On our tour of the Cascadilla Gorge, Todd Bittner, Director of Natural Areas at the Cornell Botanic Gardens, walked us through both the (relatively) short-term history of the gorge as well as its millennias-long formation. Part of his discussion that I found especially fascinating was of the changes that the natural areas have undergone over time. Millions of years ago, the rock that is now exposed laid at the bottom of an inland sea. Buried within are fossils of aquatic creatures which are completely extinct today. In more recent ecological history, we compared a photograph from a century ago to a current view of the College Ave bridge and observed a change in the greenery around the gorge from largely evergreen trees to the invasive, non-coniferous species we see today. It was interesting to contemplate the similarities between changes that have taken place in such different timelines and be reminded that change is always occurring, whether by nature or by human interference.

On another note, we also learned about Todd’s work on the restoration of the Cascadilla Gorge Trail between 2008 and 2014. He mentioned that upon the trail’s reopening, people remarked that “it looks exactly the same – what did you spend 3 million dollars on?” This was remarkable in that the project had achieved its goal of retaining the authenticity and history of the trail by making it safer and more resilient without changing its outward appearance. The fact that the project was allowed to be funded with that goal in place also speaks to the current values our University and society as a whole have on natural places — in contrast to the era Cornell was founded, during which the gorge was quarried for its stone.