As my last Rose Scholar’s event for the year, I chose to attend the Cafe series with Andy Zepp from the Finger Lakes Land Trust. He had a lot of fun facts to share with the group, and I was very excited to hear what he had to say. For one, there are 50,000 acres of public land surrounding Ithaca and 35 Tompkins County unique natural areas. Thousands of these acres, according to Mr. Zepp, are productive and agricultural timberland, a fact I found quite surprising.

Additionally, there are apparently more than 140 miles of recreational trails, including 78 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail, which runs all the way from Lake Eerie. Mr. Zepp also showed us several pictures of many gorgeous waterfalls in the surrounding area, and that made me that much more excited to stay in Ithaca this summer, something I was actually dreading as recently as a few weeks ago.

Also, learning some of the interesting new facts about the very town that we live in also got me excited for my summer position as a tour guide/information specialist; having fun tidbits of information to share with prospective students, their families, and individuals visiting campus will make walking around backwards, talking for hours all summer a little more fun. 🙂