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What's New
Click here to read
the Syracuse New Times article about us
New Nature Preserve,
Marie's Woods
The end of
2008 brought us another addition to our family of nature
preserves. We have just received a gift of 66 acres of
woods and wetlands, located in the northern edge of Cicero, New
York.
Cicero residents Jerry & Marie Blackman
were concerned that the natural lands in their area were being
consumed by development. So in 2001, when the wooded property
across from their home went on the market, they purchased it,
with the goal of protecting it and keeping it in its natural
state. To ensure that property would remain forever wild, they
donated it to Central New York.
“Marie’s Woods”, as the
Blackmans named it, lays just a stone’s throw from the shores of
Oneida
Lake, and features excellent
public access with frontage along both Lakeshore Road and Cicero
Center Road. The property also abuts the parking lot for the
Valentine’s Beach/Joseph E. William Memorial Park on the south
side of Lakeshore Road. It already has a ˝ mile of trail
crossing the property, with trail heads located on Lakeshore
Road and at the back of the town parking lot. Because the
preserve is so new our signage is not yet in place but
over the winter, our Stewardship Committee will begin to post
the boundaries, and start formulating a management plan.
Our new preserve is level and covered
almost entirely in mature mixed hardwood second growth
woodland. The woodland falls into two
major types: the first type is found in the northern portion and
is dominated by green ash, red maple, cottonwood, and elm, some
of which are surprisingly large, with a thick undergrowth of
sensitive fern. As these species indicate, DEC maps show the
property contains about 15 acres of scattered wetland, although
little standing water. The second habitat type consists of
sugar maple, beech, basswood, and hemlock, and these species are
more indicative of an upland location. Several kinds of ferns,
including New York, Christmas, and evergreen wood, can be found
throughout this habitat type. There is also a small linear
meadow crossing the property over a buried gas line.
We plan to
offer a tour of our new gem during our annual “Spring on the
Land Hike” in 2009. As a
result of
Jerry & Marie Blackman’s generosity, and their concern for
natural land, we all benefit.
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