga Lake winds north from Ithaca, NY in this photograph by Bill Hecht. The Cornell campus is in the lower right. See the photo essay in this week's episode of Walk in the Park!

My new episode of Walk in the Park on public access television in Ithaca is now showing  on Ithaca’s cable channel 13, and you can see it online here!

This week, we go to several places during the show: Flying over Ithaca and Cayuga Lake with Bill Hecht’s marvelous photos; sunset and blue moon on Cayuga Lake with Tiohero Tours last week; back to last week’s “Don’t Frack NY” rally at Corning Preserve Park along the Hudson River in Albany, where we will hear acclaimed writer, educator, and environmental activist Bill McKibben speak about fracking and global warming; to Taughannock Point and the Sim Redmond Band; to Ithaca’s Civil War encampment last month; and finally to the Ithaca Commons summer concert series.

If you didn’t see it Thursday evening at 9:00, you can catch it on Saturday or Sunday at 10:30 a.m., and finally next Tuesday, September 11 at 8:00 p.m. The 29-minute show is on Ithaca’s cable channel 13.

Or, watch it online right here!

Walk in the Park, the TV show, airs weekly on Ithaca, NY’s public access cable TV channel 13:

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.

You can see all Walk in the Park episodes online on this website by selecting the category “Walk in the Park TV show” in the category drop-down list in the upper right. Or you can go to Walk in the Park’s YouTube channel.

 

Walk in the Park TV Show!

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Ithaca NY public access TV about parks, nature, history, concerts, news, environment

I have begun a new series on Ithaca public access television (PEGASYS) cable channel 13, called “Walk in the Park”! It is in a “magazine” format, with segments about various parks including events, park news, interpretation of cultural and natural history, park-related issues, and lots of photographs and video clips.

Each week, I will feature items posted on this blog and much more. The program runs half an hour. Soon after the show is recorded, I will post it online with a notice on this blog. I plan to create a page here with all of the shows and their summaries. If you don’t subscribe to Time Warner Cable TV in the Ithaca area, you will only be able to see the show online.

Each episode will run four times over the ensuing week. The first showing each week will be on Thursday and the final showing will be the following Tuesday.

Weekly Schedule through August:

Thursdays,                9:00 p.m.

Saturdays,             10:30 a.m.

Sundays,             10:30 a.m.

Tuesdays,              8:00 p.m.

In this week’s episode, airing first on July 12, I feature images and video from the shadows and reflections of Buttermilk Glen, a video of Ithaca’s Independence Day fireworks at Stewart Park, Newtown Battlefield State Park (with more information than last week’s blog post including bird photographs), Watkins Glen historical photos, and news from Robert H. Treman State Park about new trail features and a new exhibit in the Old Mill about the CCC camp in the park in the 1930s. Watch it here!

In future episodes, there may be guest appearances by park squatter and backwoods philosopher Ichabod. Click on his picture below to see his short commentaries and rants. But beware, they don’t call him “Icky” for nothing!

Ichabod park woods opinion nature humor

Ichabod emphasizes a point.

 

Fireworks at Stewart Park

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July 4 Fireworks at Stewart Park, Ithaca NY

The final rocket bursts over Ithaca while the full moon hangs in the heavens.

Ithaca, NY’s Independence Day fireworks show has returned to Ithaca! On July 2, the moonlit extravaganza erupted in the Newman Golf Course across Fall Creek from the fireworks festival in Stewart Park, on the shore of Cayuga Lake, which was dotted with boats appreciating the light show from the water. Watch some highlights, as it were, in this 7 minute, 36 second video and definitely hang in there for the finale!