CAZENOVIA — Each year, on the first Saturday in June, Cazenovia Preservation Foundation (CPF) celebrates National Trails Day.
This spring, CPF is inviting community members to help celebrate with a visit to the Gorge Trail Gateway, 131 Albany St., CPF’s “Signature Project” site, on June 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
CPF is a private, non-profit organization that works to protect the historical, agricultural, and natural resources in and around Cazenovia for the benefit of the community and the enjoyment of future generations.
The organization currently holds 2,700 acres in conservation easements and owns 430 acres of protected open space and habitat.
CPF’s Gorge Trail follows the former bed of the Cazenovia and Canastota Railroad. The improved section of the trail parallels Chittenango Creek for two-plus miles from Clark Street north to Bingley Road. The trail is a section of the North Country National Scenic Trail, a 4,800-mile trail that stretches across eight states, from North Dakota to Vermont, making it the longest in the National Trails System.
In addition to parking areas off Clark Street and Bingley Road, the Gorge Trail can be accessed from the Buyea’s True Value parking lot on Route 20 or on foot from Williams Street.
CPF’s Signature Project is aimed at reconfiguring the pedestrian/bike access at the Buyea’s parking lot entrance to the Gorge Trail.
“The Signature Project was conceived as a way to directly benefit our community,” said Signature Project Committee Chair David Beam. “With improved visibility, parking, pedestrian safety, and enhanced access, we hope that the Buyea’s trailhead entrance, the ‘Gorge Trail Gateway,’ will be the ‘go to’ location for the Gorge Trail, highlighting this important trail and this important natural resource, Chittenango Creek, in the heart of the village. Because the Buyea’s Trailhead is near the center of town, we also expect that enhancing the recreational resources here will benefit local businesses.”
National Trails Day & CPF Signature Project Open House
On National Trails Day, visitors to the Signature Project site will meet with members of the CPF board and staff to talk about the proposed project and offer input.
Representatives of the North Country Trail Association will also be present to provide information on the North Country National Scenic Trail.
Community members will also have the chance to purchase a pulled pork sandwich lunch from Cazenovia Masonic Lodge No. 616 and support conservation by purchasing CPF T-shirts, picnic flatware, cards, and reusable grocery totes.
Volunteers who have logged hours in 2021 or 2022 can stop by for complimentary CPF T-shirts.
Some tables and chairs will be provided, but attendees are encouraged to bring folding chairs or picnic blankets.
At 10 a.m., Stone Quarry Hill Art Park Executive Director Emily Zaengle will lead a guided hike from the Art Park to the Gorge Trail Gateway.
A trail cleanup at the Signature Project site is also scheduled for 10 a.m. Participants are encouraged to bring work gloves, sturdy footwear, long pants, and tools such as clippers, loppers, and hand saws.
Volunteers under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult. RSVP to [email protected].
At 12:30 p.m., Beam and CPF President Cynthia Maxwell Curtin will introduce the Signature Project, acknowledge Earl Buyea, Sr., for his role in the initiative, and highlight CPF’s other ongoing work.
The event will conclude with the unveiling of the 2022 Poetry on the Trail exhibit at 1 p.m.
Join the winning poets, the contest judges, local poet Eric Evans, Cazenovia Public Library Children’s Librarian Jenna Wright-Martin, and CPF Executive Director Jen Wong for a hike north along the trail to install the poetry signs. The group will depart from the Signature Project site. The winning poets will hang their signs and read their poems on-site.
Signature Project scope and timeline
According to preliminary plans, the Signature Project will involve the following work:
Adding a break in the guardrail at the Buyea’s driveway entrance from Albany Street to separate pedestrian/bike trail traffic from vehicular traffic.
Removing a strip of pavement along the east side of the driveway to install a gravel trail surface.
Further distinguishing the trail and driveway areas by adding a decorative physical barricade along the western edge of the new pedestrian area.
Cleaning up brush and debris in the greenspace by Chittenango Creek.
Re-routing the trail to follow the creek contours from a newly created parking area and access spur to the existing trail access to the north.
Adding a defined trail parking area on eastern side of the lot and a well-defined and visually appealing entrance through the greenspace, perpendicular to the creek, to a newly created creekside trail.
Installing landscape fabric and gravel from the parking area access and along the new trail route.
Planting trees and shrubs in the greenspace and surrounding areas to define the trail and provide vegetative screening for the backs/sides of buildings and commercial use areas.
Installing picnic tables and a kiosk with maps and interpretive exhibits and considering the additions of a trash receptacle and/or pet waste station and an electric vehicle charging station and/or bike rack.
Adding a crosswalk on Williams Street to better define the trail route and provide safer crossing options for Burton Street student walkers.
According to Wong, CPF is also in the process of rolling a couple additional measures into the project that will benefit the creek water quality.
“For example, we are looking at improving the stormwater runoff from the southeast portion of the parking area with a stormwater best management practice — BMP,” said Wong. “The other piece is some stream bank stabilization and erosion control over the bank down by the creek near the very popular fishing access location, where there are some [giant, old trees] that are absolutely beautiful, but they are getting very eroded around the roots.”
In CPF’s Spring 2022 “Upland Journal” newsletter, the organization reported that it had secured a 20-year public access rights agreement with Buyea, who owns the property where the Signature Project site is located.
According to the newsletter, the agreement helped make the project viable for grant funding opportunities.
CPF has since been working with a project team from the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program — through a technical services grant awarded to the Cazenovia Area Community Development Association (CACDA) last year — to refine the conceptual designs for the project. In the coming year, CPF plans to contract with a landscape architect and engineer for the “next-level project design work.” Funding will come from board-directed mission funds and grants awarded to CPF by the Madison County Planning Department from funding provided by the Finger Lakes Lake Ontario Watershed Protection Alliance.
Annual membership meeting
On May 18, CPF held its first in-person annual membership meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Wong, the central theme of the meeting was a “building sense of momentum.”
“The time is right for conservation,” said Wong. “Funding opportunities and land-owner interest have coalesced to increase potential opportunities. Over the last year, CPF has been approached by landowners to conserve 2,400 acres of land, a total acreage equivalent to 80 percent of CPF’s current conservation portfolio. If all of these projects proceed in the next couple of years, it would be an unprecedented period of growth in furthering land conservation in our area.”
CPF has also been working with CACDA to advance a project through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Farmland Protection Implementation Grant Program that will add 471 acres to CPF’s portfolio of conserved agricultural land.
In the Upland Journal’s “Message from the Executive Director,” Wong reiterated that the funding opportunities for land conservation have never been better.
The New York State Environmental Protection Fund was budgeted at $400 million this year, the highest level of funding in the program’s history. The New York State Senate also recently passed the $4.2 billion 2022 Environmental Bond Act. If passed by voters in November, the act will provide an additional $650 million in funding for land conservation, recreation, and water quality improvement projects.
Additionally, this spring, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced a new forest conservation grant program designed to increase the number of acres of protected private forest lands in the state.
To better address the current scope of CPF’s work, the organization has opted to increase the size of its board of directors.
According to Wong, the organization amended its bylaws to increase the maximum allowable number of directors from 15 to 17.
The directors are volunteers from the Cazenovia community who give their time and expertise to further the mission of CPF.
Elections are held at the annual meeting each May.
During this year’s meeting, Leslie Bowser, Doug Falso, Andy Mistur, James Smith, and Will Wester were elected to serve three-year terms on the board.
Returning for second three-year terms are directors Steve Dorus, Dave Gerber, and Baird Hansen.
Additionally, the following individuals were elected to serve one-year terms as officers: Curtin (president), Dorus (vice president), Craig Buckhout (treasurer), and James Dungey (executive secretary).
CPF also presented the following awards during the meeting:
Robert Webster Award — Kristi Andersen, for her many dedicated years of service to the Cazenovia community and her commitment to protecting Cazenovia’s natural, historical, and agricultural resources.
Non-Residential Restoration Award — CazArts Barn, CazArts and the Village of Cazenovia, for the adaptive reuse of Carpenter’s Barn, which has been partially re-purposed to serve as a dynamic arts hub and “welcoming gateway” to the village.
Residential Restoration Award — “Tuckaway House,” McKenzie Cooley and Brian Brege and their contractor, Enders & Company, for restoring 22 Forman St., a former carriage house to The Brae Loch.
Landscape Award — Steve and Suzanne Evans, for undertaking a massive tree-planting project at the 119-acre Sky Hill Farm.
Community Award — Peter Radosta and Friends of Stoney Pond (FROSTY), for helping to build and promote Cazenovia as a winter outdoor recreation destination.
Community Award — Gerald Mehlbaum, for promoting wider community knowledge of and conversation around solar project permitting and review processes, as well as his engagement with the Town of Cazenovia Solar Committee throughout the drafting of a revised solar law.
For more information on CPF and upcoming events, visit cazpreservation.org.
