NATURE INSPIRES IN UNION SPRINGS

Proposal shakes school's commitment to Cook Forest

JENIER ZWICK

Staff Writer

UNION SPRINGS - When students in Union Springs want to see nature in action, they pile into a bus, head over to the 120-acre Lettie M. Cook Memorial Forest and learn about the outdoors.

The school board is considering construction of a $700,000 building with two classrooms in the forest. But local resident William Hecht told board members Tuesday he has a better idea that would save money and move a nature center closer to home.

"What I'm looking for is a. nature trail that would connect into (Fox Lane Apartments), Frontenac Park and the mill pond," Hecht said. "We can chop off a half-million from this budget and do it right here."

Hecht argued that property adjacent to the school would serve the same purpose. And with the Sterling Nature Center, the Cayuga Nature Center and the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge all close by, those existing resources could be tapped for more extensive projects.

"Even before the events of Sept. 11, nature centers struggled to find support either through tax dollars or public and private funds," he said. "In the present economic situation, it'll be all the harder."

Hecht proposed the school use land south of the middle/high school instead of Cook Forest,. located between Union Springs and Cayuga. But the school doesn't own the property Hecht mentioned, so it would have to find a way to acquire it before anything could be done.

And as a comxnunity member addressing the board, Hecht's idea remains just that - an idea.

"I was trying to figure out where he's coming from," said John Murphy, the school's Cook Forest coordinator. "He represents nobody. He's a special-interest group in and of himself."

Cook Forest benefits

Murphy said he has nothing against the proposal; but for the school to maintain ownership of the forest it must use it, which it has done since 1940.

"When the Cook family gave the forest to the school district, it's called a covenant, and that's a contract that can't be broken," Murphy said. "If you break it, you lose the land." In that agreement, the Cook family asked that the school use the forest for educational purposes. With more than 400 students already benefiting from the site this year alone, that's exactly what's happening. The forest has already been opened up to Boy and Girl Scout troops, Cayuga Community College, Cayuga County Cooperative Extension and a worldwide online data-sharing system.

"We're doing that kind of thing right now," Murphy said. "We're also assessing Yawger Creek right there. One of the ways you can assess a stream is by assessing the environment around it."

The idea to use land adjacent to the high school isn't a bad one, Murphy said, but it shouldn't take the place of the resources the school has in Cook Forest. The school already has plans to encourage bird-watching societies such as Audubon to conduct winter bird counts at the site. With help from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the school is also turning one of the forest's two ponds into an aquaculture area.

"That alone should tell us not to do away with the project," he said. "It allows much more diversity in environments. The whole idea behind this is to restore wetlands."

Center for learning

The Union Springs renovation project calls for a building in Cook Forest. The structure will likely be a two-classroom building to house scientific materials. Costs would include technology used by students at the site. Rather than identifying trees outside and bringing them, back to the schools to study, students would learn on-the-spot at the outdoor classroom, Murphy said.

"It's also what I'd call a multi-purpose unit," Murphy said. "You

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Hecht plan moves nature closer to school

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could have board meetings there, scout meetings. We want it to be accessible."

The school would also make the building available to cornmunity groups looking for a nature-setting for meetings, and a cross-country meet is already planned for the property. Eventually; Murphy said he'd like to see the site draw the kind of use. Southern Cayuga's planetarium gets.

Hecht also worried a setup like that would draw some unwanted attention to the area.

Many people believe, Hecht said, "that a large facility as proposed for the Cook Forest would be an unnecessary expense and would be a target for vandals."

But in Murphy's time in the forest, he has yet to see any serious signs of vandalism, and even less litter.

"The access to teen-agers is actually a lot more in the village than it is three miles away," said Murphy, who will present his side of the argument to the school board at its next meeting on Nov. 27.

"I wish (Hecht) had come to me," Murphy said. "This guy came out of nowhere, and it's hard to defend yourself wben you don't know what to defend. I'd really like to hear his proposals. It's not that I disagree, but then let's do both. That site might be developed, and I'd encourage it to be developed, but not in lieu of the commitment weve made to Cook Forest."

For questions or comments

about this stoiy, contact Staff Writer

Jennifer Zwick at 253-5311, Ext.

267.