January 2015
Thursday, January 8, 9 am (postponed) – Meeting with representatives from Cornell Cooperative Extension to discuss possible Conservation Area sites for planting hemlock hedges for use as Hemlock Woolly Adelgid control insectaries. We will start at the parking lot on Old Seneca Turnpike.
Thursday, January 15, 9 am – Meeting with representatives from Cornell Cooperative Extension to discuss possible Conservation Area sites for planting hemlock hedges for use as Hemlock Woolly Adelgid control insectaries. We will start at the parking lot on Old Seneca Turnpike and later look at the Dunning Tract.
Saturday, January 17, 9 -10:30 am – Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Monitoring Hike at Bahar Nature Preserve (below Carpenter’s Falls) conducted by Cornell Cooperative Extension. Free, but registration required. See http://www.extendonondaga.org/invasive-hemlock-woolly-adelgid-winter-hikes/
Monday, January 19, 7 pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall.
February 2015
Monday, February 16, 7 pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall.
March 2015
Monday, March 16, 7 pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall. Jessi Lyons from Cornell Cooperative Extension will discuss Cornell’s Hemlock Woolly Adelgid biological control plans. (All SCAAC meetings are open to the public.)
Thursday, March 26, 7 pm – Dr. William A. Powell, SUNY-ESF, on The American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project, Skaneateles Central Schools District Office Conference Room, Presented by the SCS Environmental Club.
April 2015
Monday, April 20, 7 pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall.
Saturday, April 25, 9 am – 4 pm – NYFOA Symposium: “The Future of New York Forests at Risk – Working Toward a Comprehensive Solution” at SUNY-ESF Gateway Center.
Saturday, April 25 – Sunday, April 26 – Spring Youth Turkey Hunt. Mornings only: One-half-hour before sunrise to noon.
May 2015
Friday, May 1 – Sunday, May 31 – Turkey hunting season. Mornings only: One-half-hour before sunrise to noon.
Friday, May 8 – Saturday, May 9 – BSA Troop 52 of Elbridge has reserved the conservation area lean-to for camping.
Sunday, May 10 – Adirondack Mountain Club, Onondaga Chapter hike at the Skaneateles Conservation Area. Hike through the woods and meadows and up and down hills checking out the spring wildflowers. Trail conditions could be wet and muddy in spots. Bring trail lunch and water. Meet leader Ken Kaufman at 10 am at Skanellus Drive In on Route 20 to carpool to start of hike. Enjoy an ice cream together in the village of Skaneateles after the hike. For information call 315-685-5990.
Tuesday, May 12, 9am (postponed ’til Thursday) – Chestnut planting day. A couple hundred American chestnuts will be planted in fenced plots at the SUNY-ESF’s Lafayette Experiment Station. Volunteers are needed! Lunch will be provided, along with gardening tools. Wear closed-toe shoes to protect your feet!
Tuesday, May 12, 7pm – 9pm – HWA and bio-control public info. session. Niles Town Hall, 5923 New Hope Rd., Moravia, NY. A public forum on will offer updates to the public on the status of HWA in New York State and the Skaneateles Lake Watershed, and will cover management strategies including the introduction of biological controls in the Watershed. Residents will have the opportunity to give feedback on locations of hemlock stands, and ask questions about HWA and the biological control project from Mark Whitmore of Cornell University, Jason Denham of the NYS DEC, and Jessi Lyons of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County. Local arborist Robert Duckett will provide images of known infestations in the Watershed.
Thursday, May 12, 9am – Chestnut planting day. A couple hundred American chestnuts will be planted in fenced plots at the SUNY-ESF’s Lafayette Experiment Station. Volunteers are needed! Lunch will be provided, along with gardening tools. Wear closed-toe shoes to protect your feet!
Saturday, May 16, 9am – Hemlock Tree Planting. Volunteers are invited to join CCE Onondaga to plant 60 four foot hemlock trees across three locations in the south end of Skaneateles. These trees will serve as future habitat for HWA biological controls. Volunteers are encouraged to meet at 9am at 7042 Glen Haven Rd, Homer, NY before moving to other planting locations. Funding for this workshop is provided by the City of Syracuse Department of Water. For more information please contact Jessi Lyons at 315-424-9485 ext 233 or by e-mail at jel264@cornell.edu.
Monday, May 18, 10am – Hemlock Tree Planting (cont’d). Cornell Cooperative Extension will be receiving more hemlocks for their insectaries and will again be in need of volunteer diggers, fencers, measurers and such. They will be meeting up with volunteers at the corner of Rt. 41A and Derby Road (Kris Scholl’s property). Contact us if you need a ride from the Skaneateles or Marcellus area.
Monday, May 18, 7pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall.
Thursday, May 21 – The Skaneateles highway department
- removed about three dump truck loads of Phragmites Australis from the fishing pond with an excavator;
- dumped crusher run gravel on the east, north, and south sides of the pavilion by the fishing pond, covered it with recycled top soil, and seeded it;
- leveled the kiosk by the main gate on Old Seneca Turnpike;
- removed the brush piles from along the main trail;
- mowed Scout Field, the entrance road and parking lot edges.
Wednesday, May 27, 7 pm at the Skaneateles YMCA – Meeting of a subcommittee to discuss trail and general area identification at the Federal Farm and Guppy Road locations. This was precipitated out of concern by the Marcellus Fire department about being able to find injured hikers and hunters. But the identifiability of conservation area locations, including trails, fields, timber stands, parking lots, structures, water bodies, and historical properties could be helpful to both users and maintainers of the area and would be quite important for developing a good management plan. Whether a trail is marked or not, it seems that it would be quite useful for us all to use the same identifier to refer to that trail.
June 2015
Saturday, June 13, 10 am – Habitat Gardening in Central New York (HGCNY, a chapter of Wild Ones) “Show-me/Help-me” field trip to the Skaneateles Conservation Area. We will start with a tour of some of the old-fields of the former Marcellus Soil and Water Conservation Research Station known locally as the “Federal Farm.” As with other recently-abandoned agricultural land of the region, the overpopulation of white-tail deer has degraded the habitat provided by these fields to the point where exotic invasive plants predominate. This tour will point out what is being attempted to reduce the invasive vegetation and will seek suggestions for possible solutions to the problems of both effective removal of exotics, replacement with natives, and future protection both new and existing beneficial plants. SUNY-ESF professor and Skaneateles resident, Greg McGee along with PhD ecology student Geoff Griffiths will be available to provide input for the first part of the tour at the Federal Farm, and then will lead us on a tour of their Wildflower Restoration projects near Guppy Falls on the old Guppy Farm. The June 13 tour is free and open to Wild Ones members, who should RSVP cbieseme@twcny.rr.com. Skaneateles Town officials and SCA Advisory Committee members are also encouraged to attend either the June 13 or the Jun 20 tour, and can RSVP skaak2@gmail.com.
Monday, June 15, 7 pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall.
Saturday, June 20, 10 am – Free and open to the public, reprise of HGCNY tour of the Skaneateles Conservation Area for those who cannot make it on June 13th. The June 20 tour will be essentially the same as the June 13, except that it is open to the public (besides Wild Ones members) and Greg McGee will not be able to attend, but PhD ecology student Geoff Griffiths will be available for technical support and take the helm of the Wildflower restoration segment. Skaneateles Town officials and SCA Advisory Committee members are encouraged to attend either the June 13 or the Jun 20 tour. Anyone planning to attend the June 20 tour can RSVP skaak2@gmail.com.
July 2015
Monday, July 13, 7 pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall. Note that this is the second Monday of July instead of the third in order to finalize fishing derby plans.
Saturday, July 18, 9 am to noon – Fifteenth Annual Kids’ Fishing Derby at Bill Pavlus Pond, Skaneateles Conservation Area on Old Seneca Turnpike.
August 2015
Monday, August 17, 7 pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall.
January 2016
Monday, January 18, 7 pm – Skaneateles Conservation Area Advisory Committee meeting at the Skaneateles Town Hall. Open to the public.
The Skaneateles Conservation Area 