FORCES Friends of Recreation, Conservation and Environmental Stewardship Summer 2016 Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 2 In this issue: The FORCES mission is to engage Regional Updates Page 2 New York State college students to Upcoming Events Page 3 simultaneously improve OPRHP Faculty Spotlight Page 4 resources and enrich student FORCES Clubs Page 4 academic, recreational, and career Steward Spotlight Page 8 Grand Canyon of the East; Letchworth opportunities. Picture Page Page 9 State Park. Photo Credit: Michael Gill. Celebrating Our Stewards Tom Hughes, NRS Biologist Central Region FORCES Program Manager As we enjoy our summer season and continue all our work with FORCES projects and initiatives, I am extremely grateful that we have so many dedicated and enthusiastic students and young professionals involved with our FORCES program. Each morning I wake up, my phone lights up with a steady chatter of text messages...a not-so-subtle reminder that our Stewards are all heading out to projects and programs. Our Stewards’ eagerness to share their plans, daily accomplishments and creative ideas is so motivating and energizing to FORCES Stewards gather for a two day training event; Trainapalooza me that I don’t even need my morning coffee! held at Ganondagan State Historic Site. Photo credit: FORCES OPRHP. In this summer edition of our newsletter, you will learn about all the great initiatives that our dozens Coordinator’s Corner of FORCES Stewards have been involved with this Amy Kochem, FORCES Program Coordinator past spring and summer. Their contributions are truly remarkable! Send us your Selfies! We are always looking for While I am impressed with the growth of our great pics for our FORCES FORCES program over the years, I am photo album. I know you are exceedingly more impressed with the individual out there working hard, growth we see every day with each and every one having fun, and taking some of our FORCES Stewards. We are witness to the amazing shots of our evolution of our next generation of conservation beautiful State Parks. professionals, environmental resource managers, Please share them with me. park employees, and much more. It is through your collective lens that we see all of us I give thanks to our Stewards for all that they do, together as a FORCES and I’ll see you at the Great New York State Fair! family. [email protected] http://nysparks.com/environment/forces.aspx Page 1 Central Region Update Ganondagan Historic Site Patricia Shulenburg, FORCES Program Specialist Brigitte Wierzbicki, Lead Cons. Steward Over 50 students are The busy season is underway at completing volunteer hours Ganondagan State Historic Site. The and internships in natural conservation team, with assistance from resource stewardship projects stewards and volunteers, is working on the in the Central and Finger Seneca ethnobotanical Otgeo’jö:ni:h Lakes Regions this spring. “Green Plants” Trail, seed collection, native Highlights include native seed landscaping, and mapping invasive collection and propagation, species. eastern hellbender Cam Heasley and Dave Warner install conservation and public snow fencing at the Sandy Island Mary Benincasa, Dan Ruede, and Emily outreach at Chenango Valley Beach State Park Bird Sanctuary to Westfall have teamed up in restoring and State Park, trail maintenance protect piping plovers. Photo credit: FORCES NYS OPRHP. expanding the Otgeo’jö:ni:h Green Plants at Robert V. Riddell State Trail and the ethnobotanical project. Park, cell phone tours, American hart’s-tongue fern conservation at Clark Reservation State Park, invasive Junior Conservation Steward Kinsey Ashe species management, restoration of an extensive grassland has been focusing on the Cultural Garden and Bird Conservation Area at Green Lakes State Park, and and is she is creating a lesson plan conservation of the Chittenango ovate amber snail. identifying the wildlife in this habitat. FORCES also launched a piping plover monitoring program Grassland Stewards Kira Broz, Wyatt to promote the recovery of this endangered shorebird after Jackson, and Emma Kubinski are a nearly 30 year regional extinction. Partners include U.S. removing and recording invasive species Fish and Wildlife Service, NYS DEC, The SCA, The Dune across 200 acres of the northeast section Foundation, and Audubon New York. of Ganondagan. Finger Lakes Region Update Brandyn Balch is mapping invasive species Becky Sibner, FORCES Program Specialist cover at Seneca Lake State Park using the same techniques as the grassland Every semester seems to be stewards. He is removing invasive species busier than the last, and populations and is focusing on areas of spring 2016 was no future wetland restoration. exception. We had 8 stewards from Ithaca College, SUNY Ganondagan State Historic Site Staff 2016 Cortland, and Cornell Whitney Carleton, Project Coordinator University who worked on Alexis VanWinkle, Supervising Steward lesson plans, archiving, Kyle Webster, Supervising Cons. Steward emerald ash borer Brigitte Wierzbicki, Lead Cons. Steward Stewards remove fluff from milkweed management plans, seeds on a freezing winter afternoon. Photo Credit: FORCES NYS OPRHP. Laricobius nigrinus surveys (the biological control for hemlock woolly adelgid), seed cleaning, egg addling, boundary sign installation… the list goes on. We’re thrilled to report that 4 of our spring stewards were offered seasonal positions with NYS Parks for the summer! We again hosted a lab with Ithaca College this spring, and conducted hemlock health surveys and benthic macroinvertebrate surveys at Buttermilk Falls State Park. We also strengthened our partnership with Cornell University’s Invasive Species Allendale Columbia students join Whitney Research Institute, and outlined a research project about the Carleton-DeGeorge to plant native Virginia iris in the effectiveness of our control methods for pale swallow-wort. Cultural Garden. Photo credit: FORCES OPRHP. http://nysparks.com/environment/forces.aspx Page 2 Upcoming Events FORCES Programs 2016 Patricia Shulenburg, FORCES Program Specialist 8/17 Live Music Ganondagan State Historic Site The second annual FORCES Leadership 8/18 Moonlight Hike Summit was held on April Clark Reservation State Park and Green Lakes State Park 10, 2016 at Hartwick College’s Pine Lake 8/19 Kayak Lesson Environmental Campus. Delta Lake State Park This event brought together 29 students from 8/19 Bats of New York 8 academic institutions to Green Lakes State Park FORCES Leadership Summit held at Hartwick provide strategic planning College Pine Lake Environmental Campus. Photo 8/20 Summer Concert Series for the program, enhance Credit: FORCES NYS OPRHP. Taughannock Falls State Park connectivity among parks 8/20 Kayak Lesson staff and institutions, and celebrate member achievements. Selkirk Shores State Park We also teamed up with Red Bull (FORCES Corporate Partner) 8/20 Kayak Lesson to bring Alex Mason, a world Selkirk Shores State Park champion slackline professional, Bruce Gillman, Professor, FLCC, leads an to provide demonstration and interpretive hike on plant identification. 8/25-9/5 Blue bird box building Photo Credit: FORCES NYS OPRHP. The Great New York State Fair instruction for our participants during teambuilding exercises 8/27 Movie Under the Stars using the high ropes course. Taughannock Falls State Park Trainapalooza was held at 9/3 First Saturday Hike Watkins Glen State Park Ganondagan State Historic Site on June 2-3, and 39 students 9/4 Auto Show & Flea Market and staff attended the two day Fillmore Glen State Park training event. Effective program planning, bird identification, 9/4 Campfire Cooking communicating with park patrons, plant identification, and Green Lakes State Park invasive species removals were topics included in the workshop. 9/25 National Public Lands Day Glimmerglass State Park FORCES Member Awards 10/2 FORCES Gathering Leadership Awards: Alexa Tumbarello, Diana Jagde, Brandyn Balch For more information email Service Awards: Kyle Webster, Connor Pierce, Rebecca [email protected] Cosgrove Active FORCES Clubs Affiliated Institutions SUNY Brockport Hartwick College Cazenovia College SUNY Cobleskill Le Moyne College Cornell University SUNY Cortland SUNY ESF Finger Lakes Community College SUNY Morrisville SUNY Geneseo Hobart and William Smith Colleges SUNY Oswego SUNY Oneonta Ithaca College SUNY Plattsburgh Wells College Niagara University SUNY Purchase Onondaga Community College Saint John Fisher College Pace University Syracuse University SUNY Binghamton Tompkins Cortland Community College http://nysparks.com/environment/forces.aspx Page 3 Faculty Spotlight: Dr. James Kernan SUNY Geneseo Department of Geography Greetings FORCES folks! I am an assistant raise over professor of geography at SUNY Geneseo $16,000 for the specializing in biogeography, and I study wildfire, Nature Center at invasive species, and conservation. It has been a Letchworth. thrill to be the advisor of SUNY Geneseo FORCES this past year. FORCES was one of three A few years ago, I became involved in an initiative to student run form a partnership between SUNY Geneseo and organizations FORCES SUNY Geneseo wins Livingston Letchworth State Park related to a new Nature (out of more than County Earth Day Award. Photo credit: Ben Center in the park. Serendipitously, a student 200) recognized Beagle, Livingston News. contacted me a few months after discussions began, with a campus and told me about a great program called FORCES. Volunteer and Service Award this spring, and I agreed