CAYUGA LAKE WATERSHED 2013 i3-4 Network It takes a Network to protect a watershed. News Climate change, adaptation & resilience Six Mile Creek and the Restful Mind by Hilary Lambert, Steward n November 8-9 2013, the Cayuga OLake Watershed Network held a two-day conference in the Six Mile Creek watershed, titled “Six Mile Creek, Climate Change, and Us.” The Network’s Steward Hilary Lambert, local leaders, and staffers Ann Baughman and Melanie Welch of Freshwater Future, Inc., presented activities and information about climate resilience and adaptation. Information and introspection: Seeking balance Via indoor and outdoor sessions, presenters worked with attendees to accept the reality of climate change and take steps in developing adaptive and resilient responses for themselves and Call to action: Turn the page to find out what they found along Six Mile Creek, and how you their communities. Based in Petoskey can help! MI, Freshwater Future Inc. provides funding and expertise to Great Lakes afternoon, participants had got a start tasting, and the local Snow Creamery’s Basin watershed groups to solve these on thinking adaptively and resiliently, amazing ‘Snowvolone’ and ‘Fetish’ challenges, and can be reached locally enjoyed themselves, imbibed and eaten cheeses (served on the venerable Etna via Lambert at steward@cayugalake. local food and drink—and confronted a Crackerman’s crackers). Visiting speakers org. Their website is http://www. new, climate change-driven invasive pest Ann and Melanie were presented with freshwaterfuture.org/. Other local co- on the quiet banks of Six Mile Creek. bags of local “fractivist” Gimme! Coffee, sponsors were Sustainable Tompkins Reception featured local food and grains grown in the Six Mile Creek Inc., and the Cayuga Lake Intermunicipal and drink watershed at Cayuga Pure Organics. Organization. A reception on Friday night included Water from the Six Mile Creek watershed By the close of the a fabulous wine tasting by the nearby supports a rising number of local conference on Saturday Six Mile Creek Winery, a local ciders continued on page 2 Year-End/ New Years Resolution DONATE BUTTON on the front page of the website www.cayugalake.org or via mail, Donations check made out to CLWN to POB 348 Aurora NY 13026 Climate change, adaptation & resilience Six Mile Creek and the Restful Mind continued from cover over several years if not treated quickly. watershed toward preparing a HWA Aided by warming winters, the HWA response plan. Please get in touch if you’d has moved north quickly in recent years, like to help. For more information about first spotted in the Cayuga Lake watershed where the HWA is found locally, go to in 2008. “It’s not a matter if ‘if,’ but ‘when’ the Cornell Plantations website http:// it will be found here,” intoned Mark. After www.cornellplantations.org/ and click on a twenty-minute walk upstream with the ‘preservation’ link. the group, he found it—characteristic tiny white egg-cluster ovals coated the A restful mind undersides of lower boughs on several Back at the Brooktondale Community creekside hemlocks. If untreated, the Center on Saturday afternoon, attendees hemlocks will die and open up Six Mile took part in a moving and quiet series Creek to erosion, increased sediment, and of activities focused on helping each warmer waters—not to mention the loss deal with climate change fears and grief, of their beauty and shade. The HWA has continued on page 9 been very destructive across the South, defoliating large areas of Tennessee’s Tai chi instructor John Burger limbered Smoky Mountains, and moving north into up the group with poetry, during our fall the Delaware Water Gap and beyond. conference. Mark Whitmore holds a HWA-infested bough Call to Action: Volunteers needed to of hemlock with the trees and creek behind help survey Six Mile Creek for HWA him. The good news is that this tree and others Fortunately, Mark and other experts can be saved, and you can help. have developed an effective response and treatment program, a great example agricultural businesses, in addition to of adaptive resilience to climate change. providing water for the City of Ithaca and Roxy Johnston has asked Lambert to recreation for us all. recruit volunteers to work with the City and Mark’s task force to survey and map A “walk&talk” along the creek hemlock health in the Six Mile Creek On Saturday morning, two dozen people met at the Mulholland Wildflower Preserve on Giles St. in Ithaca, for a “walk&talk” along the creek. Our walking talkers included watershed coordinator and water plant staffer Roxy Johnston who spoke about Six Mile Creek as the water supply for the City of Ithaca, with updates on the new water plant project; and Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources Professor Mark Whitmore, who spoke about the looming threat to watershed health from the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), a tiny Flanked by participants, Judith Pierpont led a workshop for those seeking restful minds in the face pest that sucks the life out of hemlocks of climate change fears and fracktivism burnout, at our fall conference. Cayuga Lake Watershed Network 170 Main St., PO Box 348 OFFICE HOURS: STAFF: The Cayuga Lake Watershed Network Aurora, NY 13026 By appointment. Hilary Lambert, Steward thanks Freshwater Future Inc for www.cayugalake.org Please contact [email protected] their support of our climate change Steward Cell .....859-421-3609 [email protected] Newsletter Advisory Committee: work; and Leigh Dezelan of Dezelan Office ...........607-319-0475 to arrange. Michael Duttweiler, John Mawdsley, Dezign and Pioneer Printing of Lodi for Niamh O’Leary newsletter production excellence. 2 Smart Steps for Clean Water: Household Energy Use ith the end of our glorious Finger WLakes fall, attention turns to indoor The complexity of watershed living. That shift in focus provides protection issues can make opportunity to review how day-to-day it feel that an individual can practices and living habitats significantly hardly make a difference. influence our water resources and what Quite the contrary! There you can do to minimize those effects. First are many straightforward up, we will consider home energy use. actions that can be taken to Environmental impacts of fossil contribute to protecting our fuel-based energy production, which exceptional water resources. accounts for more than two-thirds of NY In this series of articles, we energy use, include air emissions, cooling replay and expand upon water discharges, solid waste generation actions that were presented including fly ash, and land use impacts in our 2006 publication both at the source of fuel and production “Smart Steps for Clean site. Economic impacts of residential Water” available in full at: energy use are huge. According to the http://www.cayugalake.org/ New York State Energy Research and files/all/smrtstps06.pdf Development Authority (NYSERDA) Michael Duttweiler, residential energy use in the state cost CLWN Board member more than $18 billion in 2011. The US Energy Information Administration reports that, even though New York • Check the Insulation in your attic, ranks 50th in energy consumption per exterior and basement walls, ceilings, capita, it ranks second only to Hawaii in floors, and crawl spaces. terms of energy costs per capita. Annual • Check for Air Leaks around your expenditures of $2,000-$2,500 or more walls, ceilings, windows, doors, light per household are common. Clearly, even and plumbing fixtures, switches, and modest improvements in efficiency can electrical outlets add up fast. • Check for Open Fireplace Dampers which can draft your There are many great resources on home warmed air right up the chimney. energy cost reduction. The list that follows • Replace Your Most Frequently will get you started. Used Light Bulbs with compact • Service Your Heating and Cooling fluorescents or LED bulbs and study Systems Annually—and regularly your family’s lighting needs and look For full-sized, interactive replace air filters. for ways to use controls—like sensors, versions of these helpful graphics, please go • Turn Down your Thermostat and dimmers, or timers—to reduce lighting to the Tompkins County Cornell Cooperative Still Stay Warm! A programmable use. Extension website at www.ccetompkins.org and thermostat can be set to automatically • Air Dry Dishes instead of using your click on ‘Energy’ at the top of the page, then turn down the heat each night then dishwasher’s drying cycle. scroll down to ‘Energy Saving House’ and click Turn Things Off When You are to learn more. Also, click on ‘Homeowners and turn the heat on again to warm the • Renters’ on the Energy page and follow links to house before you get up. Add to your Not in the Room such as lights, the ‘Energy Efficient Path.’ savings by turning down the heat a few TVs, entertainment systems, and your degrees and increasing the humidity; computer and monitor. additional energy savings. your home will feel just as warm. • Fully Turn off Home Electronics— • Wash Only Full Loads of dishes and Together these can save up to $600 a Plug home electronics, such as TVs clothes. year in energy costs. and DVD players, into power strips; • Check That Windows and Doors • Turn Down Your Water Heater to turn the power strips off when the are Closed when heating or cooling 120 Degrees—and turn it off before equipment is not in use—TVs, DVDs your home. leaving home for four or more days. It and other devices in standby mode still • Look for the ENERGY STAR® can account for up to 1/3 of a home’s use several watts of power. Label on light bulbs, home appliances, heating costs! Many dishwashers will • Take Short Showers instead of baths electronics, and other products.