Utica Marsh Clean-up

Within the city limits of Utica, NY, down at the end of Barnes Ave, where it runs into the Barge Canal, is a 213-acre marsh known as the Utica Marsh. It’s a wildlife management area, full of various species of wildlife. Just drive slowly and carefully on Barnes Ave on your way to the marsh because it’s not in the best of shape. Barnes Ave, not the marsh. There are two parking areas, a big one adjoining the Barge Canal and a smaller one to the right, just before you get to the canal. If you park in the smaller parking area and follow the gravel path that heads east from there, the marsh will be on your right. Ahead of you, if you walk far enough (1/4 mile or so) is an observation tower, which you can climb to get a great view of the marsh. Several trails radiate out to the south from the main path in case you want to go further into the marsh.

Every year a substantial number of people gather at the marsh for the purpose of cleaning it up. The most recent clean-up was April 26, 2009. Last Sunday. It’s an annual Earth Day thing. Who’s involved? The DEC, the Marsh Council and the community. I went down there and helped out this year. I’d never done this before, but I’m glad I finally got around to it. Well over a hundred people were there. It’s a good thing, too, because there was plenty of trash to be picked up, ranging from cans and bottles to plastic bags to paper and styrofoam cups to tin foil to a automobile steering wheel to a decomposing dog in a garbage bag to a whole lot of car tires, most with rims. One of the tires even had a car axle attached to it. No kidding! Note the photo of a pile of car tires (one complete with axle). That pile is just the tip of the iceberg, though. People were driving back and forth with trucks, picking up load after load of tires, along with other types of assorted trash.

Was it all worth it? Sure it was. The marsh is beautiful place and it’d be a shame to leave it full of all that trash. It’s a great place to watch birds, too, and watching birds isn’t nearly as much fun when the scenery is all cluttered up with trash. Those car tires in particular don’t add anything positive to the experience.

Just for heck of it, I thought I’d bang down a list of some of the birds I’ve seen at the marsh, personally, over the years, just to give people who’ve never been there an idea as to what’s there: Canada geese, mallard ducks, black ducks, wood ducks, green-winged teals, blue-winged teals, pintails, great blue herons, green herons, eastern bitterns, sora rails, American egrets, northern swans (whistling swans if you’ve got an old field guide), cardinals, robins, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, yellow warblers, yellow-rumped warblers (myrtle warblers if you’ve got an old field guide), northern water thrushes, swamp sparrows, song sparrows, yellowthroats, red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures and etc. I can’t remember all the birds I’ve seen there, but the place is a great place to watch birds, if you’re into that sort of thing. Especially in the spring and fall, when the waterfowl is using the place as a stop-off point during migration. During the clean-up I got lucky and added a new bird to my life list, a worm-eating warbler, and that was pretty cool.

Anyway, if you live in the Utica area and like wetlands and bird watching you might want to take a drive to the Utica Marsh, if you haven’t done so already. And if you like the place, maybe next year you might want to pitch in and help out with the clean-up. It’s something almost anyone who’s reasonably healthy can do to help out on Earth Day, right in their own backyard.

Notes on the photos: The first photo is of a big pile of automobile tires (note the axle), taken the day of the cleanup. The second photo is of the marsh itself, looking southeast from the trail that leads to the observation tower, taken the day after the cleanup. The third photo is of a pair of Canada geese that were hanging around on that same trail, also taken the day after the cleanup.

No Power Lines

These photos were taken in the course of a seven-mile or so walk through the small towns of Sauquoit and Clayville, in upstate NY. During the walk, besides the "No Power Lines" lawn signs, I saw a few signs plugging Barack Obama. John McCain, too. But I didn't see any that read "Go, Power Lines!" or "Yes to the Power Lines!" or anything like that.

Coming from different walks of life, with different political beliefs and ideologies, the people in this area seem to have one thing in common: they don't want New York Regional Interconnect to run power lines through their neighborhoods.

And why would they? Why would anyone want something constructed in their town, against their will, that will increase their electric bills, decrease the value of their property, perhaps force them to sell their business, and maybe even be a health hazard? I can't think of a single reason why, off the top of my head. I live in this area and I certainly don't want to see the things go through. I doubt if anyone else who lives around here does, either.

Okay, so what is this all about, anyway? New York Regional Interconnect, a U.S. corporation, wants to run a high-voltage power line along the New York Susquehanna and Western railroad tracks from Marcy, in the upstate region, to Orange County, in the downstate region, with the reason being given that of balancing NY's electrical grid. I suspect that there are other ways to balance New York's grid than this, although I'm not sure, but one thing I am sure of is that building the power lines will benefit New York Regional Connect financially. It will also benefit the several Canadian companies who own NYRI. Personally, I don't see this so much as an upstate vs downstate thing, but more as a big business vs the little people thing.

As a sort of an aside, New York became one of 16 states, after the 1996 deregulation of energy markets, to create laws allowing electric utilities to be managed and owned by private industry without any real state regulation. Consumers tend to pay more for their electricity in those 16 states than in others. And it looks like its happening again: big business being allowed to run roughshod over we, the people, with government doing very little to help us out.

Building these power lines will probably take about 5 years, causing enormous disruption to the small upstate towns the lines will go through. The towers are huge and unsightly. Upstate property values near the power lines will drop by as much as 50%. Once built, the lines will emit a constant 40 or so decibels of sound. Their is some evidence that electromagnetic fields emitted from the power lines may cause childhood leukemia and damage pacemakers. And what happens if one of the huge towers, some of which will be taller than the Empire State Building, were to be hit by a train? Fall because of a storm? That's 800,000 volts of electricity flying around loose. Sounds dangerous to me. And are we supposed to be worried about terrorism or not? If we are, aren't huge power lines way out in the upstate boondocks going to be a target for terrorists who want to disrupt electricity in, say, New York City?

For a website that has a lot more information, go here: http://www.stopnyri.com/

Or http://www.stopthepowerlines.com/

Both sites have information that will help people who live along the proposed power line routes fight back. So, you might want to check 'em out if you live in Marcy or Utica or New Hartford or Chadwicks or Sauquoit or Clayville or Sangerfield or Sherburne or Brookfield or . . .

* * *

And if anyone in the Utica, New Hartford, Chadwicks, Sauquoit or Clayville areas has an interesting story to tell about how they feel their home or business will be adversely affected by the impending power lines, send me an email or give me a call at 315-737-8488. You can tell your story here, if you want. There's a meeting about this coming up on October 22 in Utica, at Mohawk Valley Community College, at 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM for the information forums and 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM for the public statement hearings. Maybe if enough real people speak out this thing can be stopped.

Mohawk Valley Peace Coalition

The Mohawk Valley Peace Coalition is a non-partisan group based in Utica, New York, whose purpose is to actively promote peace by informing and educating our community about the true costs of war and by working to inspire others to support local, national and global initiatives that address the root causes of war.

Meetings are usually held on the second Sunday of each month at 2 PM at The Other Side, 2011 Genesee St, Utica, NY --- next to the Cafe Domenico and across the street from the Uptown Theatre. They also put on a peace vigil every Sunday at the Clinton Green, weather and member's schedules permitting.

Right now they're working on selling tickets for a concert October 4, at 8 PM, at the Kirkland Art Center, on the village green in Clinton, NY, which is sponsored by the Upper Mohawk Valley Chapter of the United Nations Association.

For information about the band, a folk rock band called Emma's Revolution, check this out: emma's revolution.

Tickets are $20 each and will be sold ahead of time and also at the Kirkland Art Center door the night of the concert. 130 seats are available.

* * *

Do you like peace? Do you have lots of energy and enthusiasm? Are you dependable and a hard worker? Creative young people are needed --- artists, writers, photographers and idea people. All are welcome.

For more information about purchasing tickets to the concert or about the Mohawk Valley Peace Coalition itself, contact Shirley Swan at 315-534-9416. A website is in the works.

Sweet Old Memories: The Crystal Mine

A few years ago Jack Maine's granddaughter found some pretty stones in the gravel behind his diner, Sweet Old Memories. The pretty stones turned out to be calcite crystals, lots of them. In fact, there were so many crystals that Jack Maine was later told by geologists that his diner was sitting on one of the biggest calcite crystal deposits in the state.

So, after eating lunch or dinner at Sweet Old Memories, you can buy yourself some calcite crystals to take home with you. In the future, when Jack has everything ready, you'll be able to go out behind the diner and dig your own calcite crystals. Right now he's working on getting the necessary funding to promote the Sweet Old Memories' crystal mine, with the idea being to set it up so that kids will have fun being amateur geologists.

Okay, so what is a calcite crystal, anyway? Well, it's a crystal made of calcite, naturally. Calcite itself is often the main constituent of the shells of marine organisms, such as plankton, oysters and echinoderms. It's also found in sedimentary rocks, like limestone, which is made from the shells of dead marine organisms. Stalactites and stalagmites in caves also contain calcite.

Calcite crystals are either colorless or white, although impurities can result in colored calcite crystals: gray, red, yellow, green and etc.

Calcite seas were formed when the calcium carbonate in ocean waters was low-magnesium calcite, instead of the high-magnesium calcite found today. That would be back in the Jurassic Period, which was before T-Rex's time.

Put all this together and you basically get evidence that the land around Vernon used to be at the bottom of the ocean, somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 million years ago.

For any further info about calcite crystals, you'll have to consult a geologist, of which I'm not one. Sorry about that.

But I've seen some of the crystals, and they're sure interesting. And another potential Herkimer Diamond Mine in Central New York is a good thing. Maybe with the right funding and support the crystal mine behind Sweet Old Memories could be turned into an educational center of sorts, a place for local schools to bus kids to for field trips.

Sweet Old Memories: The Diner

About five miles east of the village of Vernon is Sweet Old Memories, a '50's-style diner owned and operated by the Jack Maine family. Decorated with '50's memorabilia and serving classic diner fare, Sweet Old Memories is a relaxing and comfortable place to eat. And both the Turning Stone Casino and the Atunyote Golf Course, where PGA tournaments have been held (there's one going on right now), are in the vicinity.

And the food's pretty darned good. The house specialties are chicken and biscuits. Sausage and biscuits, too. Oh, and take a look at the second photo from the top. It's a photo of a man who was voted "Chef of the Year" in 2008, in Las Vegas, Nevada. No, he doesn't cook at Sweet Old Memories, but he did eat there, leaving the signed photo behind. In case you can't read the handwriting on the photo, it reads, "Jack Maine - Sweet Old Memories - Thanks for the great food - Rich Baumes." The great food that Mr. Baumes had at Sweet Old Memories was one of their omelets.

Sweet Old Memories also has a Friday night fish fry. It's a beer batter fish fry, and the beer in the beer batter, Saranac Pale Ale, is brewed by a local regional brewery, Matt Brewing Company. I've had the fish fry recently, with home fries and cole slaw on the side (see the photo up top). The tartar sauce was home made. The beverage was birch beer. The meal was good. The fish fry was $8.75. I can't remember what the birch beer cost.

Diner hours are Tuesday thru Friday, 11 AM to 8 PM, Saturday from 8 AM to 8 PM, and Sunday from 8 AM to 2 PM.

Next summer there will be an ice cream stand.

And there's something new in the works: a calcite crystal mine out back. You know, something along the lines of the Herkimer Diamond Mines.

Here's their phone#: 315-829-2663.

Berry Hill Book Shop

A few miles south of Clinton, NY, on 12B (or north of Waterville on the same road), is just about the biggest and best book store in New York State: Berry Hill Book Shop.



Sure, if you know exactly what you're looking for, you can hit the net and find a specific book in a few minutes, without leaving your house. But what if you just want to browse, looking for a book you maybe didn't even know existed? What if you just want the feeling of being in a three-story barn full of 60,000 old books? For that the internet just won't do. But Berry Hill will. And don't forget to say "Hi" to Buster, the official book store cat, who hangs out at the front desk with the lady who runs the place.

Be careful you don't drive right by it, though. It's out in the sticks and it's easy to miss the sign by the driveway. If you do that, you might end up in Waterville and have to turn around again. Heading south from Clinton on 12B, if you see Burnham Road on your left, you went past the book store. Heading north from Waterville on 12B, if you see Burnham Road on your right, the bookstore is just ahead.

The prices are great, the people who run the place are friendly, and the scenery is beautiful. The book store is surrounded by woods and wildlife. The last time I was there I saw a doe and her fawn, on book store property. That was cool.

It's a unique place, and if you're a book nut you'll love it.

On the Road to Fort Drum

I had the privilege last Sunday of taking part in one leg of the New York State Marches for Peace, a peace march to Fort Drum, the purpose of which is to raise public awareness of and solidarity toward ending the Iraq War and bringing the troops safely home. The march was sponsored, among others, by NY State Direct Action for Peace, Different Drummer Café, Syracuse Peace Council, Saratoga Peace Alliance, North Country Veterans for Peace and, significantly, Iraq Veterans Against the War. Yes, that's right: this peace march, far from being a protest against the troops, was undertaken with the approval and cooperation of an organization consisting of actual Iraq War veterans, men who know far more than any civilian possibly could just how wrong the Iraq War is. For a complete list of sponsors, go here: Peace March.

For a list of reasons why the troops themselves are against the war, go here: IVAW.

* * *

The following is a description of what the Cleveland to Central Square leg of the march was like:

Starting at the Vanderkamp Center — a Christian Retreat Center located in a heavily wooded area on Martin Rd, two miles from Route 49, in the town of Cleveland, which is located on the north shore of Oneida Lake — we began walking at around 9:00 A.M. There were eight of us, our leader Jim Fulmer, myself, my sister Gail, and four other walkers and one support driver. None of us were under 40 years old. We were all carrying Peace and Bring the Troops Home signs, indicating to anyone we met on our way what we were doing. It was a sunny day and the walk down Martin Road was a beautiful one. We were surrounded by a mixed deciduous and evergreen forest, and bird song. I remember hearing a yellowthroat (a type of warbler), several robins, a black-throated green warbler and numerous ovenbirds (another type of warbler). One of us, a fireman, carried a large garbage bag, which he was using to pick up empty beer and soda cans he found alongside the road. At the bottom of Martin Road was a small pond. A pair of Canada geese were there, along with their goslings.

We reached Route 49 and began heading west toward our goal for the day: the town of Central Square, 15 miles away. A car drove by and someone yelled out, "Go home!" A few minutes later several people who were standing in front of a local business waved at us and cheered us on. One woman yelled out, "Thank you!" That was nice. Encouraging, too.

As we walked down Route 49, with Oneida Lake on our left, the responses from passing motorists were for the most part very positive. People would honk their horns at us and wave at us. Some would flash us the peace sign. This seemed to be an indication to me that we weren’t alone in our desire to end the Iraq War and bring the troops home.

A few miles later we stopped at the home of one of the walkers, a woman who is a nurse, for a bathroom and water break. She discontinued walking here as she was going to get ready to be part of our welcoming committee at the end point, a church in Central Square called the First Universalist Society of Central Square.

The support driver would drive ahead a ways and wait for us so we could, if we wanted to, take off our jackets and/or our packs and leave them in the car. I took advantage of this and left my jacket as the day was warming up rapidly. At some point the man who had been picking up beer and soda cans left his bag of cans in the car as it was full. Then he found another, smaller, garbage bag and continued picking up cans.

Motorists would honk and wave at us throughout the day. We received far more positive than negative responses, which was, as I said before, encouraging. The only really negative response was in the town of Constantia. We were standing in front of a restaurant, trying to decide whether or not we wanted to stop for lunch there, when the owner of the restaurant appeared out of nowhere and began yelling at and threatening us. He told us to get away from his restaurant or he would call the police. I’m not going to mention the name of his restaurant because I don’t want to harm someone’s business just because he doesn’t understand that our walk was undertaken with the cooperation of Iraq War veterans, and wasn’t for the purpose of disrespecting the troops. I’m also not going to repeat his exact words, because they weren’t peaceful and were also somewhat off-color, and I’m trying to write an article that anyone can read. We tried to talk to him about what we were doing but he wouldn’t have any of it. Finally one of us told him that we had been planning on eating lunch in his restaurant and he told us, vehemently, to eat and then get out of there. Needless to say, we went somewhere else to eat. Some of us picked up sandwiches in a deli in a local grocery store. My sister and I went to another restaurant farther down the road, called Joa’s, and split a submarine sandwich. The people there were nice and so was the sub. Maybe they didn't realize we were in the peace march, I don't know for sure. All I do know for sure is that they were nice to us and we enjoyed our lunch, and I'll eat there again, the next time I'm in the area.

After about eight or nine miles my sister began to get tired and decided to stop walking. I was getting tired, too, and was having a problem with my left foot, so I stopped walking as well. The support driver, after taking my sister and me to our cars, had to leave, so my sister took over as support driver, using her car. I then drove to Central Square and parked my car. After a few minutes, though, I decided to head back on foot and meet the other walkers so I could finish the walk.

When we got to the First Universalist Society of Central Square at around 5:00 o’clock we were greeted by the nurse who had let us use her house for a bathroom and water break, and by two other women. We were fed a very nice potluck dinner, along with some Fair Trade coffee, and had an enjoyable time discussing the tenets of the church with the women. There were a couple of guest speakers there, as well. One was a Native American Indian named John who talked about putting on a sweat lodge, which is an Indian purifying ritual. There was another speaker, a man named Wally, but I had to leave before he began speaking, so unfortunately I can’t relate from firsthand experience what he had to say. We also met a woman who was a Reverend of the church. She used a walker, and told us she had multiple sclerosis, but she was a very positive and inspiring person, and it was a pleasure talking with her. On the wall in the church was a poster with photos of famous people who were members of the Unitarian Universalist Church, with names such as Henry David Thoreau, Albert Schweitzer and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I found this fascinating because up to this point I hardly knew anything about this church. I still don’t know that much about it, but what I do know is that love and peace seem to be what it revolves around.

All-in-all this was a very positive experience for me, and a very educational one, and I’m glad I took part in it. One thing that struck me as ironic, though, was that there weren’t any young people taking part in this walk, since they’re the ones who are the most capable, physically, of doing something like this. But maybe next time there will be some young people taking part. I like to think so, anyway. Well, to be honest, what I’d really like to think is that there won’t be a need for a next time. Being surrounded by peaceful people makes it very clear, at least it did to me, that war is not the answer.