Imagine paddling down the Black River, a river that provides drinking water to the City of Watertown and Fort Drum, and discovering fishing line ensnared along the bushes—the very place where Great Blue Herons come to fish and river otter live.

Now imagine fishing on the River and finding plastic bags, a kiddie swimming pool, and bottles polluting the shores, making it hazardous for people and wildlife alike.

Well, that’s now a distant memory for six miles of the Black River from Forestport to Dexter, where 431 pounds of plastic, construction material, cigarette butts, and household debris were extracted from its shores as part of a community cleanup hosted in partnership with the Lewis County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Tug Hill Commission, and the Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust.

The cleanup was part of a national effort to increase the health of local waterways and, ultimately, the ocean habitats into which they run.

The river cleanup was one of many volunteer projects throughout the year. Folks also pitched in to help develop and maintain the Tug Hill Traverse Trail and the trails at the Land Trust’s Joseph Blake Wildlife Sanctuary, led community programs, answered questions at events, and hosted local gatherings to celebrate conservation.

“I love to volunteer, out on the land, whether it’s helping with trails or taking photographs for the Land Trust, because together we are making a difference,” explained Zach Wakeman. We agree.

It’s people like Zach who share their passion for Tug Hill by volunteering their time and talents who make Tug Hill
a better place to live, work, and play.

We’d love to hear from you…

If you’d like to volunteer and join a growing team of people who have fun while making a difference, please call Lin Gibbs at 315-779-2239 or email her at lgibbs@tughilltomorrow.org. We’d love to see you.

As you walk one of the old logging roads, deep in the woods, the smell of moss, decaying leaves, and balsam wafts around you. There’s a peacefulness about the place not often found in our region, with sunlight sparkling on streams and wetlands and birds calling overhead.

Here in Tug Hill’s “Core Forest”, an area that spans over 150,000 acres and includes parts of the Towns of Worth, Redfield, Montague, Martinsburg and Osceola, we are immersed in an amazing place for wildlife and our community alike. The Core Forest also includes the headwaters of six major rivers: the Mad River, Deer River, Salmon River, Sandy Creek, East Branch Fish Creek and the Mohawk River.

The mix of northern hardwoods like beech, birch and maple with intermittent wetlands, form a giant sponge that reduces area flooding by absorbing rainfall and slowly releasing it into nearby streams and rivers.

During droughts and periods of increasing extreme heat, wildlife and plants rely on the Core Forest to survive. “We often think about the importance of the vast woodlands of Tug Hill’s Core Forest from a forestry perspective,” remarked Gregg Sargis Director of Ecological Management for The Nature Conservancy Central and Western New York Chapter, “but the waters of Tug Hill are critical for wildlife and plant communities as well as the towns of the region. That’s why it’s a priority in the NYS Open Space protection plan.”

 

The 150,000-acre Core Forest is helping to combat climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide, one of the key heat-trapping gases accelerating climate change.

 

Drinking water, habitat, and need for protection

Fishing and kayaking are frequently associated with these waters, but let’s not forget that the City of Rome and several other rural communities depend on the naturally filtered water from Tug Hill for their drinking water. It also provides critical habitat for wildlife who need uninterrupted places to raise their young, like the northern goshawk, bobcat and the shy fisher.

It took a decade of partnerships with timber companies, hunting clubs, recreationists, town officials and local landowners to conserve approximately one-third of the Tug Hill Core Forest.

Now, recognizing the importance of the remaining areas, Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust is working with a variety of landowners and partners to continue the protection efforts.

It’s a landscape that’s not easily forgotten. Together, we are creating the next conservation chapter of the Core Forest.

 

Read this story and others in our 2017 Annual Report 

Looking out from the hilltop, over the barns and pastures as the sun rises and the warm glow creeps across the sky, you’d think you were lost in another time.

The heifers call, anticipating breakfast; the geese flying low overhead note their descent to the near-by river. It’s almost quiet, at 5:30 in the morning, and up here on the hill is one of the special places that Dean and Shelly Gleisner, think about when they wondered if they should conserve their land.

“Sitting right next to Ft. Drum, our farm could become really valuable for commercial development as opposed to agricultural. But our family didn’t want it to be lost to development, we’ve been farming for generations and its part of who we are” reflected Dean.

The 147-acre farm, located in the town of Philadelphia, is a mix of fields, pastures, and woodlands with a couple of streams meandering through. Pileated woodpeckers and great horned owls inhabit a portion of the woodlands, where their calls pierce the early spring mornings.

It sounds idyllic, but it’s not been a life without challenges

“We lost about everything about 25 years ago in a barn fire,” reflected Dean, “it was an awful time in our lives, but our community came together for us and we pulled through.

“We thought about leaving farming, but it’s the farm that has defined our family. It’s part of our bones, it’s really who we are,” explained Shelly. So Shelly and Dean, and their kids, pulled together and kept farming—this time focusing on beef cattle and dairy cow replacement heifers.

A great way to raise a family

“Farming’s not easy, but it’s a great way to raise a family, it’s a great way of life, and that’s why we still have it. My three kids all grew up farming. Ryan is my youngest and at 17 and he’s in a BOCES program; he enjoys operating equipment and helping out on the farm. They have to know it from a young age to go into farming. Katelyn, my eldest, loves to come home for the holidays and Gregory works with me as part of the beef operation.”

“Our whole family is, or has been, in farming, and now they’ve all decided to conserve their farms,” Dean says, continuing, “first it was my brother Charles, and then Billy did it. We knew we were going to do it too but wanted it to be the right time. We wanted to make sure that this farm stays a farm, or at least open land, for generations from now.”

And that’s exactly what the Gleisner family has done. Working in partnership with the Army Compatible Use Buffer program, and the Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust, they’ve conserved their land and in so doing, they’ve also helped ensure that Fort Drum won’t be surrounded by incompatible development that would hinder it’s military training.

Read this story and others in our 2017 Annual Report 

 

“You know what they say, you can take the kid off the farm, but you can’t get the farm out of the kid…or something like that. That’s what its like for us. It’s who we are and who we want to be. We feel blessed to live here, on the farm we love.” 

– Sally

 

Quick facts about farmland protection and ACUB

Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust works in partnership with Fort Drum, and Ducks Unlimited, through the Army Compatible Use Buffer (ACUB) program to conserve lands that are important for national security around the army base.

Here are some quick facts:

1. The U.S. Army initiated the ACUB program to address the growing concern of development, which can lead to encroachment around the perimeter of military installations.

2. All projects are voluntary. Farmers contact our land trust and we work with them and Fort Drum to clarify if their land will qualify for ACUB funding.

3. The landowner continues to own and manage the land and pay taxes subject to the conservation agreement (called a conservation easement).

4. The landowner receives a one-time payment for their non-farm development rights, as determined by a qualified appraisal.

Climate change can turn Monarch Butterflies’ favorite food into poison

New research is documenting the impact of increased CO2 in our atmosphere on the plants, wildlife, farms and waterways we are all working to conserve. With CO2 levels recently, as of May, the highest they have been in 2 million years (based upon ice-core research and atmospheric testing), we are now facing increasingly serious challenges to the lands, waters and places we love.

Scientists at Louisiana State University (LSU) are investigating the relationship between climate change and species responses.

The Monarch Butterfly, already stressed because of habitat damage and pesticides, is now caught in the cross-hairs of how plants are responding to increased CO2.

LSU clarifies that there are several different species of milkweed, but they all share a common trait. They produce toxic chemicals in their leaf tissue called cardenolides that deter most vertebrate predators.

 

Climate Change and Toxins

These chemicals are in the class of cardiac glycosides that interfere with sodium potassium-pumps in the heart and other tissues and can even affect humans if ingested in large quantities.

They note that Monarchs, however, have evolved to become cardenolide-tolerant up to a certain point.

By laying their eggs on milkweed plants that contain levels of cardenolides that are toxic for their predators, Monarchs protect their caterpillar offspring from being eaten.

After hatching and chowing down on milkweed leaves, the caterpillars are full of cardenolides that make them taste nasty to most predators, such as birds. Monarch Butterflies also sequester this compound in their wings. Their contrasting bright orange and black wings signal “do not eat me” to birds such as blue jays.

But if a milkweed plant produces too much of this toxic chemical, caterpillars that feed on the plant’s leaf tissue may inadvertently poison themselves.¹ It’s a situation they are now watching, with growing concern.

 

Together, we can make a difference

You can help reduce the pace of climate change, and help save the wildlife, plants, and community landscapes you love.

We, here at the land trust, are working on this as well. Check out our website for ideas on how you can help.

Together, we can address the need to slow down climate change and conserve our region’s farms, wildlife, woodlands and our waterways.

The science is increasingly clear. Now is the time to make a difference. And we are pleased to be able to work with you, to help.

Learn more about Climate Change 

 

¹ http://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2018/04/03bio_faldyn_monarchs.php