Letter to the Editor

"The song birds that brighten spring mornings have been in decline since the 1960's, having lost 40% of their numbers. Birds that breed in meadows are in even more trouble. Once common species such as the northern bobwhite, eastern meadowlark, field sparrow, and grasshopper sparrow have declined 82, 72, 68, and 65%, in total numbers, and are completely absent from many areas that used to support healthy populations. For most of us, hearing such numbers triggers a passing sadness, but few people feel personally threatened by the loss of biodiversity.

Here is why every one of us should feel threatened. Here is why it matters. Losses to biodiversity are a clear sign that our own life-support systems are failing. The ecosystems that support us-that determine the carrying capacity of our Earth and our local spaces--are run by biodiversity. It is biodiversity that generates oxygen and clean water, creates topsoil out of rock, buffers extreme weather events like droughts and floods, pollinates our crops, and recycles the mountains of garbage we create every day." (Doug Tallamy. Professor and Chair of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware, author Bringing Nature Home, Wild Ones member)

Grasslands, like those at the Lewiston Plateau Wildlife Refuge, provide valuable ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, storm water control, water filtration, absorption of air pollutants, oxygen production, habitat for rare birds and butterflies and agricultural pollinators. Grasslands also provide social benefits through enhanced recreational and tourism opportunities and education.

Wild Ones Niagara advocates for open space preservation and stewardship, biodiversity through local ecotype preservation (native plant communities), and Creative Tourism. Our region’s grasslands, woodlands, and ancient old growth forests have the potential to provide us with billions in economic and socioeconomic benefits. Our Niagara River Greenway (NRG) project, Regional Economic Growth Through Ecological Restoration of the Niagara Gorge Rim, has never been done. It elevates the Niagara River Greenway Plan to an exceptional level of excellence. At its core, reclamation, restoration, and a positive economic benefit assessment for all of Lewiston, Niagara Falls, and the Niagara River Greenway region. It includes the Lewiston Plateau Wildlife Refuge, the site of a future dog park.

The Wild Ones Niagara project lacks malice. They asked the NRG Commission to support the fully funded project by tabling the consistency determination for the dog park. That happened. The next day, the dog park proposal applied for funds from the Niagara County Host Community Standing Committee. They also were asked for a stay to complete the evaluations. Lewiston refused, claiming private land ownership. They were funded without a NRG consistency determination.

Why circumvent a regional process and research? On 27 May 2010 a request letter to the Lewiston Supervisor concluded, “At the end of the day, it’s not that programs and projects are about reclamation and restoration; it’s that they are also about education. Education in these financially challenging times is what is going to save us.”

Letter to Town of Lewiston, NY

26 May 2010
Dear Supervisor Reiter,

During your recent service as Highway Supervisor, I was told that you supported the Niagara Heritage Partnership’s proposal of reclamation and open space preservation along the Niagara Gorge Rim.

When the media stated you were the new Town of Lewiston Supervisor, I experienced a tremendous surge of optimism for the Niagara River Greenway and our region. I believed someone was finally elected in Lewiston that was progressive, an independent thinker, and a man of positive action. You were approachable, quick to return my phone calls, and gracious when I asked for your letter of support for the Wild Ones Niagara Greenway project, Regional Economic Growth Through Ecological Restoration of the Niagara Gorge Rim.

You and I created history in the Niagara River Greenway. We accomplished something that the entire Greenway process was unable to do. We breached political constraints and we opened municipal boundaries of cooperation.

Wild Ones Niagara accomplished another first in the Greenway. We obtained a major private investor with global associations in the Hospitality Industry. They have a keen interest in the Niagara River Greenway and in preserving the natural landscapes of the Niagara Gorge Rim. 

I can understand why you felt “blindsided” by my reading of EDR’s 18 May 2010 letter at the Niagara River Greenway meeting. Can you understand that I felt blindsided when I read in the Niagara Gazette that the Town of Lewiston was not only planning a dog park, but also intending to create an access road from the Robert Moses Parkway to the upper parking level at Artpark?

I asked EDR to write the letter, not to hurt Lewiston, but to protect what I viewed as yet another attempt to stop the Wild Ones Niagara study. It’s a study, Steve, based on an open space preservation vision. At its core is a positive economic benefit assessment for all of Lewiston, Niagara Falls, and the Niagara River Greenway.

There is a provision on page 35 of the Niagara River Greenway Plan that states under "Criteria for Project Submission:

Chapter 4 Action Plan:
9. Consideration of other planning efforts There has been a great deal of effort and thought put into various plans for each of the municipalities along the Niagara River Greenway corridor, as well as many planning efforts that cross municipal boundaries...Topic specific studies, including those dealing with stormwater management, remedial action plans, brownfield studies, heritage tourism, and other plans should also be taken into consideration. Proposals for projects should be built upon the work that has been completed, and be consistent with local goals, values and visions, while meeting best practices and models set forth…”

We believe our project deserves that consideration. While I feel you dismissed my fully funded project, I do believe that I owe you an apology. I should have immediately contacted you and (NY) State Parks to ask if you would please table the Dog Park at the Plateau or evaluate an alternative location--Joseph Davis State Park. Joe Davis has all of the amenities a dog park needs: ample space, water and electricity, fencing in the defunct pool area, and parking. They already conduct dog races there.

I also should have provided you and State Parks with articles about the value of grasslands. Did you know that grasslands “provide valuable ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, stormwater control, water filtration, absorption of air pollutants, oxygen production, and habitat? Native grasslands provide opportunities for wild life, especially migratory land birds. Grassland habitats also provide social benefits like enhanced recreational opportunities and education.”(Link here: Wildflower Magazine, Summer 2010 Vol.26, No. 4 pg. 24-27)

"At the end of the day, [it’s not that our project is reclamation and restoration; it’s also about education.] Education in these financially challenging times is what is going to save us." (Wildflower Magazine)

Will you please extend your continued support for our project by tabling the dog park at the Plateau until we complete our end-product, an interactive media presentation and economic assessment?  The completed study will document how tremendous the economic benefits of a fully restored gorge rim are to you, the Town of Lewiston, Niagara Falls, the Niagara River Greenway, and the region. 

Related articles by Zemanta

• Wild Ones Niagara and Sense of Place (fadingintomyth.blogspot.com)
• Building Principals [Leaders, Business, and Communities] on Core Values (fadingintomyth.blogspot.com)
• Quote of the Day (fadingintomyth.blogspot.com)
• Ecological Restoration

Rare Bird Alert from Dial-a-Bird

Image via Wikipedia

Thursday, January 28, 2010

 Dial-a-Bird is a service provided by your Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Ornithological Society. Press (2) to leave a message, (3) for updates, meeting and field trip information and (4) for instructions on how to report sightings. To contact the Science Museum, call 896-5200.

 Highlights of reports received January 21 through January 28 from the Niagara Frontier Region include KING EIDER, RED-THROATED LOON, RED-NECKED GREBE and SNOWY OWL.

 From Buffalo, January 23, beyond abundant waterfowl on the Niagara River between the ice boom and Peace Bridge. Two KING EIDERS, a female and first winter male, were picked out of an an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 waterfowl, dominated by SCAUP, COMMON GOLDENEYE, COMMON MERGANSER, BUFFLEHEAD, CANVASBACK and REDHEAD. The eiders were seen from the tower at the Erie Basin Marina. A RUDDY DUCK was also found at the marina, and 2 adult BALD EAGLES on the ice boom. BONAPARTE'S GULLS at the Peace Bridge have ranged from abundant to absent during January.

 January 23 on Lake Ontario at Golden Hill State Park in Somerset, highlights were several rare in winter RED- THROATED LOONS and RED-NECKED GREBES, plus 26 HORNED GREBES. On the 24th, on the lake off Wilson and Porter, 11 RED-
 THROATED LOONS and 2 RED-NECKED GREBES. Also in Porter at Fort Niagara State Park, GLAUCOUS GULL and SURF SCOTER, plus numerous WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS and LONG-TAILED DUCKS.

 Still on the 23d, in the Lake Ontario Plains, the SNOWY OWL continues at Sawyer Cemetery on Route 18 in Somerset. Two NORTHERN SHRIKES in Yates and Somerset. It was noted that ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS are missing from traditional winter locations in the plains.

 Other reports this week - on the upper Niagara River at Beaver Island State Park, Motor Island and Strawberry Island, 87 GREAT BLUE HERONS, 212 TUNDRA SWANS, BALD EAGLE and impressive numbers of mixed waterfowl. On the lower river, 2 LITTLE GULLS at Lewiston. At Tifft Nature Preserve in Buffalo, up to 60 AMERICAN ROBINS, 10 AMER. TREE SPARROWS and a WHITE-THR. SPARROW. Six EASTERN BLUEBIRDS in the Town of Wilson, and a single EASTERN BLUEBIRD on the West River Parkway on Grand Island.

Niagara The Park - A Vision Since 1998

Preserving nature will help region's tourist industry
Niagara Gazette, 19 March 1998
The generations of the Niagara region have neatly placed their responsibilities into tightly sealed bags. We have divided them so they don't overlap. We see our responsibilities as existing only in our lifetimes. It's time we look at the world around us in a communal sense, in a realm of continuation. We can do this by supporting The Niagara Heritage Partnership and its "Niagara The Park" concept.

The Niagara River has endured much abuse at the hands of our forefathers. In our inactivity we are equally guilty. We live in an area rich in potential, yet we have polluted it and tainted its natural beauty. With the deterioration of the land around us, so too, does our economy fail. If we look to Canada we see massive tourism. This tourism Is greatly influenced by the care the Canadians have given to the land.

The Niagara Heritage Partnership has adopted the "Niagara The Park" concept, which proposes to boost the economy by returning this natural beauty to our side of the gorge. This can be done by the removal of the Robert Moses Parkway along the top of the gorge from the Schoellkopf Museum to Lewiston and the restoration of parkland and native flora that once grew there. The Niagara Heritage Partnership proposes that this will "attract positive national and international attention in the ecotourism market, the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry."

The Niagara River stretches approximately 45 miles. We have polluted, developed and virtually destroyed the natural beauty of our side of the river. To restore this land would give this area a much-needed boost to the economy with tourism and it would force those traveling to use alternate routes such as Main Street, Buffalo Avenue, Hyde Park Boulevard and Pine Avenue. The current route of the Robert Moses allows people to travel through Niagara Falls without passing any local businesses.

We owe it to our future generations to revitalize the economy and our natural resources. We are caregivers to land but our actions show us as thieves in the night slipping over the fence to rob the garden, leaving waste. We can no longer pack responsibilities in air-tight bags.

Christine Patrice Gebera, North Tonawanda

Niagara Falls - Look What We're Missing by Keeping The Robert Moses Parkway

Here are more statistics from the Land Trust Alliance documenting the economic benefits the city of Niagara Falls could gain. Those opposed to parkway removal need to get out of the way of progress.

According to government data, tourism such as visits to local farms, trails and nature preserves in the Hudson Valley alone annually generates $4.7 billion in spending and $300 million in local taxes, and employs 80,000 people. In a report released earlier this year, the Trust for Public Land says that it is widely understood that investments in conservation boost property values, support businesses, save energy and tax payer money, and safeguard natural ecosystems on which economic well being depends. With the grant awards announced today, land trusts will advance significant projects at a critical time for communities and businesses across the state.

Pete Grannis, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, said: “Today’s funding will help to continue our efforts to build and strengthen this important collaboration across the state by assisting organizations that work with DEC to identify, preserve and protect parcels of varying sizes and ecological importance.

Author Ginger Strand Advocates Free Niagara, Remove the Robert Moses Parkway

Ginger Strand, Inventing Niagara, had this to say about the on-going issue to remove a 6.5 mile section of the Robert Moses Parkway: "Having spent several years researching the nooks and crannies of the Niagara region, I can honestly say that the Niagara Gorge is one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever had the chance to get to know. For a real appreciation of the "great wonder" of Niagara Falls, experiencing the gorge is necessary. I cannot say the same for the Robert Moses Parkway. It's my opinion that Niagara Falls has much more to gain from restoring the natural attractions of the gorge than it does from preserving this highway. As long as the state parks and the Power Vista were accessible, the area would only be enhanced as a tourist destination, and for the locals who love this place, the payoff would be immeasurable. Not only that, but Niagara would once again take a place at the head of the movement toward environmental restoration. It's time to "free Niagara" once again."

You can read other comments on the Niagara Heritage Partnership's website here and learn more about the first Free Niagara movement here.

Reviving Main Street, Niagara Falls, Guest Author - Bob Baxter

NIAGARA GORGE PLAN

NIAGARA HERITAGE PARTNERSHIP

Comments made to the Main Street Business and Professionals Association, the LaSalle Business Association, and the Niagara Street Business Association at the Earl W. Brydges Public Library, Niagara Falls, New York, 31 May 2000.

The Niagara Heritage Partnership is a group of people who advocate the preservation and restoration of the region's natural environment, and who encourage socially responsible development. The question before us this evening is how waterfront revitalization, generally, and, more specifically, the restoration of the natural environment can relate to an improved business environment for the North End, Main Street and other communities. The Niagara Heritage Partnership believes the answer is clear and we'll attempt to elaborate on the proposal here that we first made in the fall of 1997.

In order for the North End business to grow and prosper, a new clientele needs to be developed. As you know, the era when Main Street U.S.A. provided most of the consumer goods to city residents is generally over, except for notable exceptions, superceded by discount stores and shopping malls in areas away from the cities. When we mention a new clientele, therefore, we refer to two populations: the millions of tourists who visit the city annually, just a mile or two away, and the brand new, emerging population of ecotourists who seek interaction with the natural environment when vacationing, even selecting vacation spots based on that single criterion. Main Street and other Niagara business communities can benefit from both groups.

These groups, incidentally, are infrequently separate and distinct from one another, but are intermingled. We speak about them separately because separate strategies might be required to market the business districts, at least in the initial stages. With that in mind, let us first look at what our proposal entails, how it fits in with the larger plans of our region, and what specifically will appeal to ecotourists.

The Niagara Heritage Partnership proposes removing the portion of the Robert Moses Parkway which runs along the top of the Niagara Gorge between Niagara Falls, New York, and Lewiston, New York, and that the gorgetop be restored with forest, and long-grass wildflower meadow. Hiking and bicycling trails would travel the entire 6.5 mile length. This restoration plan is consistent with the recent announcement by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation that Goat Island, the Niagara Reservation, will be restored to and maintained in a more natural condition. Such a restoration and trail creation proposal is also consistent regionally, providing the "middle link" for trails to be constructed along the upper river and the trail currently being completed from Lewiston, New York, to Youngstown, New York. This would provide nearly 20 miles of unparalleled hiking and bicycling trails attractive to ecotourists whose projected economic impact to our region is extremely high, based on evidence from other communities where such trails have been created. Our trails would be especially attractive because our region, most notably the Niagara River Corridor, is located in a major flyway for migrating birds, for which it has received international recognition. In December, 1996, groups such as the National Audubon Society, the American Bird Conservatory, the Canadian Nature Federation, and Bird Studies Canada gathered to designate the Niagara River and its shorelines as a Globally Significant Important Bird Area, vital to migrating birds and crucial to the long-term survival of North American bird populations. Parkway removal and natural restoration would add over 300 acres to this critical habitat.

The Falls at Niagara are the largest nontropical waterfalls on earth. Known the world over as an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon, they and surrounding wilderness areas are worthy of our protection. As P.M. Eckel, a Research Associate in Botany at the Buffalo Museum of Science, wrote in the Clintonia, Magazine of the Niagara Frontier Botanical Society:

Every shrub, tree or herb in the Niagara River Gorge and Falls area is of historic importance. The vegetation is the matrix within which human beings have discovered the soul-stirring spectacle of the Falls, and is an inextricable part of the Canadian and American national treasure that is the Niagara River. It is within the forest canopy that the Seneca interacted with the French, the British, the (Revolutionary) Americans and (Loyalist) Canadians; within its greenery, economic features developed according to the genius of the national temperaments of two nations, and the international struggle to keep the Niagara woodlands [that] took shape in mid to later 1800's. That struggle continues.

The Niagara Heritage Partnership is part of that struggle, and it is in this context that we offer our proposal for the restoration of the Niagara gorgetop.

Such a restoration will create a natural environment that will protect the existing rare plants, including remarkable cliff-face gorge cedars that began life in the 1600s, before Europeans spread over the continent, and including the old growth forest and its understory plants on the property at DeVeaux, recently acquired by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historical Preservation to be a part of our state park system. Removing the four lanes of ugly concrete and replacing them with flowing long-grass wildflower meadows and forested areas would recreate a landscape lost to us centuries ago, as described by Father Hennepin in 1678: "almost all prairies mingled with some oaks and firs," he wrote.

This marvelous landscape would be intriguing to even the casual tourist, for whom it would be possible, in ordinary street clothing, to spend time walking some portion of the gorgetop hiking path. The long grasses would provide cover for groundnesting birds, the wildflowers would quickly attract native butterflies. For those visitors who seek out green vacations, and there are millions of them, including 54.1 million birders, our region would be especially appealing.

The Niagara Heritage proposal does eliminate the inappropriate vehicle traffic along the length of the gorgetop. It does not, however, limit vehicular access to the gorge at various points, from which it can still be enjoyed by people who are unable, unwilling, or simply too foot-weary to walk through this wonderful region of wilderness. Automobiles, viewmobiles, tour buses, and other people movers will still be able to travel the short distance from Main Street to an impressive gorge overlook at the Schoellkopf Geological Museum, surrounded by a mowed grass, landscaped park. The Aquarium of Niagara, a short distance from gorgetop, would be accessible by city street or by walkover from Schoellkopf, as it is now. Whirlpool State Park would be vehicle-accessible from Lewiston Road on a reconfigured Findlay Drive extension. Devil's Hole would remain accessible to vehicles from the Lewiston Road parking lot currently in use. The Power Vista would still provide parking and the gorge vista for which it was named. That adds up to four vehicle access points in four miles. If we were to count other gorge views accessible by vehicle or short walks, and we intend to, then the views from Terrapin Point, Cave of the Winds, the Maid of the Mist boat ride, the Observation Tower, Prospect Point, the Crow's Nest and other points along roads and bridges should add at least seven more, plus the dramatic view from ArtPark where the gorge ends almost abruptly, falling away to high river banks, which brings the total to twelve. We believe that is sufficient.

We reject the notion that part or all of the parkway should be kept because it functions as a transportation highway to, through, or around the city for residents living north of the falls. That rationale is not legitimate. There are other serviceable routes.

Removing the four lanes of the parkway that divides Whirlpool State Park from the old growth forest at DeVeaux would permit the forest to extend itself toward Whirlpool. The mature trees on the median there, spared by parkway construction 40 years ago, would become part of the forest again. The spreading forest would be contained by the edge of the Whirlpool mowed-grass park. Inside the park, visitors who are sightseeing and picnicking would enjoy the experience of being in a forest clearing, bounded on one side by the Niagara Gorge.

Devil's Hole State Park, the site where 50 to 60 soldiers were massacred by the Senecas, is dishonored by parkway lanes, reduced to a pathetic sliver of mowed grass and a parking lot. The 1992 Niagara Waterfront Master Plan proposes further disrespect: enlarging the parking lot and constructing a "turn-around," presumably for people movers. In contrast, The Niagara Heritage Partnership believes this ground should be enlarged by parkway removal, restored, and treated as a memorial to those who died in early conflict on the Niagara Frontier.

Most significant to the business community, with the parkway gone, running state-sanctioned people movers along the gorgetop, as proposed by the Master Plan, will no longer be a possibility. Now the creative ideas put forth in the Main Street business communities' 10-year plan begin to assume their full potential, one in particular. Now the opportunity for viewmobile or trackless trolleys, or double-decker, open-top tour vehicles following a Main Street route can be vigorously pursued. These would combine the urban and natural environment experience, providing historical, architectural, city tours with side trips to DeVeaux, Whirlpool, and Devil's Hole State Parks, the Castellani Art Museum, the Power Vista, and ArtPark. People here this evening can probably name focal points other than the Armory, the old Carnegie Library, the local history floor and gift shop of the Earl W. Brydges Library, the gallery at Now Graphics, the collection of Niagara volumes at the Book Corner, and the historic stone wall at Ontario and Main.

The idea of these city tours needs to move beyond the conceptual into a fleshed out, detailed plan--what routes should be traveled, what points of interest covered, what information provided--a plan complete enough to sell, a plan lacking only the hardware, the actual trains or buses. While individual van tours will be an important component of city tours, they would be no substitute for the long visit, high volume, multiple departure, regularly scheduled "viewmobile" variety tours.

Would tour guides have to learn about the treasures that Niagara has to share? Of course they would. Perhaps local historians and history teachers, the Urban Design Group, and the Inventory of Historic Resources could help with this. Do new businesses catering to visitors need to open? Of course they do. How many months lead time would be needed if we knew the parkway were to be gone and people movers were to begin making regular stops to drop off and pick up people at various spots on Main Street? Could sidewalk cafes and souvenir shops open or tables be set up? Could vendors, street musicians, and bands be invited? Photography galleries or studios? Street photographers? Additional dining accommodations? Can we imagine a bicycle rental business? Could concrete planters line the street, complementing the "flowering grates" idea of the 10-year plan, and extending the park theme into the city? Could a few more trees be planted? If storefronts are still covered with sheets of particleboard that first touring season, those should become canvases, covered with murals depicting various aspects of Niagara history, LaSalle's Griffon, fur traders, early forts, industry, power generation, daredevils and so on. We certainly have more history, more stories, than we have sheets of particleboard. Art students from area high schools, NCCC, and Niagara University and others could be invited to design and paint. Perhaps the Niagara Council of the Arts could be involved. The murals could still be in the process of being created as visitors toured.

If tours made stops every half hour for ten hours during the height of the season--and this is a modest example--each people mover carrying 50 people, that's 1,000 people a day. That doesn't seem unrealistic when the low-ball estimate of visitors to Niagara is 7 million annually. If each person spent $20.00 (again, T-shirt and fast food meal = $20.00) that's $140,000 a week. If you think the numbers are too low, double either one to hit $280,000.

We use Main Street as an example. But we imagine such tours extending to include routes throughout the city. We have a lot of stories to tell: the story of power generation, aerospace, bridge building, Underground Railroad, an incredible history of ethnic contribution to the richness of our past. Pine Avenue could participate with "Little Italy" tours, Highland Avenue with the proposed "Little Harlem at the Falls" revitalization with boutiques, restaurants, replication of village safe houses where runaway slaves stayed, a theater, storytellers, flag-lined streets, and other attractions, Niagara Street with its planned International Boulevard and Square, restaurants serving Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Thai menus, industrial tours down Buffalo Avenue to LaSalle, as suggested by Paul Gromosiak, perhaps, to a small museum with its replica of the Griffon, the craft that heralded in the age of shipping on the Great Lakes.

The Niagara Heritage Partnership does not imagine that city tours can be established without enormous hard work, without rethinking and reforming some of the basic structures which accommodate millions of the visitors annually. We hear, for example, much about the typical, almost mythical, four-hour stay of the average tourist. Yet, some bus tours seem designed to minimize the time customers spend in the area. This is good business from their point of view: So much time on Goat Island, a quick-pace to the railing for a photograph at Prospect Point, then off to Factory Outlet. The Goat Island viewmobile ride can be over in about thirty minutes if visitors merely ride and look. Do I exaggerate? Not by much.

There may always be those who want to vacation in this fashion, but perhaps some of them could be convinced to return to spend more time in a leisurely manner. It might be those few notes of blues music they hear on their way to their ten minutes of allotted time at Whirlpool, the glimpse of seagulls soaring on the updrafts over the gorge, or a glossy brochure telling them about historical church tours through city streets, the complimentary six-dollar ticket for two days worth of unlimited riding on the trackless trolley, the "Ride into History" train. And a two-day ticket should be the only one sold, incidentally--unless it's four days for ten dollars.

Within the ecotourism population are two groups of special significance--hikers and bicyclists. There are over 175 bicycling organizations in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and the Province of Ontario. Hikers number over 20,000 in just one New York organization, the Adirondack Mountain Club. The New York - New Jersey Trail Conference has over 50,000 members. Hiking is so well established that in 1993 National Trail Day was established by the American Hiking Society in recognition of the popular activity, to be celebrated locally on June 10th at the Orin Lehman Center at Prospect Point. The American Hiking Society promotes public awareness and appreciation for trails and partnerships between trail groups and business interests.

Surveys reveal that cyclists traveling in groups spend $50.00 a day for lodging, $60.00 each a day when cycling alone (1988). Could Main Street offer a hostel, small-room lodging, for hikers, bicyclists, and other visitors? These groups should be, if the Niagara Heritage Partnership proposal becomes reality, contacted personally, months before the trails are completed, so they will be able to do advance planning for road trips, rallies, races, hiking meets, and conferences.

A trail within the gorge should soon be completed by State Parks, so the region will be able to offer hiking trails of varying demand levels, suitable for all ages and degrees of physical preparedness. These groups, or their individual members, treated hospitably, and finding an area of remarkable, varying natural landscapes, such as we would have to offer with the parkway gone and restoration underway, would tend to repeatedly spend time at Niagara.

Two final comments remain. The Niagara Heritage Partnership believes that full benefit will come to the Main Street and other business communities only as a result of full parkway removal, all lanes, all the way. Anything less will lead to the eventual gorgetop tours, people movers along the length, combined with the retention of everyday traffic lanes. Potential for riders on city tours will be drastically reduced. The gorge will be further degraded.

Ecotourists, especially those committed to at least the illusion of a wilderness experience, will not be particularly impressed. Can you imagine significant numbers of hikers or bicycle riders traveling here to be subjected to the sight and sound of motor vehicles passing them during their outdoor ventures? They could hike or bicycle along any road to experience that.

If the parkway is removed, with trails running through restored natural landscapes, the project will most certainly attract widespread media attention, in print and film, in an impressive array of publications and venues. This extensive coverage should be encouraged and facilitated, but not relied upon as sufficient. The accomplishment also needs to be well-publicized with a savvy, high concept, glossy, Madison Avenue media campaign announcing to the world what has been achieved here. There can be no shortcuts, no cost-cutting, no halfway measures. If it costs a million, it costs a million. The money must be found somewhere. A three-paragraph notation in a pamphlet with the photograph of the American Falls on the cover, negative reversed so that the Bridal Veil Falls is depicted on the north side, will not be good enough.

Bob Baxter, Founding member - Niagara Heritage Partnership

National Association for Olmsted Parks - Economic Benefits, Parks Practices

City parks are dynamic institutions that play a vital, but not fully appreciated or understood role in the social, economic, and physical well-being of America's cities and its residents. Dating back to the 19th century when Frederick Law Olmsted introduced the first large-scale city parks to this country, these green spaces provided relief from urban intensity for city residents and brought people together across social, economic and racial divides. In the postwar years, when the population shifted away from urban centers, our nation's city parks suffered enormously from disinvestments and many are still experiencing it.

As cities across the country are attracting millions of residents again, the center of this sweeping urban renaissance are newly revitalized parks. They are not only safe and beautiful, but also serve as green engines to help address nearly every critical urban need from health to housing, to education and environmental justice, and countering sprawl to combating crime. This massive movement to rebuild America's forgotten city parks now includes thousands of community partnerships and millions of volunteers.

The Parks Practices Web site has been developed by the City Parks Alliance (CPA) and National Association for Olmsted Parks (NAOP) partnership to assist local parks in meeting their current needs more effectively as they encounter the ever present challenges in preserving, maintaining, operating and funding their parks and in serving their increasingly diverse constituents. Park leaders have developed innovative approaches to address these issues, responding to a changing economic climate where public budgets for city parks have been reduced and the reliance on the public sector grows. The site seeks to highlight the experience of CPA and NAOP members both successes and failures, facilitate a sharing of lessons learned, and provide opportunities for interaction among city park leaders and citizen groups. It is hoped that through this effort there will be greater investment in city parks across the country and a renewed interest in their role as centers of our common heritage. (Source: National Association for Olmsted Parks)

Moses Parkway Retentionists Stamp Feet, Ignore the Million Tourists Surveyed

“Little knotheads” is a thesis my old-school, Sicilian father muttered when he observed willful ignorance, selfish motives and actions, and a failure to listen or acknowledge information.

Open letter about road removal between Lewiston and Niagara Falls

Emerson,
Here are my candid observations about your email urging peers to “consider both sides of the Robert Moses Parkway (RMP) issue before blindly signing” the Niagara Heritage Partnership (NHP) online petition for road removal between Niagara Falls and Lewiston.

In the last four years, you and the Parkway Preservation Committee have ignored the benefits of road removal.

Your unsubstantiated opinion is the RMP is “an artery” for Old Fort Niagara State Park. You ignored Main Street, Youngstown, the Fort’s mainline front door.

The NHP proposal repairs the aneurism Robert Moses caused when he built the RMP, bypassing every Niagara Falls’ business direct. Main Street, Little Italy's Pine Avenue, Third Street and Niagara Street.

Removal rehabilitates that urban-decay abscess. It creates a new life support system with documented economic stimulus numbers and new urbanism thinking.

1. Hundreds of thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in tourism revenue. Data supplied by cities implementing road removal.

2. Seoul, Korea reclaimed a stream for open space. They removed 6-lanes. (Feb. 2009, Scientific American, pages 20-22)

3. USA Niagara proposed the 6-mile segment along the lower river gorge from Niagara Falls to Lewiston be removed." (A View From The Falls: The Demand and Opportunity For Hotel Development in Niagara Falls, page 51.)

4. The Curriculum Guide for Green Infrastructure Planning: "There are economic reasons for protecting "viewsheds" since they are important to attracting…Heritage Tourists...spend[ing] on average two-and-one-half times [more] than other tourists."

5. The New York Natural Heritage Program's Conservation Guide: roads and their associated run-offs are detrimental to calcareous cliff communities. page 2

6. The Smart Growth Network's "Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Policies for Implementation" pages 43-44- Chapter 6- "there is a sense of urgency to saving critical environmental areas. Communities MUST work with other communities in their region and political leaders to expend the resources and develop the innovative techniques to make open space preservation a reality."

7. RMP removal between Niagara Falls and Lewiston is what the Niagara River Greenway aspires to. See the 11 guiding principals, chapter 3, Niagara River Greenway Plan.

8. Counter compromise merely means keeping the current two lanes open.

Emerson, lead, follow, or get out of the way.

Winged Magellans

It's so clear to me. A six-mile section along the Niagara River Gorge rim where having it all is showcased by a gift of natural scenic wonder, a waterfall landscape so botanically unique that not protecting it is a living global nightmare.

It’s a restored old growth forest, an urban forest of ancients: oaks, hickories, and stunted gorge wall cedars, some 500 and 1,000 years of age. Unique calcareous cliff botanicals, rare blue asters included. It’s standing at the floor of time, the gorge walls a story, a geological slice of earth beginning. It’s glacial identity and diversity engraved by relenting, rushing water, a fall, cascading from four great lakes.

In this recognized globally significant migration zone, bald eagles soar on gorge thermals with migrant songbirds, winged Magellans, on the way back or to other-side-of-the-world locations.

It’s a six-mile walk, a careful, humbling Tubman trek, an experiential wild-eyed glimpse into fear and courage, prodded in the back by her rifle, a duel jeopardy reminder, mind-change flight versus the death of freedom.

It’s Native American sacred ground covered by Moses, his irreverent black pavement smear, the war of ongoing prejudice.

It’s so clear that non-motorized is a vision filled with unlimited possibility, the way Tesla first viewed Niagara’s raw water power turbulence. It’s the masses with head lifted, faces sprinkled by mist, tears, and rainbows.

Despite four years of research documenting hundreds of thousands of new jobs, tourist revenues in the billions, and an informal survey of millions supporting a vision, the remaining undeveloped landscape that makes Niagara Falls unique is almost extinct.

Define Integrity. Then Answer: Do I Have It?

Integrity’s a willingness to take a controversial stand over removing the Robert Moses Gorge Parkway to protect the natural landscape, a calcareous cliff community along the Niagara gorge-- a unique, fragile botanical and old growth environment. It’s the courage to speak against the status quo.

It’s an embrace given in a shared hospital elevator, an offer to listen over coffee when one adversary in tears states her mother’s admitted.

Integrity's my clear blue gaze meeting fourteen granite faces at a microphone, a presentation of employment facts and eco-tourism profits listed, bulleted in a mild tone, countering bureaucracy: a poor subjective decision to compromise principals and transparency in regional greenway spending.

Integrity's my slight head tilt, an unstated acknowledgment that, yes, two key people abandoned a shared environmental commitment by claiming a project consistent, one also sanctioned the commission’s decision to send letters, remonstrations, written to marginalize two Niagara resolutions--maneuvers consistent with social ostracism, silent peer criticism, and political isolation. My thank-you to the Commission for the speaking opportunity graced their public forum momentarily silent.

The morning headline: GREENWAY: Lewiston plan wins approval. Parkway removal advocates question pathway’s impact on roadway.

Integrity is locating a granule of infinitesimal gold in those I dislike. I admire the mayor who fights for his municipality.