Letter form Gerry Welch Future Interment Options Explored Friends, Romans, Countrymen and Concerned Citizens:Here are cost effective, environmentally sound ways to process human waste; that of “humans.” DNA is our essence, the rest are trappings. The “Field of Flowers Cemetery” is literally a manicured field of flowers. There could be a wall somewhat like the Vietnam memorial, displaying the name of everyone within the cemetery, and offering DNA capsules to be sealed within.…
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Oneonta QoL Committee Presents Deer Update By TED MEBUSTONEONTAThe City of Oneonta’s Common Council Quality of Life/Infrastructure Committee met to discuss, among other topics, the recommendations made by the Deer Management Task Force, a volunteer group of Oneonta residents commissioned to research solutions to deer overpopulation in the city, on January 30. The issue of overpopulation, as the DMTF stated, has environmental and public health consequences, which they identified in an itemized report as: landscaping damage and economic impact; frequent…
Time Out February 2, 2023 Talk Focuses on Aleutian IslandsONEONTA—Arch-archeologist Debra Corbett will be featured in a Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society presentation via Zoom on Friday, February 17. Beginning at 7:30 p.m., Corbett will discuss “The Symbolic Meaning of Birds to the Unangan People.” The program is free to attend, but registration is required at https://bit.ly/3vzIXKm.The Unangan people of the Aleutian Islands relied on birds for food, clothing and tools. Beyond these everyday needs, birds—especially seabirds—were sentient beings interacting with humans…
Editorial Tread Lightly, Care and Think Every year the growth, and non-growth, of a variety of areas of interest—such as the economy, the population, bird migrations, immigration, wildfires, utilities, stocks, violence, college rankings, China and the like—are subject to intense research and interpretation. Inevitably, the results are published far and wide just after the last drop of the New Year’s ball. One such fast-developing aspect of our life is our carbon footprint (CO2e), the total greenhouse gas emissions that trap…
Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society Releases CBC 2022 Highlights By SANDRA BRIGHT ONEONTA – The Christmas “Side Hunt” was a holiday tradition around the turn of the 20th century, in which people would shoot as many birds as possible. In 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman proposed a new holiday tradition, to count birds rather than kill them. Twenty-seven participants counted birds in locations around North America that year. Thus was born the National Audubon Christmas Bird Count, now the longest running citizen…
News from the Noteworthy Exploring a Working Example of Applied Idealism The Unadilla Community Farm in West Edmeston, established in 2014, is a nonprofit whose mission is providing space for the teaching and practice of sustainable skills in agriculture, natural building, and food equity. The farm was an abandoned corn field, now transformed into an edible food forest. It grows 200 varieties of annual and perennial products, using sustainable techniques. It uses a diversity of conservation practices, such as rainwater…
Communities Urge Gov. Hochul To Sign S6510/A07785 into Law Multiple User Groups Want Outdoor Access Free of Holiday Deer Hunt By JOHN RYBINSKI New York State communities are seeking action from Governor Kathy Hochul to allow them to opt-out of the newly adopted Holiday Deer Hunt, in order to ensure safe outdoor access to multiple user groups during the Christmas holiday break. The state legislature acted by passing Senate Bill S6510 and Assembly Bill A07785, giving counties the ability to…
How To Address HABs? NALMS’ New President Offers Guidance By TED MEBUST WESTFORD – This past summer, Otsego Lake and surrounding area water bodies saw an influx of harmful algal blooms, posing a threat to biodiversity, water potability and recreational activities. HABs, caused by an overabundance of Microcystis, a harmful strain of cyanobacteria, represent one of the biggest environmental threats to area water bodies since the introduction of zebra mussels, and more recently quagga mussels. The latter two species are…
What To Do About the Deer: An Ongoing Rural Debate By TED MEBUST ONEONTA – The City of Oneonta’s Quality of Life and Infrastructure Committee recently heard findings from a commissioned report on the various impacts of increasing deer populations in the area. Carried out over two months, the Deer Management Task Force report named overabundance, Lyme disease and an increasing number of deer-related accidents as driving forces behind their investigation. “Our goal is not to eliminate deer. It’s to…
Letter from Antoinette Kuzminski OEC Scoping Plan Comments on Point The final version of the New York State Climate Action Scoping Plan will be made available January 1, 2023. In its statement on this topic in this paper last week, Otsego Electric Cooperative (OEC) made very clear the shortcomings of present versions of this plan, particularly as regards the needs of the population served by OEC. I am grateful for OEC’s thoughtful analysis, which illuminates the true costs of keeping…