The Rose Cafe with Todd Bittner was very interesting. He explained how Ithaca had formed into what we see today, and how Cornell had helped shape the environment. As someone who has no experience in geology or geography, I felt very detached from the talk. However, Bittner made a huge effort to include everyone. He was very open to answering questions, and he passed around photo for us to see different time periods of the same area. This helped the audience visualize the space we occupy.

I was just a bit confused on the relevancy of the talk. I would have liked to see Todd Bittner connect the ever-changing environment to a larger global community, maybe something like climate change or human effects of wildlife. He did skim over things like deer population, but I wanted to take away more from the talk. Overall,, he was a very nice dude who made sure to make his field available to novices such as I, but the talk seemed shallow.

Dr. Todd Bittner talked to us about the formation of our campus, in regards to how the gorges were formed as well as what role glaciers and various types of sediment had in the formation. He explained how the Finger Lakes were formed, through the gradual retreat and advancement of the immensely large sheets of glacial ice. Over time, it began forming these lake valleys that, after the ice had melted, left rivers and streams. He also described how the waterfalls were made and mentioned that streams and water, over time, began cutting into the rock and eventually led to the deterioration of it leading it to completely break off. Those rocks that are broken off now, some of which are very large slabs of rock now lay in the middle of the gorges still being cut at by the water that continually flows. I found his talk very interesting because, towards the end, he connected it our Cornellian history. He told us of how when Cornell first opened there used to be streetcars on the bridge (on North campus), which was fascinating to think of (and see a picture of). The extensive process that the land had to go through in order to form the gorges, makes me all the more grateful to have them.

Dr. Todd Bittner described the formation of Ithaca’s beautiful gorges in great detail. It was a fascinating talk about how erosion and glaciers changed the face of the landscape. The most interesting part about the talk to me was the fact that the earth is continuously changing. Erosion and glaciers change the earth at an incredibly slow rate, so the amount of time that passed in order for the gorges to be formed is staggering. The forces of erosion are working on the landscape on a daily basis, chipping away at the rock little by little. If these gradual forces can shape Ithaca so much, it is interesting to think what the earth will look like after millions of more years. It will likely be unrecognizable, and landmarks we take for granted now will likely be gone. The power of natural forces has always amazed me, but the talk with Dr. Bittner highlighted how they could form beautiful natural attractions in our local area. It really inspired me to go hiking on the gorge trails, which is something I have been wanting to do since I moved in. He also told me about a website detailing the various trails around Ithaca, and I have already used this resource pick the trail that I hiked on Friday with a friend. We went to Robert H. Treman State Park, and it was a beautiful hike along the stream with an amazing waterfall. I highly recommend it, and the talk with Dr. Bittner enriched the experience by giving me a thorough understanding of how the gorges were formed, and I was able to see evidence of erosion along the trail.

This week, I attended a Rose Cafe with Todd Bittner, the director of Cornell University’s natural areas. While his work revolves around preserving Cornell’s botanical gardens and gorge trails, his talk focused less on what he does and more of a geologic history lesson on how Ithaca was formed. As a quick summary of the past 350 million years, when the Earth was all one continent called Pangaea, Ithaca was located near the equator, so this area was mostly tropical. However, once Pangaea broke and the continents began to shift, Ithaca was exposed to increasing amounts of glacial activity. The periodic freezing and melting of glaciers throughout Ithaca created the many gorges we see today.

The most interesting aspect of the talk was how the preexisting hill topography of Ithaca impacted the formation of the gorges. As you move further down the hill heading from South to North, the rocks exposed in the gorges are older. These rocks were buried the deepest on flat land, so the types of rocks that are seen in Taughannock Falls are buried way under Cascadilla Gorge. The rocks at Cascadilla Gorge are overall much newer and have been cut less. Also, Todd mentioned that many of Ithaca’s fault lines that the gorges formed along were nearly perpendicular. This formed many perfectly angular walls within the gorges. Nature is known for its many imperfections, so having right angles existing in nature are nearly unheard of. Since the talk, I took a quick walk over to a gorge just North of Cook to see what he was talking about. And, unexpectedly, there were perfect right angles running up and down the walls of the gorge. Ithaca is known for its natural beauty and it was incredibly interesting to learn how Ithaca’s topography became so unbelievable.

Our discussion about the Ithaca gorges, as well as other topics surrounding nature in New York, with Todd Bittner at this week’s Rose Café was both interesting and eye-opening. As a person in a major that does not involve science, I truly appreciated Mr. Bittner’s thorough explanations about how the Ithaca gorges formed, and the scientific background explanations to other natural events, such as the formation of Cayuga Lake. However, it was the end of our conversation about Cornell history and the development of the gorge trails that intrigued me the most.

Mr. Bittner began his talk describing Pangea, where all the continents were pushed together, as a preface for his later discussion on gorge formation. I was surprised to learn that, during the time of Pangea, Ithaca was close to the equator, something I simply cannot picture. Further in our discussion, I was intrigued both by the photos Mr. Bittner passed around showing the anatomy of a glacier, as well as how he described the glacial covering of North America, where much of the United States and Canada was covered by glacial ice. Additionally, although I do not understand the scientific mechanisms involved in the process, it was interesting to hear about how the erosion of rocks, and the difference between soft and hard rocks, are partly responsible for the gorges we see in Ithaca.

Before we wrapped up our talk, Mr. Bittner shared some history about Cornell and the development of campus and the gorge trails. Mr. Bittner stated that West Campus was part of Ezra Cornell’s original piece of land that he purchased before he bought other land to form the school’s campus. In another aspect of Cornell history, it was amazing to see a document from the early 20^th century showing the plan to develop the gorge trails and the cost of such a project. In today’s dollars, adjusting for inflation, the initial cost of the project was only a couple million dollars. To put this into perspective, Mr. Bittner said that just the renovation of one gorge trail a few years ago cost about three million dollars. This was astonishing to me, both the history of Cornell, and its part in the development of the gorge trails and how relatively inexpensive such a project was. I hope to continue learning about the history of the gorges as well as Cornell’s place in that rich history.

In the Rose Cafe, Dr. Bittner spoke about the geological history of the Finger Lakes region, and its impact on modern day Ithaca and Cornell. In all, I was quite impressed with how precise we can be about geological phenomena, especially since much of the evidence is literally buried under tons of rocks and dirt. I am mostly surprised because I was not that aware of much geological research going on at Cornell to make the Finger Lakes region of much interest, although I suppose that I should not be surprised considering the scope and quality of the research done at Cornell. It really amazes me that there is so much evidence available to scientists that they can paint such an accurate picture of events so long ago and of such a massive scale. I have lived in Ithaca for an entire year, and in upstate New York my entire life, but I never really stopped to look around at the natural terrain, or wonder how it was formed. Dr. Bittner’s presentation has prompted me to stop and think about the terrain around where I grew up, and I am stuck by amazement by the shear scale and power of the forces that shaped (and continue to shape) it.

This week for Rose Café, Dr. Todd Bittner came and spoke of the natural history of Cornell’s Gorges, and the rock/lake formations of Ithaca in general. I was aware of some of the basic events that lead to the geographical formation of present day Ithaca before, but I did not realize the full extent of these processes. For example, I was amazed when he said the most recent ice age covered much of the northeast, and in some parts was 5000ft thick (in comparison Cornell is only around 800ft above see level). The most intriguing aspect of his talk was about the biodiversity in and around Cornell, and I wish he had spoken more about the topic. Being from New York I am used to seeing deer and other animals around, but I had no idea that deer actually cost Cornell thousands of dollars in damage to just the botanical gardens alone. He did mention that some predators such as Bobcats are on the return, but I believe we are a long way off before the deer populations will be naturally managed through predation. Until then keep on hunting (and driving)!

Dr. Bittner gave us a very in-depth look at how erosion, deposition, and glacial activity formed Ithaca’s gorges. I was hoping for more talk about biodiversity and the flora and fauna around Ithaca, so I was a little disappointed. He did talk about deer and bobcats and the different types of wet ecosystems like swamps, marshes, and bogs. That was definitely the most interesting part for me. I wish Dr. Bittner had us participate more or let us ask questions so that we could try to show what parts of the talk we were interested in. I’m sure some people liked the geology parts, but if we had gotten to talking about ecosystems sooner, I would have had a better time and maybe some other people would have too. His handouts were interesting, but he didn’t explain them as well as I would have liked. I don’t know anything about geology or environmental science, but he just gave brief explanations of the different rock layers and types of rock as if we were familiar with them. Also, his wife came along and she studies insects but didn’t talk much. I would have liked to have heard more about what she does with that, but she might give a talk of her own at some point. I’ll have to try a different Rose Cafe in the future for more ecology information.