Fading Into Myth

New Precedence Set by National Wild Ones, Native Plants Natural Landscapes

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:27:39 PST

The Niagara Frontier Habitat Council (NFWHC) votes against EDR being paid [the Niagara River Greenway Ecological Standing Committee] retention funds for the "completion" of the study, Regional Economic Growth Through Ecological Restoration of the Niagara Gorge Rim ...
niagaraheritage.org/NREC_Vote.pdf

pollinators-welcome: Firefly’s life cycle and habitat

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 06:34:07 PST

pollinators-welcome: Firefly’s life cycle and habitat

The Hidden Beauty Of Pollinators

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 05:32:00 PDT

Niagara Digression Link to the Kickstarter page

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:23:23 PDT

Gov. Andrew Cuomo: Tell Wallenda No

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:27:18 PDT

Dear Editor,

In 1827,the schooner Michigan was loaded up with a cargo of "worthless and viscous dogs" and other animals an American bison, a goose, two raccoons,and one bear--and floated over the Horseshoe Falls for entertainment.It was reported that twenty-five thousand people lined the banks to watch it go over. I depicted this event to mock and deplore it, in a poem called Looking For Niagara to recount this cruel idea of fun. The poem became the title poem of a book of poetry published by Slipstream Press in 1993; the poem is now available online (Google www.niagarapoetry.ca or at Looking for Niagara, Niagara Falls Poetry Project).

In March of 2012 a nonfiction book of mine, Niagara Digressions, in which this event is re-presented, will be released by Starcherone Books. It's a piece of history that should have taught us something, but it doesn't appear to have done so. Betsy Potter, Niagara Frontier artist, recognizes this and, stunned by this casually horrific and exploitive day in our legacy,has for years been researching and working on a painting of the schooner heading toward the brink of the Falls, a period-authentic portrayal of the ship and the dressed manikins that accompanied the living animals to their deaths. This painting will be on display at a showing of Betsy's work, together with a dozen or more of her paintings, at a show scheduled to open on 5 February 2012 at Niagara University's Castellani Art Museum, concluding the Topspin Regional Exhibition Series

The schooner Michigan plunging over the Falls prefigured an era of daredevils and other stunters, starting with jumper Sam Patch in 1829--and continuing with those who went over the Falls in barrels and other contraptions, shot the lower rapids in barrels, rode them in boats, attempted swimming the rapids, wire walkers over the gorge, an attempted kayak ride over the Falls--and culminating with the last of the wire walkers, Samuel Dixon, aka Daring Dixon, in 1890, who earned a total of $56.00. A fair number of these stunters and performers died, which was part of what compelled people to watch them in the first place, but in the end, the spectators had grown bored with it all. The last of the barrel-over-falls riders were
Peter DeBernardi and Jeffery Petkovitch, who took the plunge together in 1989. All of these mentioned, and the rest of them, have been documented in "Looking for Niagara."

In 1951, arising from the death of the well-known riverman and barrel-rider,Red Hill, Jr., laws were passed both in Canada and New York State that prohibited further stunting and other such performances—and so for over a half century these actions have been against the law. Public safety was undoubtedly a concern, but many also welcomed the laws as expressing an awareness that the background of the falls should not be perceived or utilized as a backdrop for circus events. If people want to see a wire walker they should go to a circus.

In 2011, however, the arrival of wire walker Wallenda on the scene, arguing that he should be permitted to rig a wire over the Falls, seems to have prompted Senator Maziarz and Assemblyman Ceretto to ask the Governor to rescind or suspend the law. Their reasoning has to do with an economic benefit they imagine will be realized by the chronically depressed City of Niagara Falls and the surrounding area. How this supposedly one-time event will be of real and sustained help, however sincere the Senator and Assemblyman are, is open to serious question. The mere expense of stringing the cable would quickly be used to justify leaving it in place for longer than the one walk, perhaps all summer, perhaps for an indeterminate time. Already other wire walkers have expressed an interest: they reason that if it's there for one, why not them? It's too easy to imagine the return to the circus of the eighteen hundreds and the proliferation of other abuses until the character of the Falls is further debased.

We urge Governor Cuomo to turn down this request for reversing the law. We further urge him to encourage Senator Maziarz and Assemblyman Ceretto, if they are truly interested in the economic well-being of the City of Niagara Falls and the region, to cease and desist their opposition to the proposal for total gorge parkway removal between Niagara Falls and Lewiston, NY.

We need their support and the support of others for a project that calls for an ecological restoration of the gorge rim that would provide long term and sustainable economic growth, while preserving, restoring, and honoring our environmental legacy. We have gathered and provided evidence that a highly focused eco tourism and heritage campaign could create the benefits that other communities around the world have already experienced with similar highway removal projects. The templates are already in place. Have Maziarz and Ceretto studied the details of our 15 year advocacy for removal? They have not.

The Business and Professional Associations of Niagara Falls support total removal; the Niagara Falls City Council supports total removal; the Niagara Falls Tourism Tourism Advisory Board supports total removal; over 30 Niagara Falls Block Clubs support total removal, along with the total of 80+ other groups and organizations, as do 2,199 individuals from across the nation and internationally, who've signed the online petition at www.niagaraheritage.org

But Senator Maziarz and Assemblyman Ceretto oppose it. They oppose it because...well, just because.

We encourage them to abandon their ideas of quick-fix wire-walking solutions and to
study the gorge parkway removal proposal sufficiently to prepare themselves to sit down with members of the Niagara Heritage Partnership, City Council members, and Tourism Advisory Board members, and others to discuss the details of the issue. If all of our above suggestions fail, we rest our hopes on the steadfast position of the Parks Commission in Canada on the topic of stunting. A wire walker can't walk if the wire is attached only on one end.

Sincerely,
Bob Baxter
Niagara Heritage Partnership
Conservation Chair

Fireflies

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:48:46 PDT

Interesting site about fireflies. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2125.html

The Robert Moses Parkway Scoping Alternatives

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:21:22 PDT

Dear Editor,

While the six Niagara gorge parkway options revealed on 6 June by the scoping team hired by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) generally appeared to respond to a variety of constituents and to cover an impressive range, there are several points that need to be made about the way they are being presented.

Since the Niagara Heritage Partnership first proposed total gorge parkway removal in 1997, we have continuously fought two perceptions formulated by the opposition and often repeated by the press in letters-to-the editor and by some politicians. The first of these is that total removal is an "extreme" notion. If we had a dollar for every time we, or the proposal, were referred to as "extreme," we could pay for removal and have money left over. The second is the idea that if the parkway were removed, then all the traffic that it carried would immediately shift to Lewiston Road.

As to the charge of being "extreme," we observe that's a subjective judgement. One person's extremist is another person's conservative. What could be more conservative than restoring our natural gorge rim legacy, an action that would not only save enormous sums in years to come, but has the potential to generate economic benefits for our region? Details supporting this view are to be found at www.niagaraheritage.org. We were disappointed, therefore, to find the proposal for total removal once again characterized as being "extreme," this time by a member of the scoping team, if he were accurately quoted, in a Sentinel article (11 June 2011) titled "Robert Moses Parkway concepts presented, analyzed, debated."

The video presentation of the options made it seem obvious, both verbally and visually, that the result of significant parkway removal would be that "traffic would then use Lewiston Road," as if there were no alternative routes. This is not at all obvious, which this study should have revealed. For the study not to reveal this is to make the scoping nothing more than an opinion poll based on incomplete information. We question, therefore, to what extent these biased perspectives influenced those who might have otherwise, if they'd been properly informed, chosen total removal as the preferred option.

The Niagara Heritage Partnership has in the past attempted to counter the "all-parkway-traffic-will-use-Lewiston Road" argument with the following four points of information: 1) highway removal studies from across the nation, if not around the world, have indicated that traffic patterns seldom follow the patterns predicted prior to removal, dire or otherwise; the tendencies are for drivers to fan out to use alternative routes, and 2) we do, indeed, have alternate routes here, though removal opponents refuse to acknowledge this, and 3) even, as unlikely as it is, if every single car currently using the parkway were to suddenly start to use Lewiston Road, the daily traffic count would still be less than half of the traffic count currently using Hyde Park Boulevard, another south-north route in Niagara Falls, and 4) NHP clearly provided the foundations of this information to the scoping team on 27 October 2010 in the document titled, "The Niagara Heritage Partnership Position Re RMP/Niagara Gorge Corridor Project: Meeting No. 4 for Representatives of Organized Groups." This is now available on the NHP website under Recent Postings. Why it was ignored is puzzling.

Now the "extreme" charge has been revived by those in favor of gorge parkway retention--as seen in a Sentinel article of 18 June, the issue immediately following the one in which the scoping team member characterized the total removal option as "extreme." In that extensive article, County Legislator Richard Soluri declared his motto for parkway retention: "Reject extremism and embrace reason," now the centerpiece of the parkway "Preservation" campaign. Soluri is the one, who at the Open House unveiling of the parkway options, sat behind the Parsons' sign-in table for an extended period of time, smiling and welcoming members of the public as they arrived as if he, long-time and well-known opponent of parkway removal, had arranged the event--or at the very least had an extremely close relationship with the consulting team...and that we all knew how this necessary charade was going to play out.

Unaccustomed to the brazen level of gall practiced by some on the Niagara Frontier, no member of the Parsons team, to my knowledge, suggested to Soluri that it was inappropriate for him to be sitting behind the table and asked him to remove himself.

Further, the options presented were bare-bones concepts without even rough dollar amounts assigned to each option. Could rough estimates have been provided? Even approximations that came within 3-5 million of the costs of each would have revealed that the total removal option is the only one where costs would have been paid for by eliminating maintenance expenses--and the only one with high potential for regional economic gains. Without this level of comparison, the total removal option suffers a disadvantage. (We realize "Construction costs" are part of "Next Steps," but to ask public opinion without at least ballpark numbers seems to be be out of order.) Additionally, the absence of narratives for each option crippled the judgements of those looking at what amounted to a series of map drawings--where was the information, for example, that every option with the exception of total removal would require annual maintenance expenditures of about a quarter million dollars?

The above paragraph cites serious shortcomings that must be put on the desk of OPRHP, whose acceptance of the process and comparison methodology must have been a final step prior to public presentation. Following are two other areas of concern: 1) The distribution of the "Comment" sheets present another troubling possibility: for the sake of clarification, must all votes or endorsements of specific options be made via only this avenue? If, for example, a person wrote and mailed in a brief statement in support of option # 6, would it be counted even though the person did not make use of a "Comment" sheet? 2) What is the target population for this option evaluation? It seems to us that a restricted "local" one does a disservice to a unique State Park that incorporates a natural feature--waterfalls and gorge-- known the world over. If merely local interests are allowed to decide its future, the risk is a parochial result.

The Niagara Heritage Partnership also questions the rationale for "Improve transportation" as part of the "Project Objectives." In what sense is that part of the OPRHP mission? We suggest that having "improve transportation" as an objective favors some variation of parkway retention and is, therefore, a built-in bias. We'd like to see "Restoration of natural landscapes without a parkway" on the "Project Objective" list. Is there any chance of that happening? Please help us out here.

From our perspective it's the responsibility of State Parks to live up to its stewardship mandate for the natural park environment here, to rise above and to resist the hare-brained schemes that are in conflict with that mandate. OPRHP should not be expected to, obligated to, coerced into, or otherwise persuaded to maintain a parkway, for example, that is in itself destructive, and at odds with their mission, because some mispercieve this road as the vital connection to other "attractions" in the region, at least one of which is also destructive of the natural environment--the jet boat, for example.

For what it's worth, I believe the use of the word "extreme" was an inadvertent, innocent usage by the scoping team member, who had no idea it was so loaded a term in this context. From our perspective the Parsons team conduct re this scoping has been honest, straightforward, professional, fair--all things good. But it is probable that the use of the word has harmed our advocacy, anyway, how severely, it is impossible to calculate. That cannot be called back, but some of the flawed process and direction of the scoping may be corrected, and we urge OPRHP to take the necesary steps to do so.

Sincerely,
Bob Baxter
NHP Conservation Chair

Fading Into Myth: Niagara Fall's Landscape - Spread the Message

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:59:50 PDT

Fading Into Myth: Spread the Message - Restore Niagara Fall's Landscape

Spread the Message - Restore Niagara Fall's Landscape

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:21:53 PDT

If I could spread my message right now to 1 million people, I would tell them about the vision to remove the Robert Moses Gorge Parkway from the Niagara Gorge Rim as necessary to ecologically restore the unique botanical landscapes of Niagara Falls, NY and the Niagara River Gorge rim.

I’d direct them to www.niagaraheritage.org and ask them to sign the online petition--and then please mail a letter with a postmarked date no later than July 1, 2011, to New York State's Governor Cuomo and to NYS Parks' Commissioner, Rose Harvey. I would ask them to send copies to NYS Senators Charles Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand George Maizarz, Mark Grisanti, to Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Assemblyman John Ceretto, to NYS Parks Western Director Mark Thomas, to the Parson's Group consultants, and to the Buffalo News, The Niagara Gazette, The Buffalo Business First, and the Albany Times Union.

I’d ask them to say the following:

1. They want to see the road totally removed between Niagara Falls and Lewiston,

2. They embrace and share the vision for NYS Parks and the Niagara Gorge Rim as put forth and advocated for these last 15 years by The Niagara Heritage Partnership. Tell them you believe it could be funded, and implemented, within the next three years through the Niagara River Greenway Relicensing dollars, through the Niagara National Heritage Area funds, through Federal Administration Funds, by another New York Power Authority sweep, through NYS Park's Heritage and Preservation Grant funds, or through bonds.

3. I would ask them to speak for those who can't: the flora--the native plants, the Old Growth Forest at DeVeaux Woods and Whirlpool State Parks, the ancient cedars growing in the gorge walls, and for the wildlife--the birds that migrate this Globally Significant Important Bird Area (the Niagara River and its shorelines), and for the deer that lay dead for a week against the parkway cement wall that prohibited its access to the natural environment.

4. I would ask each to write he or she strongly believes this vision will economically benefit not only the residents of a financially challenged city, but will also benefit the millions of tourists who come to see Frederick Law Olmsted's unparalleled 1880's vision--NY's first and oldest State Park.

5. I would ask them to promise that they will visit the charming northern villages when they come to see our restored wonder, but they want to do it by alternate routes--the I-190, Route 265, and via Highland/Hyde Park Blvd.

6. I would ask them to mention that they have learned about how other cities around the United States and the world have removed and are removing their highway mistakes.

7. Finally, I would ask them to state unequivocally that anything less than total removal of the gorge parkway and a full restoration would do a disservice to the multitudes that travel to this world destination and to those of us who live in this western New York region.

USA Today: letters@usatoday.com
Albany Times Union: tuletters@timesunion.com
Buffalo Business First: buffalo@bizjournals.com
Buffalo News: LetterToEditor@buffnews.com
Niagara Gazette: mark.scheer@niagara-gazette.com

Governor Andrew Cuomo: (518) 474-8390
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter: Fax: NY: (716) 282-2479, Fax: Washington DC Fax: (202) 225-7822
Senator Charles E. Schumer: Fax: 716-846-4113
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Fax (866) 824-6340
Senator Mark Grisianti: grisanti@nysenate.gov, buffalo.grisanti@gmail.com
Senator George Maziarz: maziarz@nysenate.gov
Assemblyman John Ceretto: cerettoj@assembly.state.ny.us

Rose Harvey, Commissioner, NYS Parks: rose.harvey@oprhp.state.ny.us
Mark Thomas, Western Director, NYS Parks: mark.thomas@oprhp.state.ny.us
Tom Donahue, Parsons Group: thomas.donohue@parsons.com

Removing the Robert Moses Parkway

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:18:20 PDT

Image by dougtone via Flickr

Removal of the Robert Moses Parkway is about creating something unique. And, restoring the landscape makes economic, environmental, and ecological sense.

Some may not want the road removed for self-serving reasons, but to deliberately ignore the socioeconomic, quality of life facts does everyone in this struggling region and economy a major disservice.

It's a given that removal is the most cost-effective alternative. It's also a given that restoration could create high-paying careers for the next 100 years. It will take longer than that to restore our Old Growth Forest, the one cut in two by the Parkway when it was built.

The principals guiding our Niagara Falls National Heritage Area and the Niagara River Greenway list the natural environment first, yet it is the last one being addressed. I expected better, great things, from both Commissions, from their consultants, from people I elected.

Compromise, as many propose it, is nothing more than politics. It clouds the scioeconomic impacts, benefits and opportunities for our residents. Those opportunities can infuse billions into our economy, keep our young people here through career employment, keep tourists here longer, and protect our botanical wealth, our visual and natural heritage.

Those are all of the issues I’ve heard lamented since I’ve lived here, 26 years.

When was the last time anyone asked you to create or do something great? I'm asking. I’m asking you to create something magnificent with the Niagara Gorge Rim. I'm asking each of you to stand up and actually fight for our City. I’m asking you to read the articles and website listed below.

We could go from being the Love Canal disaster story to an ecological and economic innovation, a rebirth, just through the removal of a section of redundant road. It would lift our city from its tainted Love Canal identity and transform us into a leader in ecological restoration. Removal and restoration would advance a green economy, the trajectory of the future happening around the globe.

Removal and restoration are significant. It’s never been done in the east." Those statements are from a woman Wild Ones Niagara brought to the City two weeks ago, an ecological restoration expert, retired from the Federal Highway Administration. Everyone wins with Removal and restoration, including State Parks.

Here are some facts and resources.
If you haven't seen Fading in the Mist. Ask co-producer Bob Borgatti, a Niagara Falls National Heritage Area commissioner, to screen it. It changed my perception about the waterfall and the city.

To learn about the benefits of nonmotorized trails, see the Rails-to-Trails website. It includes a Federal funding source:
http://www.railstotrails.org/ourWork/advocacy/activeTransportation/campaignForActiveTransportation/index.html

Here are three articles detailing what others have done with road removal and one about the benefits of Urban Parks:

http://www.planetizen.com/node/48838 How an inner city freeway disappeared.

http://www.planetizen.com/node/45909 Freeway Teardowns A Prudent Choice

http://www.planetizen.com/node/35185 Top Freeway Teardowns

http://www.planetizen.com/node/45380 Reviving Struggling Urban Areas with Parks.

We can become world recognized leaders, ho hum followers, or remain as the uninformed status quo, getting out of everyone's way, run over, another missed opportunity.

Native Plant Restoration - The New Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:49:16 PST

A ten minute film from the University of Rutgers may be viewed here.

Niagara Community Forum Guest View

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:26:55 PDT

Image via Wikipedia

Reconfigure Robert Moses Parkway

The Robert Moses Parkway presents an almost continuous barrier between the city and its waterfront. So egregious has been the intrusion that the most important planning efforts of the last two decades have all suggested ways to mitigate the impact of the Parkway. These include the Niagara Falls , Waterfront Master Plan by Sasaki Associates (1992), the Citizens Map of Niagara Falls by the Waterfront Regeneration Trust (1997), the Jerde Partnership development plan for Niagara Falls Redevelopment Corp. (1998),and the Main Street Plan by the City of Niagara Falls. (2001).

A range of treatment options should be considered to reduce the negative impact of the Parkway on the waterfront environment and as a barrier between city neighborhoods and the river, falls, and gorge. These should include elimination of lanes, removal of sections of the highway, reduction of speed limits, and introduction of at-grade intersections with the intent of reducing or eliminating automobile traffic and increasing pedestrian access. The issue requires a great deal of additional technical work, design study, and public discussion. It will almost surely involve different approaches in different locations and contexts. But given the Parkway’s limited value for transportation and its substantial conflicts with the goals of waterfront redevelopment in Niagara Falls, a systematic reconfiguration of the Parkway is an absolute requirement of this strategy.

This nonsense is approaching 20 years and it has been almost 40 since the city was cut off from its waterfront. Business districts have failed, neighborhoods have been lost, neighborhoods continue to deteriorate and taxes are on the rise.

How long must we wait for our State to get on board and do what is right for the County of Niagara? The scoping process on the sections of Robert Moses which cuts the city off from its resources should have been completed years ago--not started on October 27th 2010.

The citizens of this city should not be required to continually repeat what has been studied upside down and sideways for what seems like eternity. If the city's application for a $52 million grant, countless references in its Comprehensive Plan and countless study results, are not enough, what is?

End the scoping and start planning for our economic future.

Facts About The Niagara River Gorge Rim Study To Restore Native Landscapes

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:07:55 PDT

Image via Wikipedia

I was surprised to read a recent Niagara Gazette letter that stated the Wild Ones Niagara (WON) chapter is “made up of individuals who, by and large, belong to the Niagara Heritage Partnership (NHP). That is not true. The letter also said, “NHP joined forces with the national Wild Ones organization in an effort to give new life to their endeavor [to remove the Robert Moses Parkway].” Again, not true. We don’t sell or divulge member information, so I’m not sure how the letter writer, Michael Parsnick, came to those conclusions.

Here are the facts. If you join a Wild Ones Chapter, you have also joined the National organization. WON has 57 members. Four members (0.07%) belong to NHP. Recently, Wild Ones National surveyed their 2,000+ members asking why they joined. The main responses were an interest in regional native plants and wanting to learn more about them.

The Wild Ones Niagara study, Regional Economic Growth Through Ecological Restoration of the Niagara Gorge Rim, is not “duplication.” In the last twelve years, no one has provided the public with any socioeconomic statistics or revealed what educational and professional opportunities could occur if an ecological restoration along the Niagara River Gorge Rim included only a non-motorized, active transportation trail.

Wild Ones Niagara hired an environmental design firm from Syracuse, NY, EDR, to research the economic benefits of replacing the current conditions along the gorge rim with restored native landscapes replete with active modes of recreation—walking, hiking, and bicycling. Some call it eco-tourism, heritage tourism, cultural tourism, active tourism, or creative tourism. We call it raising our quality of life and creating professional career opportunities for current and future residents. Niagara rising after Love Canal.

WON is advocating for an ecological restoration of the botanically unique gorge and gorge rim landscapes, not Robert Moses Parkway removal. Our mission statement, “Create a sense of place through regional native plants, ecological restoration, conservation biodiversity, and open space preservation” clearly reflects our intentions, objectives, and goals.

Before receiving any Niagara River Greenway Funding, we provided a requested statement to the Greenway Ecological Standing Committee that clearly said our project is a study. It is not about an action. The study, in progress since March, is examining the potential educational, social, economic, and environmental benefits of conservation biodiversity, open space preservation, restoring the Niagara Gorge Rim.

Before presenting our project to The Niagara River Greenway Commission, we obtained The Seattle Mobility Plan and research from the Trust for Public Land, a national organization endorsed by the Buffalo Niagara Partnership as an Authority. The Buffalo Niagara Partnership is a business leadership organization. The information, provided by national and world experts, is on our website, www.wildonesniagara.org

According to a document prepared by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI, University of Massachusetts, Amherst), the economic benefits of “maintaining the natural environment” are measurable. It’s called environmental economics. PERI’s report, The NYS Park System: An Economic Asset to the Empire State, “challenges the presumption that there are stark trade-offs between generating jobs and protecting the environment.” In addition, it says, “quality of life in New York improve[s], and thereby influences business location decisions and the ability to attract a high-quality workforce.”

Other research has found many positive socioeconomic benefits could occur and significantly improve the quality of life for our residents and our region if the NHP proposal and our study were embraced, implemented, and marketed.

Wild Ones Niagara has systematically provided the public with well-documented facts, not Chicken Little antics. A study to restore the native landscapes between Niagara Falls, NY and Lewiston carries substantial socioeconomic merit. High paying professional careers, education opportunities for our young people, quality of life through natural ecological services, and the revitalization of urban centers are a few of the opportunities noted by land planners around the world. Our Wild Ones study could literally change how we live in our region.

We believe an informed public is empowered and agree with Mr. Parsnick that being “vigilant” is important, especially when it concerns the local officials he referenced. All bureaucrats have an obligation to be fully informed about an issue. If they don’t like what they hear, they still have an obligation to tell you everything so you can decide. In our opinion, it is a sad commentary on any elected official’s integrity if they refuse to respect information and attempt to denigrate and suppress it.

UB President, John Simpson summarized it best when he said, “It is hard to understand a logic based on an unwillingness to change an obvious failed status quo.” So, why would some elected officials deliberately place our greatest asset--the City of Niagara Falls, the waterfalls, the gorge, and rim—“in a remarkably disadvantaged position?” Why would any elected official attempt to “hamstring one of our best opportunities” for economic development, something that has the potential to benefit everyone?

Merely keeping what we have now without exploring all of the opportunities for ecological and economic excellence is discrimination. It suppresses. We feel an informed public coupled with documented, authoritative information is a civic right. You have a right to know all the facts and socioeconomic possibilities that could occur with a fully restored Niagara Gorge Rim.

Michelle Vanstrom, President, Niagara Falls and River Region Chapter and

National Board Member, Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscapes

Niagara Falls, NY Author Paul Gromosiak Discusses Tabloid "Reporting"

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 17:28:52 PDT

Image via Wikipedia

The editor of a local "Tabloid"continues to sit on his throne judging people with bias and lies. He presents himself as an expert on just about everything and relentlessly spins every week in his publication.

Yes, I did write some articles for his paper when it first came out,but stopped when I wasn't remunerated. I was never a columnist for the Niagara Gazette. Yes, I did write some articles for the The Buffalo News"I stopped when I began working on another book about the falls.

The editor of the tabloid said I didn't write a book in the past ten years. I wrote three. He said all my are out of print. Only one of my nine books is out of print. And I still have the same publisher. He sometimes refers to my books as pamphlets; then other times as books. Does he know the difference?

One time the editor called me a "know-it-all." Then in another publication he used me as an accurate source.

Once again attacking my work, he said I never mentioned Pontiac's Rebellionin my book Water Over. On page 45 of my book, it says, "on September 14, 1763, as a part of Pontiac's Rebellion, a group of young, dissident Seneca men, angry with the British for no longer paying them to assist with the operation of the portage around the gorge and falls, ambushed a wagon train just above the"Devils Hole"

In his July 12-July 26, 2000 issue, the editor described my book, Nature's Niagara, as "an invaluable resource for amateur geologists, bird watchers and other fans of nature, as well as a companion for a quiet stroll on or a fishing expedition to the Devil's Hole.

I would like to challenge the editor to make a list of all his positive contributions to the City of Niagara Falls. I will make a list of my contributions. Then let neutral parties compare the lists to determine who has done more. I would like my list to include Niagara Falls State Park

The editor calls his tabloid a newspaper. Well, from what I understand, a newspaper prepares its articles by interviewing people about whom it is reporting. I was never contacted by anyone at the tabloid.

The editor often calls people negative names. It exhibits a lack of good taste and intelligence.

Recently, the editor called the mayor of Niagara falls a "moron," more than once. Use of that term is an insult to both the mayor and mentally challenged people.

The mayor is intelligent, honest and dedicated to improving the City of Niagara Falls. He deserves the respect due any properly elected official. I am sure he respects disagreements.

Sincerely,
Paul Gromosiak

Wildflower Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:21:54 PDT

Some pictures from my gardens, a mix of transforming leaves, berries and color combinations.

Night Light Pollution Affect Songbirds' Mating Life, Research Suggests

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:00:17 PDT

Image via Wikipedia

"Researchers investigated the effects of artificial night lighting on dawn song in five common forest-breeding songbirds. In four of those five species, males near street lights started singing significantly earlier in the morning than did males in other parts of the forest.

Further study of the effects of that behavioral shift on blue tits based on comparison of their reproductive behavior with and without street lights over a 7-year period showed real consequences. Females near street lights laid their eggs on average a day and half earlier. And males near lights at the forest's edges were more successful in attracting "extra-pair mates," meaning that they more often sired offspring with females other than their primary social partners." You can read the rest of the article HERE.

Wild Ones RFP - Seeds For Education Grant Request for Proposals

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:53:29 PDT

Request for Proposals

XRobertLauerlCorinth#5277DC

The Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landcsapes' Seeds for Education Grant Program (SFE) provides small monetary grants for the purpose of establishing outdoor learning centers for child-centered projects that create native plant landscapes within the United States and Canada.

Eligible Projects must
1) focus on the enhancement and development of an appreciation for nature using native plants,
2) emphasize student and volunteer involvement in all phases of development,
3) emphasize the educational value of the proposed site,
4) show creative design and complete and thoughtful planning,
5 use of and teaching about native plants and the native plant community is mandatory and the native plants must be appropriate to the local ecoregion and the site conditions (soil, water, sunlight).
Information on local ecotypes is located HERE.
6) include a signature from a local chapter. The local chapter in western New York is Wild Ones Niagara Falls and River Region (Wild Ones Niagara). Contact information HERE.
7) Grant winners will be required to acknowledge Wild Ones as a funding source in project materials.

Project Examples:
Design, establishment, and maintenance of a native plant community such as a prairiie, woodland, wetland, etc., in an educational setting such as an outdoor classroom,

Developing and maintaining an interpretive trail landscaped with native plant communities,

Developing a wetland area to study the effect of native vegetation on water-quality improvement

To be considered for the annual awared, non-profit groups such as schools, nature centers, house of worship, or simimilar organizations must apply by Octover 15, 2010. Notification of awareds will be made by February , 2011.

The grant recipients are those that most successfully reflect the Wild Ones Mission to educate and share information about the benefits of using native plants in our landscape and to promore biodiversity and environmentally sound landscaping practices. Receipients are chosen by the Seeds for Education judges, a volunteer panel of educators and naturalists. The SFE Nursery Partners, a select groupd of native nurseries and propagators, also donate seeds and plants to the successful grant recipients.

Download an application HERE.

Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscapes is a not-for-profit environmental education and advocacy organization. The Niagara Falls and River Region Chapter (Wild Ones Niagara) mission is to create in a sense of place through grassroots partnerships, advocacy and education about regional native plants and natural landscaping.

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noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:40:39 PDT

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Letter to Niagara River Greenway

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:12:17 PDT

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Letter to Niagara Greenway

I am completely disgusted with the recent announcements of Greenway Funding being given for a Dog Park and for renovations to Lewiston's Art Park. I love dogs, Artpark, and Lewiston, but to me this is a misuse of funds. I always thought the Greenway Grants were to be used for achieving a more "green" or
natural environment which also would provide better access to the riverfront. I don't see where either of these meet this criteria. Those of us who support [Robert Moses] Parkway removal and preservation of the gorge rim with a return to natural flora and fauna, and better hiking trails with better access to the riverfront are appalled! We wait and wait while dogs get a park and Artpark gets better seating
arrangements.

I signed with hopes of a response...
Beverly Bathel

Niagara's ER Baxter Rant Will Be Published On Garden Rant

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:51:44 PDT

On August 30, Bob Baxter, a regular Fading Into Myth contributor, will be a guest blogger, “a Garden Ranter.” From August 30 through Labor Day, garden bloggers from all over the web are scheduled to post pet peeves during a two week long (maybe longer), Garden Rant “Second Annual Guest Post Week.”

The four Garden Rant owners are looking for “the 10 Hottest Rants of the Year.” If Fading Into Myth’s award-winning poet/author/contributor surpasses, he’ll be presented with a “cute badge” to put on the Niagara Heritage Partnership’s website.

The Garden Rant submission guidelines are simple. Keep it short and lively. Make it highly opinionated. Rage or advocate. Tell it like it is. Those provocative qualities suit Baxter and he’s opining how it is here on the Niagara River and what needs to change. Baxter even offers a festival suggestion, though I hesitate to admit that in Niagara County, since the one he talks about might be mistakenly embraced.

The upcoming rant is pure Baxter. At times droll, mocking, big grin funny, controversial, truthful and punctuated with outrage. He’s still “Looking For Niagara,” the one we’ve almost lost to New York State Parks and Albany. (Review here. Video here.)

So, who’s behind the Garden Rant blog and what’s their story? One of the Garden Rant writers is a Buffalo, NY magazine editor. Another blog owner lives near Saratoga Springs. I also met the other two at the 2010 Buffalo Garden Meetup held in July, but can't remember what they do outside of their blog. By their own admission, they’re “convinced gardening matters, bored with perfect magazine gardens, in love with real, rambling, chaotic, dirty, bug-ridden gardens, suspicious of the “horticultural industry,” appalled by pesticide use, and turned off by activities that involve landscaping with plant materials.”

I think Baxter’s found four kindred souls as long as they don’t present him with a bouquet of daffodils. Not even an artificial one.

Remember to bookmark the date and website www.gardenrant.com. Then click over to www.niagaraheritage.org. You’ll know what to do. It will brighten his day. Afterwards, come back and tell us what you think.

August In Bloom A Garden Bloggers Photo Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:51:58 PDT

Our western New York summer has been hot and humid with very little relief from rain. One of the best attributes of using native plants in the garden is their extensive, deep root systems provides them with the ability to thrive and bloom without little supplementary watering. Blooming in the yard great blue Lobelia, honeysuckle, clethra, goldenrod, asters, rubeckia, helianthus, monarda, trumpet vine, oakleaf hydrangea, penstemon, and tansy. Several shrubs have produced berries that will be eaten by migrating birds: elderberry, dogwoods, aronia.

Coneflowers in August

great blue lobelia

elderberry

Rubeckia with dogwood berries

Global Warming - What You Can Do For Pollinators

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:06:05 PDT

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FAQ
Q: What can we possibly do if the loss of bees is due to climate change? (Not poor sources of pollen)

A: According to the book I am reading, Keeping Bees, the major causes of bee decline are pesticide use, climate change, invasive species, and habitat fragmentation. Some predict up to 60% of the planet's species will be unable to find enough suitable habitat for their populations to be viable. What you can do follows:

1. “Grow bee -friendly plants, preferably native species local to where you live. Not cultivars, native. Some suggestions: asters, blazing star, golden rod, helianthus (sunflower), Joe-pye weed, coneflower, bergamot (bee balm), evening primrose, cinquefoil, milkweed, willows. Plan to plant so the garden is aesthetically pleasing. Most won't get the premise, which is why education is important.

2. Vegetables that attract bees include squash, tomatoes, strawberries, fennel, coriander, and other umbellifers. Raspberries and blackberries' flowers feed bees and their old stems provide a place for them to rest. Provide nest sites for bees. Blackberry and raspberry canes are used by small carpenter bees, masked bees, small relatives of the leaf utter bees and orchard bees use the old canes as nesting sites and they overwintering inside them.

If... you have wooden benches, fences, or a grape arbor, let the bees burrow into them.

If you have ground bees you should cherish them and consider yourself lucky.

Do not apply wood chips, pebbles, or other surface obstructing materials. Almost no bees will be able to reach the soil.

3. Do not use pesticides.

4. Buy organic food whenever possible.

5. Walk on the grass. Ground nesting bees prefer bare spaces created by those who ignore do not walk on the grass instructions.

6. Encourage bee-friendly practices at various government levels.”

Locally, letters went out in May asking our politicians to join a national movement claiming their level of government as a supporter of National Pollinator Week ( the last week of June). Not one elected official responded. We live in an agricultural region.

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noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 02:38:39 PDT

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noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:03:38 PDT

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There are three major reasons that the funding proposal put forth by the Town of Lewiston, "Plateau Dog Park and Nature Preserve,should be denied funding at this time and for the proposed location.

1) The Greenway Commission has properly noted that the proposed location for the dog park is within the area of study already found consistent and funded by the Commission and appropriate standing committee: "Regional Economic Growth Through Ecological Restoration of the Niagara Gorge Rim." The Commission voted to table the proposal for the dog park based on this observation. Nothing has changed with regard to this; the study of the gorge rim is not yet complete; the identical proposal for the dog park, with no change of location, now requests full funding.

For a standing committee to fund the dog park proposal would be to disregard this decision as if it were meaningless. While this action may be defensible in some circumstances, technically legal, in this instance it is not.

2) The Niagara River and its shorelines has been designated by the Audubon Society and others as a Globally Significant Important Bird Area, the first international area so designated. The Lewiston Plateau is within this area; the "Nature Preserve" of the plateau referred to in the dog park proposal title ("Plateau Dog Park and Nature Preserve")is therefore also within this area. The Nature Preserve, which has been established as a grassland for ground-nesting birds, is home this year to two nesting pairs of grasshopper sparrows, a species "of concern" in New York State, where their numbers are greatly diminished because of habitat loss. The presence of these birds have been documented by a well-known birder and we have photographic evidence. Other ground-nesting birds such as the meadowlark and bobolink are nesting there,

The current Nature Preserve is small, given the preferences of many ground-nesting species, including the grasshopper sparrow. We are fortunate to have them--and should be considering the enlargement of the Preserve, not establishing a dog park which will virtually ensure that a larger Preserve will not happen in the future.

3) The proposal itself is poorly written in terms of content and is, at the very least, misleading. At its worst, it might appear fraudulent to

a) There will be none of the applied for funds spent on the "Nature Preserve." Because it is a grass land, no "landscaping" is needed; landscaping, in fact would be detrimental to the Preserve; it would not, as is claimed by the proposal, "improve fauna and landscape."

b) What is proposed will not be in any way be "extending Olmsted's legacy."If, in fact, if the Olmsted vision had any relevance at all on the plateau, the proposed dog park would be destroying it. Anyone with even a scant knowledge of Olmsted's legacy, most visible in our area on Goat Island above the Falls, knows this to be a preposterous statement.

c) There are repeated references to the Nature Preserve in the proposal, which seem to be related to the following: a chain link fence will be erected along the boundary of the Preserve, to prevent the inadvertent loose dog(s) from the penned area of' the dog park from entering the Preserve. It is along this fence, probably believed to be unsightly, where trees ("landscaping") will be planted. These will not be of help to the "fauna" of the Preserve. They area cosmetic to hide a fence that wouldn't be there in the first place had a dog park not been contemplated for this location. That this mitigation is necessary calls the dog park location into question.

The proposal has checked "Environmental" on the application for funds. Putting a dog park in this category is a perversion of the word "environmental" by most generally perceived definitions.<

e) Under "Ecological Integrity" of the proposal is the following language:"...this project will improve the health, vitality, and of natural resources and wildlife habitats with and emphasis placed on restoring and retaining ecologically significant areas and natural landscapes in and over the water and inland."

A dog park provides none of these and to suggest it is capable of delivering them stretches credulity beyond the imagination.

I speak strongly against the funding of this proposal for a dog park (Nature Preserve shouldn't even be in the title) in this location. The Town of Lewiston should be encouraged to resubmit a revised proposal for a dog park in a different location.
Bob Baxter,
Niagara Frontier Wildlife Habitat Council Chair

The Niagara River Greenway is a Rudderless Boat

noreply@blogger.com (Just Words) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:52:50 PDT

The Niagara River Greenway is a rudderless boat

Author: Larry Beahan

Published Date: Jul 26, 2010 12:00 AM

The Niagara River Greenway is in danger of foundering in a cataract of well-meaning but disorganized and competing voices. The existence of a Greenway Commission sounds like someone is at the helm but the commission has no legal tools. It has no rudder.

More than 50 years ago, the New York Power Authority tapped the Niagara River to produce a bonanza of clean electric power. But the communities that contain the Niagara River have felt short-changed of its benefits. The Power Project, itself, mars the natural beauty of the gorge. The magnificent torrent of the falls is sapped of strength by water diversion. The chemical industries that it powers pollute the surroundings and tourists flock to the Canadian, not the American, falls.

Federal relicensing of the Power Project required reparations to these injured communities. The New York Power Authority and the state of New York arranged for the reparations to be delivered as $450 million over 50 years to fund a Niagara River Greenway. A Greenway Commission was appointed to develop a plan and make “recommendations” for the ongoing operation and maintenance of the Greenway.

An excellent plan was developed by the commission, but the implementation of the plan is faltering for lack of coordination. The actual money was awarded to four independent standing committees. They are required to ask only if the commission considers their spending proposals “consistent” with the Greenway Plan. But the Standing Committee may do whatever it wants after asking this advice.

I listened to Bob Kresse, the current Greenway Commission chairman, fume at a recent meeting. He watched a presentation by Wendel Duchscherer Architects on a plan for Greenway Signage funded by one of the standing committees. Many months ago the commission had found the proposal for the study “consistent” with the plan but had had no opportunity to influence this all-important matter of what the whole Greenway would look like, not even when signs were about to be painted.

I am Sierra Club representative to the Niagara Relicensing Environmental Coalition, which has a seat on the Ecological Standing Committee. We spent $100,000 to fund a project which inside of the year will provide a plan for the ecological restoration of the Niagara Gorge rim.

In light of this study, the commission tabled a decision on a proposal by Lewiston to build a dog park that will endanger a songbird habitat. Despite this lack of a finding of consistency and disregarding the $100,000 ecological plan, the “host community standing committee” immediately funded the dog park.

Somebody needs to coordinate the spending of this $450 million in a reasonable, consistent and agreed-upon way. The Greenway Commission must be given a rudder.

Larry Beahan is Sierra Club representative to the Niagara Relicensing Environmental Coalition.

© The Buffalo News

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