Don Glynn's Sunday May 30, 2010 Column Generates Response From Niagara Heritage Partnership

Don Glynn's recent column [in the Sunday edition of the Niagara Gazette, 30 May 2010] about unmowed grass along the gorge parkway was interesting, sometimes revealing, but then detoured into fiction as he attempted to insinuate his way into an argument that removing the parkway is a bad idea.

He reveals his notion that the gorge rim should resemble "grass like that around your home."  That's an idea, not a good one, but something with which a person could agree or disagree. The Niagara Heritage Partnership (NHP) believes natural landscapes should be preferred in this location, so we disagree. We do agree with Glynn when he says much of the so-called regeneration area looks neglected, unkempt, in a word, terrible. That's because it has been neglected. It is, indeed, full of unchecked growth, undesirable weeds, and alien or invasive plants, as well. Some of the aliens seem to have been established on purpose by the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP)

There may be several reasons for this ragged appearance: perhaps the experimental plots initiated by the prior parks administration have not been enthusiastically accepted by the current one; perhaps OPRHP lacks the funds to properly monitor the areas; perhaps they don't have the time or expertise in-house; perhaps it's a combination. But common sense suggests that after nearly 10 years, there may be valuable native trees and other plants establishing themselves in these areas and identifying them, if they actually exist, might be a better idea than wholesale mowing or bush-hogging.

While the current appearance is less than desirable, the overall vision is further confused by the tulip beds and other ornamental plantings at Whirlpool and Devil's Hole State Parks, a pathetic gesture that mimics the English flower garden design that the Canadian parks have refined. Glynn may like this because it's closer to what might be found "around your home or business." But we either understand Olmsted or we don't. If we do, we should start showing it. If we don't, then OPRHP and others who promote treatments and activities in parks should stop using his name as if it's a magic charm to hold "tree huggers" at bay. Tulips and daffodils in Niagara parks would make Olmsted vomit.

"Tree huggers" is a term Glynn uses to disparage parkway removal advocates, as well as, inexplicably, the "Sierra Club of Northern California."  "Tree huggers" is a tired,  behind-the-times attempt at insult. Most of us wish a few thousand tree huggers had been carrying signs in Washington ten years ago, insisting on triple safeguards for deep-water oil drilling procedures. Why he zeroed in on the distant Northern California Sierra Club chapter is puzzling. We sincerely hope that it wasn't a snide reference to that chapter because its membership is comprised of gay and lesbian Sierrans. That would reflect very poorly on our region. Why does he single them out? The NHP has welcomed their support for parkway removal as we have all the other chapters. Glynn should recognize we have the support of the Sierra Club, Niagara Chapter, and the Sierra Club, National. If he thinks it's "fair to ask" why they all support removal, he should read the Sierra Club, Niagara Chapter resolution posted under "Resolutions"at http://www.niagaraheritage.org/ The question has been answered for 10 years.

Support for parkway removal continues to grow, both locally and internationally: the Chilton Avenue Block Club, Niagara Falls,NY, has signed on. In Canada,three new groups favor removal--the Niagara River Restoration Council; Friends of Niagara Falls; and Preserve Our Parks. The online petition where individuals can offer support continues to collect names.

Glynn's description of the "pudgy woman" wearing "orange sneakers" and carrying a "Close the Parkway!" sign seems to be a fictional character based on the real-life Betsy Potter, who told me she has never in her life worn orange sneakers--or indulged in chanting, for that matter, as Glynn implied she had. We don't believe there is anything wrong with orange sneakers and chanting, but Glynn seems to be using these details in an attempt to create a picture of a passionate parkway removal advocate as an object of ridicule. Neither is she "pudgy," unless any young woman over 102 pounds falls into that category for Glynn. And the sign read "Total Removal," not "Close the Parkway!" Potter walked the parkway edge, with the sign, once weekly for 6 months through the winter of 2001-2002, and kept a journal of her experience. Her picture, with the sign, and some of her journal entries can be found on the NHP website under Recent Postings, as "Button Girl Photo" and "Betsy Potter Gorge Walk Journal."

Potter remains a tree hugger, which should be a term of praise. During the last week of May 2010, she identified two nesting pairs of grasshopper sparrows in the Wildlife Refuge on the Lewiston Plateau, as well as meadowlarks. The grasshopper sparrow is a "species of concern" in NY State, 98% of them having disappeared. (NHP notes that restored grasslands along the gorge rim would be potential habitat for such birds.) Potter is also an artist with a special interest in the natural world and her work will be on display in the Lewiston Library, along with that of others, 2-29 June, with an opening reception on June 5th at 11:00 am.

Given the history and present condition of the gorge rim, we should all welcome the Wild Ones, Niagara (WON) study, entitled, "Regional Economic Growth Through Ecological Restoration of the Niagara Gorge Rim." (scroll to see Doument Library) This study is supported by The Niagara River Greenway Commission and will be conducted by the accomplished firm of Environmental Design and Research.

This will be a comprehensive study extending along the river from Niagara Falls to Lewiston, NY, which has never before been done. Work has already started. We look forward to the scientific foundational evidence this study will provide to shape our decision-making in the years ahead.
Bob Baxter

Olmsted Vision for Niagara Falls and The Gorge - In His Own Words

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following report, published in 1880, addressed certain concerns Olmsted had for a preservation strategy at Niagara. The report has not been reproduced elsewhere, and is provided here as an NAOP [National Association for Olmsted Parks] “Reprint” [Volume 7, Issue 1] because it contains interesting observations on the specific qualities of vegetation and landscape composition that Olmsted felt contributed to Niagara’s unique and powerful emotional effect. —Ethan Carr

SPECIAL REPORT
OF
NEW YORK STATE SURVEY
ON THE
PRESERVATION OF THE SCENERY
FOR THE YEAR 1879.

JAMES T. GARDNER, DIRECTOR.
ALBANY:
CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS.
1880.

"The few notes which I propose to append to Mr. Gardner’s report will be directed to a single point. There are those, and I fear that most of the people of Niagara are among them, to whom it appears that the waterfall has so supreme an interest to the public that what happens to the adjoining scenery is of trifling consequence. Were all the trees cut away, quarries opened in the ledges, the banks packed with hotels and factories, and every chance-open space occupied by a circus tent, the Falls would still, these think, draw the world to them.

Whatever has been done to the injury of the scenery has been done, say they, with the motive of profit, and the profit realized is the public’s verdict of acquittal. It must be considered, therefore, that the public has not had the case fairly before it.

The great body of visitors to Niagara come as strangers. Their movements are necessarily controlled by the arrangements made for them. They take what is offered, and pay what is required with little exercise of choice. The fact that they accept the arrangements is no evidence of their approval.

The real question is, how, in the long run, is the general experience of visitors affected by measures and courses which are determined with no regard to the influence of the scenery?"

I have myself been an occasional visitor at Niagara for forty-five years. My attention was first called to the rapidly approaching ruin of its characteristic scenery by Mr. F. E. Church, about ten years ago. Shortly afterwards, several gentlemen, frequenters of the Falls, met at my request, to consider this danger, one of them being a member of the Commission now reporting on the subject. I have thus had both occasion and opportunity for observing the changed courses into which the public has been gradually led and of studying these courses and their results.

When the arrangements by which visitors were conducted were yet simple; when there were few carriages, and these little used; when a visit to the Falls was a series of expeditions, and in each expedition hours were occupied in wandering slowly among the trees, going from place to place, with many intervals of rest, there was not only a much greater degree of enjoyment, there was a different kind of enjoyment from any now generally obtained. People then were loth to leave the place; many lingered on from day to day after they had prepared to go, revisiting ground they had gone over before, turning and returning; and when they went away it was with greatful hearts and greatful words.

The change from this to what is described in the second section of the Commissioner’s report has been gradual and, while something must be attributed to modern ease of travel, a greater influx of visitors and to habits of quicker movement and greater restlessness; much must also be referred to the fact that visitors are so much more constrained to be guided and instructed, to be led and stopped, to be “put through,” and so little left to natural and healthy individual intuitions.

The aim to make money by the showman’s methods; the idea that Niagara is a spectacular and sensational exhibition, of which rope-walking, diving, brass bands, fire-works and various “side-shows” are appropriate accompaniments, is so presented to the visitor that he is forced to yield to it, and see and feel little else than that prescribed to him.

But all the time there are some who, because of better information and opportunities, and as the result of previous training,get the better of this difficulty, and to these the old charm remains. Take as an illustration, the experience of the writer of the following passage. It is that of a man who has traveled extensively for the express purpose of observing scenery and comparing the value, as determined by the influence on the imagination, of different types of scenery. It is recorded in a little book (Alpine Flowers, By William Robinson, F. L. S. London: John Murray, 1875) which treats more especially of the scenery of the Alps and of what are designated “nature’s gardens” among them.

But says the author: “The noblest of nature’s gardens that I have yet seen is that of the surroundings and neighborhood of the Falls of Niagara. Grand as are the colossal Falls, the Rapids and the course of the river for a considerable distance above and below possess more interest and beauty.

“As the river courses far below the Falls, confined between vast walls of rock—the clear water of a peculiar light-greenish hue, and white here and there with circlets of yet unsoothed foam—the effect is startlingly beautiful, quite apart from the Falls. The high cliffs are crested with woods; the ruins of the great rock walls forming wide, irregular banks between them and the water, are also beautifully clothed with woods to the river’s edge, often so far below that you sometimes look from the upper brink down on the top of tall pines that seem diminished in size. The wild vines scramble among the trees; many shrubs and flowers seam the high rocks; in moist spots, here and there a sharp eye may detect many flowered tufts of the beautiful fringed Gentian, strange to European eyes; and beyond all, and at the upper end of the wood-embowered deep river bed, a portion of the crowning glory of the scene—the Falls—a vast cliff of illuminated foam, with a zone towards its upper edge as of green molten glass.

Above the Falls the scene is quite different. A wide and peaceful river carrying the surplus waters of an inland sea, till it gradually finds itself in the coils of the rapids, and is soon lashed into such a turmoil as we might expect if a dozen unpolluted Shannons or Seines were running a race together. A river no more, but a sea unreined. By walking about a mile above the Falls on the Canadian shore this effect is finely seen, the breadth of the river helping to carry out the illusion. As the great waste of water descends from its dark gray and smooth bed and falls whitening into foam, it seems as if tide after tide were gale-heaped one on another on a sea strand. The islands just above the Falls enable one to stand in the midst of these rapids, where they rush by lashed into passionate haste; now boiling over some hidden swellings in the rocky bed, or dashing over greater but yet hidden obstructions with such force that the crest of the uplifted mass is dashed about as freely as a white
charger’s mane; now darkly falling into a cavity several yards below that level of the surrounding water, and, when unobstructed, surging by in countless eddies to the mist-crested Falls below; and so rapidly that the driftwood dashes on swift as swallow on the wing.

Undisturbed in their peaceful shadiness, garlanded with wild vine and wild flowers, the islands stand in the midst of all this fierce commotion of waters--below, the vast ever-mining Falls; above, a complication of torrents that seem fitted to wear away iron shore; yet there they stand, safe as if the spirit of beauty had in mercy exempted them from decay. Several islets are so small that it is really remarkable how they support vegetation; one, looking no bigger than a washing-tub, not only holds its own in the very thick of the torrents just above the Falls, but actually bears a small forest, including one stricken and half cast-down pine. Most fortunate is it that these beautifully verdant islands and islets occur just above the Falls, adding immeasurably to the effect of the scene.

I have spoken of the distinctive charms of Niagara scenery. If it were possible to have the same conditions detached from the Falls (which it is not, as I shall show), Niagara would still be a place of singular fascination; possibly to some, upon whom the Falls have a terrifying effect, even more so than it is now. Saying nothing of the infinitely varied beauties of water and spray, and of water-worn rock, I will, for a purpose, mention a few elements which contribute to this distinctive charm.

The eminent English botanist, Sir Joseph Hooker, has said that he found upon Goat Island a greater variety of vegetation within a given space than anywhere in Europe, or east of the Sierras, in America; and the first of American botanists, Dr. Asa Gray, has repeated the statement. I have followed the Appalachian chain almost from end to end, and traveled on horseback, “in search of the picturesque,” over four thousand miles of the most promising parts of the continent without finding elsewhere the same quality of forest beauty which was once abundant about the Falls, and which is still to be observed in those parts of Goat Island where the original growth of trees and shrubs has not been disturbed, and where, from caving banks, trees are not now exposed to excessive dryness at the root.

Nor have I found anywhere else such tender effects of foliage as were once to be seen in the drapery hanging down the wall of rock on the American shore below the Fall, and rolling up the slope below it, or with that still to be seen in a favorable season and under favorable lights, on the Canadian steeps and crags between the Falls and the ferry.

All these distinctive qualities—the great variety of the indigenous perennials and annuals, the rare beauty of the old woods, and the exceeding loveliness of the rock foliage—I believe to be a direct effect of the Falls, and as much a part of its majesty as the mist-cloud and the rainbow.

They are all, as it appears to me, to be explained by the circumstance that at two periods of the year when the northern American forest elsewhere is liable to suffer actual constitutional depressions, that of Niagara is insured against like ills, and thus retains youthful luxuriance to an unusual age. First, the masses of ice, which, every winter are piled to a great height below the Falls, and the great rushing body of ice-cold water coming from the northern lakes in the spring, prevent at Niagara the hardship under which trees elsewhere often suffer through sudden checks to premature growth; and, second, when droughts else- where occur, as they do, every few years, of such severity that trees in full foliage droop and dwindle, and even sometimes cast their leaves, the atmosphere at Niagara is more or less moistened by the constantly evaporating spray of the Falls, and in certain situations frequently bathed by drifting clouds of mist.

Something of the beauty of the hanging foliage below the Falls is also probably due to the fact that the effect of the frozen spray upon it is equivalent to the horticultural process of “shortening in;” compelling a denser and closer growth than is, under other circumstances, natural.

Reference is made at page 9 of the Commissioners’ report to a marvelous effect in scenery above the Falls. It is that to which the following account by the Duke of Argyle applies: “The River Niagara, above the Falls, runs in a channel very broad, and very little depressed below the general level of the country. But there is a steep declivity in the bed of the stream for a considerable distance above the precipice, and this constitutes what are called the Rapids. The consequence is that when we stand at any point near the edge of the Falls, and look up the course of the stream, the foaming waters of the Rapids constitute the sky line. No indication of land is visible—nothing to express the fact that we are looking at a river. The crests of the breakers, the leaping and the rushing of the waters, are still seen against the clouds, as they are seen in the ocean, when the ship from which we look is in the trough of the sea. It is impossible to resist the effect on the imagination. It is as if the fountains of the great deep were being broken up, and that a new deluge were coming on the world. The impression is rather increased than diminished, by the perspective of the low wooded banks on either shore, running down to a vanishing point and seeming to be lost in the advancing waters. An apparently shoreless sea tumbling toward one is a very grand and a very awful sight. Forgetting, then, what one knows, and giving oneself to what one only sees, I do not know that there is anything in nature more majestic than the view of the Rapids above the Falls of Niagara.”

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED

Defining the Niagara River Greenway

Mr. Tom Lyons, Director
Environmental Management Bureau
NYS OPRHP
Agency Building, 17th Floor
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12238

Re: Comments on Draft Generic Environmental Impact Study for Niagara River Greenway

Dear Mr. Lyons:
When was the last time someone asked you to do something great?

In the Niagara River Corridor, we’ve been asked to do something great. We’ve been gifted with an opportunity to not only do something but were given the funds to create and preserve something magnificent and we’re not doing well in living up to that opportunity.

After attending 18 months of Citizens Advisory Committee, and Niagara Greenway Commission meetings, and one Local Government Advisory meeting this is what I observed:

1.
The design team and the Niagara River Greenway Commissioners neglected or refused to
educate themselves, the general public, the business communities, and the local government leaders on
[A] what eco-tourism is and what the eco-tourist looks for,
[B] what a genuine greenway in its purest form is,
[C] the social, economic, health, environmental, and quality of life benefits communities reap by creating sections of a genuine, non-motorized greenway and
[D] what “pollution-based prosperity” is.

According to an interview given by Bobby Kennedy Jr., Good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy 100 percent of the time. We can measure the economy in one of two ways. We can base ourassessment on whether the economy produces jobs of dignity over the long-termand preserves our community assets. Or we can do what the polluters are urging us to do: treat the planet as if it were a business in liquidation and convert our natural resources into cash as quickly as possible. This is pollution-based prosperity. It creates the illusion of a prosperous economy, but our children will pay for our joyride. They will pay for it with denuded landscapes, poor health,and huge cleanup costs. Environmental injury is deficit spending. It loads the costof our generation’s prosperity onto the backs of our children.

…Environmentalism has become the most important civil rights issue. The role of government is to protect the commons: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the fisheries, the wildlife, the public lands. Those resources are our social safety net.

…The environment is the infrastructure of our communities. As a nation, as a civilization, it’s our obligation to create communities for our children that provide them with opportunities for dignity and good health. When we destroy nature, we diminish ourselves and impoverish our children. We ignore that at our own peril.
(O The Oprah Magazine, Feb. 2007, page 230-234)

2.
The predetermined ownership of the funds and the focus of the Niagara River Greenway were in place long before the process was officially implemented making two-county consensus almost impossible to achieve. This became public knowledge at the November 2006 Local Gov. Advisory Meeting, Beaver Island State Park.

The proof: When the Co-chair of the Niagara County Environmental Management Council, Gail Walder, asked the greenway planners and Commissioner Ron Moline, Chairman of the Local Gov. Advisory Committee, “If the municipalities do not accept the Niagara River Greenway Plan, what happens to the money?” Mr. Warren Kahn, attorney for the Power Coalition member, Lewiston-Porter School District, stated that, “if the plan is not adopted we have already agreed to meet with NYPA and to renegotiate our funds.” (For some reason, the Niagara Gazette omitted this statement from the subsequent newspaper article.)

3.
In documenting Olmsted, the planners omitted several key points and philosophies. The National Association of Olmsted Parks (NAOP) (www.olmsted.org) identifies: …examples of the many kinds of designs by which the profession of landscape architecture could improve the quality of life in America. These included the large urban park, devoted primarily to the experience of scenery and designed so as to counteract the artificiality of the city and the stress of urban life; the parkway; the scenic reservation, protecting areas of special scenic beauty from destruction and commercial exploitation…

His principal projects in each category are:
1. Scenic reservation: the Niagara Reservation (1887)
2. Parkways: Bidwell and Chapin Parkways, Buffalo (1870)(wide, residential boulevards)
3. Park system: Buffalo-Delaware Park

Olmsted believed that it was the purpose of his art to affect the emotions. This was especially evident in his park design, where he created passages of scenery in which the visitor would become immersed; experiencing the restorative action of the landscape by what Olmsted termed an “unconscious” process. To achieve this result, he subordinated all elements of the design to the single purpose of making the landscape experience most profound. Olmsted always sought to look beyond the current taste and fashion and to base his designs on fundamental principals of
human psychology. As Olmsted expressed it, the term “scenery” does not apply to any field of vision in which all that is to be seen is clear and well defined in outline. References quoted: Beveridge, Charles, et al

Note: (Mr. Beveridge is the same resource two of the Niagara Heritage Partnership (NHP) founders used when they filmed “Fading in the Mist,” the award-winning, PBS documentary about the ongoing scenic destruction of Niagara Falls. A copy of this documentary was mailed to NYS OSPRHP Commissioner, Bernadette Castro. Our understanding from her is that she did not view the film.)

The NAOP’s Advocacy Role: Frederick Law Olmsted was more than a park designer; he was the leading voice for the provision of healthful, accessible and beautiful greenspaces for all citizens. Today, the NAOP sees its role in much the same way. This network preserves specific places and ensures that the Olmsted ideals of high quality design, abundance of natural elements and democratic accommodations are part of the modern parks movement.

4.
Strategic Pataki appointments and on-going ethics violations were ignored or dismissed. Former Gov. Pataki appointed the NYPA chairman, the NYS Parks Commissioner, the members of the Niagara Greenway Commission, the Secretary of State (this person oversees the Ethics Commission and is a Niagara Greenway Commissioner), he appoints members of the Ethics Commission and members to the Department of Transportation. Before leaving office he appointed the former NYPA chairman and local developer, Louis Ciminelli, to the NRG, replacing Commissioner Michael Cornell.

The Conservation Fund’s book, Greenways: A Guide to Planning, Design, and Development, states in its preface “even federal agencies involved in creating greenways concede that a top-down approach doesn’t work.” After reading the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Study (DGEIS) for Niagara River Greenway (NRG) and watching the forming of the Niagara Greenway, it’s become increasingly clear that The Conservation Fund’s statement is valid.

5.
The Niagara River Greenway’s DGEIS plan outlines eleven guiding principals and anticipates regional and governmental compliance. Yet, over half of those principals have already been either blatantly ignored or violated by members of the design team, some members of the NRG, two Niagara County Chambers of Commerce, and the Niagara Power Coalition the group that ultimately decides the fate of any suggested projects in Niagara County. (Please see the attached letter requesting an ethics investigation and other supporting documentation)

The Niagara Heritage Partnership’s (www.niagaraheritage.org) proposal for four lane parkway removal—between Niagara Falls and Lewiston—not only epitomizes every draft plan guiding principal, it’s actually a proposal for a genuine greenway that meets and exceeds every guiding principal put forth by the Wendel Duchscherer design team and the Niagara River Greenway Commission.

Despite the fact that NHP, as a NYPA relicensing stakeholder, was informed during the NYPA relicensing process that this issue of road removal, reclamation, and restoration would be addressed in the Niagara Greenway venue as it was “project specific,” this team of experts refused to support or implement their own guiding principals and proved this by omitting the NHP proposal. In fact, at the Citizens’ Advisory Meeting, held the same night as the revealing Gov. Advisory Meeting, Mr, Mistretta flatly stated that he “is not changing the plan.”

6.
The planners left off the “conceptual plan” every project the Niagara Frontier Wildlife Habitat Council put forth.

If the genuine greenway proposal and genuine greenway conservation and environmental
concepts put forth by NHP and the Habitat Council can be erroneously perceived by some as detrimental and lacking quality of life merit and economic value, what then is the widely accepted, genuine definition of a Greenway, according to viewpoints of other nonbiased states in the nation who have successfully implemented them?

The Conservation Fund’s American Greenways Program:
First, greenways offer a way to preserve vital habitat corridors, and to promote plant and animal species diversity. A greenway serves as a critical filtering zone, absorbing contaminates in surface runoff, and trees, and shrubs, and cover vegetation along the corridor cleanse and replenish the air. Greenways provide much needed space for outdoor recreation. It is ideally suited to such popular outdoor activities as jogging, walking, biking, fishing, and canoeing. They
provide safe, alternative, non-motorized transportation routes. Greenways link us to our communities, and, by lessening our dependence on the automobile, can improve air quality and reduce road congestion.

Greenways offer a way to protect our nation’s cultural heritage. They give us access to buildings of historic and architectural significance. They allow us to look back at our past and our traditions—to revisit remnants of settlements and the industrial centers that define our history. Greenways can help preserve the rural character of a community or safeguard areas of visual interest by protecting ridgelines, river corridors, and scenic resources. A greenway offers visual relief; its wooded breaks can frame and distinguish neighborhoods. Greenways are community amenities with an economic value. Greenways enhance the quality of life and can increase the value of surrounding properties. Greenway have been shown to draw tourists and have
been the catalyst behind new commercial development and the revitalization of former town centers.

Greenways Incorporated:
Two-thirds of all the trips we make are for a distance of five miles or less. Greenway trails, as part of a local or regional system, offer transportation alternatives by connecting homes, workplaces, schools, parks, planning centers and cultural attractions. Using trails to bicycle or walk for short-distance trips reduces air pollution and increases the mobility of those who cannot drive.

Greenways have been proven to attract and retain tourists and expand tourism revenues in many communities. A case in point is the Tallahassee-St.Marks Trail in Florida where approximately 170,000 people visit each year. A study from the real estate industry revealed that “walking and biking paths” ranked 3rd among 39 features indentified by homebuyers as crucial factors in their homemakingdecisions (1994 American Lives Study).

Cleveland/ Bradley County Greenway:
Greenways provide alternate transportation corridors; provide great economic returns to a region. Increased tourism and the resulting business growth add to the tax base and create jobs for residents. Greenways provide an excellent place for learning about ecology, often serving as living laboratories for students. People who live in communities that have greenways find these natural corridors become an integral part of an enriched quality of life.

New Bear Creek Greenway Site, Oregon
Paths are paved, suitable for walkers, joggers, bicyclists, skaters, strollers, and wheelchair users. Motorized vehicles, with the exception of maintenance vehicles and wheelchairs, are prohibited. The greenway is essential for preserving both the quality of Bear Creek’s water and its unique stream-side habitat. This corridor is a refuge for animals and it will increase in importance as population in Bear Creek grows. The enviable quality of life enjoyed by Bear Creek Valley residents is further enhanced by the existence of the Greenway.

Mission statement: The mission of the Bear Creek Greenway Foundation is to support acquiring land, restoring and protecting habitat, enhancing safety and security, constructing trails for the benefit of the general public. The Greenway trail will provide more alternative access to parks, and other destinations along the Greenway. The Greenway trail will allow families, individuals, and school classes access to places to observe wildlife.

Trails and Greenways Clearinghouse
Benefits of trails and greenways: creating new opportunities for outdoor recreation and non-motorized transportation; strengthening local economies, protecting the environment, preserving culturally and historically valuable areas.

Mr. Lyons, we recognized at the Stakeholders forum the close relationship Robert Moses, NYPA, and NYS OSPRHP have had for over fifty years and we realize that contemplating the removal of a road dedicated to him might border on the sacrilegious for NYPA and State Parks, but we are respectfully asking the Niagara Greenway Plan embrace the Olmsted Philosophies underlined in section 3 and as stated in the legislation that created the Niagara Greenway Commission.

We trust that you, Mr. Lyons, as a representative of the lead agency, and ultimately, Ms. Carol Ash, the new State Parks Commissioner, will recognize the creation of the Niagara River Greenway means more than the flow of dollars. It’s also about core values, civility, and working toward a common good that should benefit every individual, not just support the commercial goals of a very select few.


Enclosures:
October 30, 2006 Ethics Investigation Request Letter
October 30, 2006 Letter to Commissioner Castro re: DeVeaux Woods State Park
NYPA Timeline
April 21, 2006 Legislative Gazette, Letter to the Editor, Definition of a Greenway
Webpage printouts:
[1] Parkway Preservation Committee Members (revised by them, see original list
attached to Ethics Investigation Request Letter)
[2] Niagara USA Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
[3] Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority
[4] Buffalo Olmsted Parks Board of Trustees – Note Long-Range Planners
[5] Buffalo Rising Blog: Hello Niagara Power Coalition: “Greening Your Pockets?”