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!
(Note: the link to owlgorge.com referred to in the video is temporarily unavailable, in the process of transfer to a new website.)
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.
150 years ago, the gorge in what is now called Watkins Glen State Park was known as Freer’s Glen, at least for awhile. Beginning in 1863, wooden walkways were built into the narrow chasm to pass along cliffs and climb above waterfalls. These were all replaced when the state park was created, beginning in 1906, first with concrete and later with stone structures. Here is a comparison of one of the early pre-park, 19th century wood structures with the stone steps of today, climbing up and around Central Cascade halfway through the glen.
One could only climb past Central Cascade in Watkins Glen via this wooden staircase during the pre-park days in the 19th century. Image courtesy of Bill Hecht
This stone staircase climbs out of a section of Watkins Glen called Glen Cathedral to "Folly Bridge" in the background, above Central Cascade, on the Gorge Trail in Watkins Glen State Park.
Highlights from this week’s upcoming Walk in the Park TV public access TV show on Ithaca, NY cable channel 13. See brief video below for times. First showing Thursday, 1/24 at 9:00 p.m. I will also post it online on this blog as soon as possible!
Hikers walk through a red pine plantation on the Finger Lakes Trail in Danby State Forest. Photo by S. Hesse.
Late afternoon sun reflects off ponds in Newman Arboretum in the Cornell Plantations, Ithaca, NY.
A "buck rub" in the East Ithaca Nature Preserve
Lucifer Falls in Robert H. Treman State Park as viewed from the Rim Trail
See the schedule for Ithaca public access TV channel 13 showings:
This episode will appear on this blog online soon!
There is a beautiful swimming area at the base of Buttermilk Falls in the state park in Ithaca, NY. Once one of the most popular swimming areas in Ithaca, accessible by city bus, this idyllic spot has been open only on weekends during recent summers, due to budget cuts and lifeguard shortages. But in the 19th century, the falls were valued for another use.
The swimming area at the base of Buttermilk Falls. Photo by Stilfehler
Water power! A mill once stood by the falls, using the height of water in the gorge to power its machinery.
In this 19th century photograph, you can see the remnants of a mill once powered by the falls. Image scanned by Bill Hecht.
I’ve seen other photographs of this mill, but I don’t recall exactly what it did, or where the water was conducted from. Upstream from the waterfall, there once was a dam that I understand impounded part of Ithaca’s water supply, at the time privately owned by Robert H. Treman. Perhaps this was also the mill pond.
If anyone has more information about this mill, please let me know with a comment below.
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.
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.
“Ithaca is Gorges” they say in this town at the south end of Cayuga Lake. But there are lots of other beautiful gorges in New York’s Finger Lakes region, including Fillmore Glen by the little village of Moravia in Cayuga County south of Owasco Lake, the next Finger Lake to the east of Cayuga Lake. This lush and scenic gorge is preserved in Fillmore Glen State Park, due to the efforts of Dr. Charles Atwood, a local physician and amateur botanist, who advocated for its protection and establishment of the park in the 1920s. The new episode of “Walk in the Park,” our public access TV show in the Ithaca area, features Fillmore Glen with photographs and video taken recently.
A small waterfall about a mile up the Gorge Trail in Fillmore Glen
Fillmore Glen is named for Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States, who was born in 1800 in a cabin a few miles east of the park. He was the first “log cabin president” and the first president born in the nineteenth century. He was also the first president who rose from modest means to the middle class. Find out more about Millard Fillmore in our Walk in the Park video episode, “Fillmore Glen State Park.”
Official White House painting of President Millard Fillmore, by G.P.A. Healy 1857
The climax of Fillmore Glen, and also the part most easily viewed, is the Cowsheds, a waterfall, rock amphitheater, and overhanging rock formation just a short walk from the picnic pavilion and swimming area in the mouth of the gorge.
The Cowsheds is the scenic star of Fillmore Glen.
In the photograph above, large slabs of limestone have fallen from the overhanging roof-like ledge up to the left. Freezing, thawing, wetting, drying, and high water have weathered and eroded out the Cowsheds.
Our show on PEGASYS, “Fillmore Glen State Park,” also includes scenery from Cayuga Lake, Lick Brook Glen, Buttermilk Falls State Park, and culminates with photographs and video of fall foliage in Fall Creek Gorge, Ithaca Falls, and Cascadilla Glen in Ithaca and next to Cornell University. Watch our show on Ithaca’s cable access channel 13 at the schedule below or right here online.
Looking over Ithaca Falls and the city
Watch the show right here without leaving this page:
This episode, “Fillmore Glen State Park,” will premier on Ithaca’s channel 13 this evening at 9:00 p.m. It will be shown again according to the following schedule.
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.
The Old Mill in upper Robert H. Treman State Park is the location of exhibits about the mill, the Hamlet of Enfield Falls, and the CCC camp.
Recorded Oct. 3, 2012 at PEGASYS Studios in Ithaca, NY. See it online here or on Ithaca’s public access TV channel 13 during the schedule below.
This time, we go to Heritage Day in the upper part of Robert H. Treman State Park near Ithaca. Put on annually by the Friends of Robert H. Treman State Park, Heritage Day celebrates the rich history of the former Hamlet of Enfield Falls, which was, in the 19th century, an “agricultural service hamlet” with mills, a blacksmith shop, a general store, and the Enfield Falls Hotel, a small tourist hotel for people coming to see the falls, now known as Lucifer Falls, in the gorge nearby, and forerunner to the state park.
Old photograph of one of the former houses in the Hamlet of Enfield Falls that was torn down after the creation of the state park.
This time, the Friends unveil a plaque honoring their founder, park historian, and former park employee, the late Neil Poppensiek, for his dedicated research on the history of the park, especially the former Civilian Conservation Corps in the park and the Old Mill, one of only two buildings still standing in the former hamlet. The plaque is mounted on a new exhibit of artifacts found by Neil from the CCC camp .
Cornell archeology students search for artifacts on the site of a former building in the Hamlet of Enfield Falls in what is now upper Robert H. Treman State Park.
Then we walk over to the active archeology dig of one of the former house sites being conducted by Cornell Professor Sherene Baugher’s urban archeology class. Students explain to us what the site once was and show us some of the things they have unearthed.
Seneca women demonstrate the traditional craft of corn husk doll making at the Native American Festival.
Our show moves on to the Native American Festival that took place in DeWitt Park in Ithaca during Ithaca’s Apple Festival. The highlight of our visit is a short video of the Allegany River Indian Dancers.
Eagle Cliff Falls is the centerpiece of Havana Glen in Montour Falls, NY.
We take a look at a couple of woodland wildflowers before finishing up with a video visit to Eagle Cliff Falls in Havana Glen Park near Montour Falls south of Watkins Glen, NY.
Watch the entire show online here or on Ithaca’s public access cable TV channel 13 on the schedule below.
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.
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.
