Each year, the Conservation Board of the Town of Ithaca, NY, plants a tree on Town parkland honoring an individual or organization that has made a significant contribution to environmental conservation within the town. The award is named in honor of the late Richard B. Fischer, professor of environmental education at Cornell University for many years, and an active leader for conservation at the town, county, and state level during his life.

From left to right, David Kiefer (Cornell Plantations Natural Areas Academy volunteer), Jules Ginenthal (in charge of volunteer stewardship for the Cornell Plantations Natural Areas), Todd Bittner (holding award certificate; director of the Cornell Plantations Natural Areas Program), Mike Roberts (C.P. Natural Areas Steward), Tom Reimers (former recipient of the Fischer Award), James Hamilton (Town of Ithaca Conservation Board), and Diane Florini (phytopathologist and volunteer)

This year’s recipient is the Cornell Plantations Natural Areas Program. This 12-minute video shows the award ceremony and tree planting at the East Hill Recreationway near the MacDaniels Nut Grove, a Plantations preserve, on May 11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGAcoHcE_x8

The woodland floor is beginning to burst with beautiful little flowers that are in a race with the trees overhead to get as much sunlight for growth as possible before the forest leaf canopy closes in above.

Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides), in the buttercup family, emerges on a dry woodland ridge in Buttermilk Falls State Park, Ithaca, NY.

Watch this one-minute Walk in the Park video about our early spring wildflowers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siIJGqSU9GU

(Note: the link to owlgorge.com referred to in the video is temporarily unavailable, in the process of transfer to a new website.)

What is it?           Where is it?

The Sapsucker Cairn

The Sapsucker Cairn was constructed in 2008 by acclaimed environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy on the East Trail of Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary, the nature preserve of Cornell’s Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY. Goldsworthy also created Gardens of Stone in Cornell Plantations. (See our Walk in the Park TV post about walking at the Newman Arboretum and the Gardens of Stone.)

“Sapsucker Woods is a beautiful place to visit in any season. The 230-acre sanctuary encompasses forests, ponds, ferny swamps, and abundant wildlife. More than four miles of trails and boardwalks are waiting for you to explore.” You can pick up a great little trail map and bird checklist outside the entrance of the Johnson Visitor Center.

Swamp in Sapsucker Woods

The Woodleton Boardwalk along the East Trail at Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary crosses a swampy area.

The East Trail encircles a wooded swamp.

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….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtZtiK1MTHE

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.

See it on TV* or online here!

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqKNNAuXucw

*  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.

An old postcard shows the beginning of the upper gorge in the upper section of Robert H. Treman State Park.

“The Treman Show.” Produced by the Friends of Robert H. Treman State Park, this award-winning* half-hour episode of Walk in the Park TV (#44) explores the trails, history, archeology, geology, and plants and wildlife of this scenic and historic park near Ithaca in New York’s Finger Lakes region. It will show on Ithaca, NY’s public access channel 13 this Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m., and again on Tuesday, April 2, at 8:00 p.m. Or, you can watch it right here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH05mjuI9KM

*This video, originally entitled, “Exploring Robert H. Treman State Park,” and part of the Nature Nearby series produced by Tony Ingraham for PEGASYS public access in Ithaca, NY, won first place as the best public access show in Ithaca in 2008.

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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SN66YkMn8A

On March 12, 2013, Buttermilk Creek showed the ambivalence of winter heading toward spring as snow was followed by rain to bring high water to Buttermilk Glen in Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca, NY, in the Finger Lakes region. In this short video (less than 3 minutes), watch the swollen creek gain speed and power as it thrashes through the gorge and pounds over waterfalls toward the Cayuga Inlet Valley below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB8tHEI0iR8

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 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 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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-lUHxwK3jE

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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVZQ8RQ-rFU

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.