Dr. Andy Zepp came to speak to us about the organization he was a part of, a Land trust. I had heard of other types of trusts prior to this rose cafe, but I had never heard of land trusts. I found his story interesting that he had graduated from ILR here at Cornell and went into marketing before deciding to go back to school and further his interest in the environment.

We learned more about the Finger Lakes Land Trust which works with the government and other private landowners to preserve lands in different regions of the country, mostly in areas around Ithaca. They find land that they believe should be kept and preserved and work out deals with the owners of these lands and the government to see if they are able to subsidize part of the price. The work that they do is important for not just tourists who can enjoy beautiful trails and nature, but also for environmental conservation purposes.

Dr. Zepp showed us many pictures of beautiful landscapes that they helped to preserve including a piece of land interestingly enough, owned previously by a Cornell Professor. I also found it interesting that Land Trusts are not necessary in other countries in Europe since the government has a larger say in how the land is used unlike here in the US. Therefore I believe that the work that Finger Lake Land Trusts, while not widely known, is extremely important in conserving the beautiful lands surrounding us.

Only in America can we find a way to develop a business model around conservation. Don’t get me wrong, the work and the goals of land trusts are noble. And land trusts are vital to preserving America’s natural areas. Dr. Andy Zepp explained in his Rose Cafe how in Europe the government regulates natural lands. While this governmental model is perhaps more efficient, American culture would never allow it. The fact that America invested in National Parks as early as it did is amazing. Land trusts use money that the acquire through donations to essentially “hold onto” land until better things can be done with it. An example is when the land trust buys development rights to farmland to protect it from urbanization. Their main weapon is time, they wait until conditions are right to act or they wear down land owners until they are willing to sell. Although European countries may have a system which streamlines conservation, the American system has a more communal feel to it. Dr. Zepp told us about how he develops relationships with the land owners and convinces them that selling their land is in the best interest of not only themselves, but also in the best interest of the community. Land trusts are an interesting American invention, and I was glad to learn about it.

I think everyone would fall in love with the natural beauty of Ithaca when first came to Cornell but not many people would take a step further to help protect the nature. We normally assume that the nature runs on its own and recovers on its own. While the nature looks all good but there’s some invisible threat to the farmlands, forests, grassland and gorges that we might ignore.

We’ve experienced a couple of times that all dining instead of using tablewares are using the plastics plates and utensils due to the low water quality. Also I heard some of my friends saying that the tap water was sometimes brown last summer due to some pollution. I would say the threat is always there and we cannot rely on the nature itself to recover. We must also do something proactively and positively to help build a better nature.

As Andy mentioned, there’re actually a lot of ways to help establish the awareness of nature conservation. I would probably visit the nature places first which some are really not far from the campus and share with more people what I’ve learned in the talk and on the website. What’s really great is there’s actually somebody in the society taking pressuring the nature as a job seriously and definitely doing a great job. Hope there would be more people in this career!

Prior to this cafe talk I had no idea what a land trust is. Although I still don’t know the specifics of how land trusts work, I realized that they are a kind of organization which focuses on conservation and operates independent of the government. This line of work involves a strong understanding of policy, business, and the economy. While I care greatly about the environment, I don’t know anything about the three aforementioned topics. I was nevertheless intrigued by the topic and inspired by Andy Zepp’s enthusiasm for his work. I also think his journey to this career is interesting because it took him some time to find the right job for him but he seems to have really found his calling. I have some ideas about what I want to do after graduation, but his experience really illustrates how we continued growing and searching until we find something which sticks.

My main take aways from this talk were that I want to engage with nature in this region more (and definitely check out gofingerlakes.org to get an idea of which specific locations to check out), that there are major conservation efforts going on all around me that I am unaware of and which make a large and tangible positive impact, and that I never realized that there were careers which were intersections of business and conservation. My younger sister is still a highschooler and is considering many different options, but I called her after the talk to tell her about land trusts because she cares deeply about the environment and nature and has shown interest in business in the past. Occupations which utilize skills across areas of study or interests are especially fascinating and are a niche.

During last Wednesday’s Rose Cafe, Andy Zepp, who works for the Finger Lakes Land Trust, described his work and role in protecting the Finger-lake region’s environment and promoting local tourism and recreation in nature. Before attending this cafe, I was not familiar with the work of land trusts as entities which purchase land for conservation purposes. Thus, it was informative to hear him describe his role in the local community.

Specifically,  he pointed out the environmental hazard that salt could pose to the organisms that live in Cayuga Lake. This was after one person from the audience broached the subject of run-off salt entering the water system after being used excessively for melting ice on roadways during the winter. Andy noted, for example, that much of the pollutants from Wegman’s parking lot have easy access to flow into the Cayuga. I remembered that previously, during the Rose Cafe discussion on environmental planning and architecture, the speaker described the future Greenstar Market’s parking lot design which will be configured to minimize its impact of runoff into the surrounding ecosystem.

Although I am not particularly interested in both environmental design nor the nuances of land trust work, seeing the connections between these two presentations increased my appreciation for the work being done to try to mitigate the negative human impact of development on our natural environment, which I believe is important.

At this Rose Cafe, Andy Zepp came to discuss his conservation work in the Finger Lakes Region. This discussion was very interesting, since I did not previously know what type of work went into conservation and what types of local environmental problems that are of concern.

Mr. Zepp described how his land trust works to buy and obtain land to protect it from commercial usage and private usage. Specifically, land is protected from development, which also protects other resources such as water supply. What was particularly interesting the specific actions taken for conservation. They do not necessarily buy land and close it off from any usage as I had previously thought, but instead the land is also preserved for recreational purposes. At first I was surprised, but it also makes sense, since if people are allowed to use the preserved land recreationally, this may raise awareness for conservation issues in the area.

Additional, Mr. Zepp discussed problems with chemical pollutants in lakes and algal blooms. I had some prior knowledge due to an environmental science class in high school, but I did not realize the extent of the problems that algal blooms can cause. For example, Mr. Zepp mentioned that the lakes have to be closed to public usage, which causes further economical impacts. In addition, I was not aware that the problems of salt running into Cayuga Lake could worsen in the future, and would be very problematic for water resources. Overall, I learned that the land conservation and environmental preservation are very complex topics, and that environmental problems could cause many unintended consequences. I hope to be more aware of my environmental impact from now on to help with the conservation efforts in the local area.

This past week at the Rose Cafe we had a speaker who worked in environmental preservation. He shared with us his experiences in trying to buy land through government grants. I thought it was interesting how he often had to go through long, drawn-out negotiations with people who were unwilling to sell their land. On one hand, I see why the organization would try and get a continuous stretch of land, but on the other hand, the owner of the land was taking good care of it too and probably would have continued doing so, so buying it off of him was possibly unnecessary.

I loved how our speaker went into detail on how he ended up at his current job. I often see people in certain jobs or careers where I wonder how they could possibly have known they wanted to do that at a young age and worked toward it. I am learning, however, that most people end up stumbling across their current career position by accident. Circumstance and chance lead them to a job position that they ascend in rank until it is their career. It is heartening to know that I do not have to have an exact position in mind to aspire to, but can let my career path take me where it will.

The first thing that I found myself thinking about during this talk was the realization about how much nature we have surrounding Cornell, and how little I have gone out to explore it so far. It’s really amazing to hear about the beautiful sustainability initiatives that our community is involved in, so that we can better appreciate our surrounding environment. What I found even more heartening was learning about the physical accessibility initiatives that are being considered as we think about reworking some of these immediately surrounding environments for our public enjoyment and exploration. I particularly loved that image that was shared of a recent effort to take a natural environment and install a bridge made with the principles of universal design so that all people will be able to access it at the same time, regardless of mobility. Applying principles of universal design is critical to ensure equal accessibility to our environment to as many people as possible. I hope to see more initiatives that consider universal design in the near future, as this does not only benefit people with disabilities but helps us make a more inclusive environment over all.

This past week, I attended a Rose Cafe talk with a speaker who works for the Finger Lakes Land Trust. His work mostly pertains to buying land that is rich in natural resources and deserves protection from civilians and selling them another piece of land with comparable value. It was a field I honestly knew nothing about walking in and the speaker did a good job of giving a lay of the land for his job. One of the interesting things he talked about is how this field is really only found in America. This is because in America, there are protections against the government confiscating land that other countries don’t have. So while countries around the world will use the government to buy land off of civilians for protection, land trusts were created to do just that in America as a private entity. I think this is a good thing, as private entities have more incentives to create a mutually beneficial transaction than the government.

The speaker also talked about some environmental issues pertaining to Ithaca, mostly tying back to water treatment. Whether it be the need to reduce the use of salt to melt snow and replacing it with sand or cleaning up cyanobacteria from Cayuga lake, there are more issues than I would have thought regarding Ithaca’s water sources. I guess not realizing the sheer number of potential issues is a good sign that the Finger Lakes Land Trust is doing a good job at keeping our natural resources safe.

During Wednesday’s Rose Café,  Andy Zepp came in to discuss his work with the Finger Lakes Land Trust. It was interesting to learn about his work preserving nature. I did not know that the run-off from agriculture land was affecting lakes. It was interesting to learn that algae bloom was caused by excess phosphate from the run-off of agriculture lands. It has a large ecological effect. It is not good for the environment and ecosystem for there to be toxic algae blooms that create dead spaces and are harmful. It is important to protect the environment and our surroundings because we are living in the area and should make it a good place for not only us to live in, but also for the local animals and plants to thrive in as well. We have a responsibility for caring and protecting our surroundings. It was also interesting to learn the impacts that the salt we use on the ground during the winter can impact Cayuga Lake. I never thought about where all the salt that we use during the winter ends up. Although there currently are no visible effects, salt should be used with the possible effects in mind and alternative to salt that does not have a strong environmental impact should be used instead. During the summer, I would love to visit the places that the Finger Lakes Land Trust has helped to protect and preserve.

This past Rose Cafe was especially interesting to me because Andy Zepp, an ILR grad, really opened my eyes to the vast professional opportunities coming out of ILR. I am currently a sophomore in the ILR school and I too am not sure what I want to do when I leave Cornell just yet. Often, ILR is pigeon-holed into either law or human resources. This Rose Cafe gave me another perspective and opened my eyes to the fact that those fields are not all that people do leaving ILR.

Mr. Zepp’s environmental impact was not incredible. He has impacted the Finger Lakes area in a way that we can immediately see in our community. He works to identify locations that would be valuable to the communities that encompass it. In identifying these areas he is able to preserve the natural state of beautiful places for recreation as well as economic reasons.

Another thing that we learned was the way in which human treatment of nature and more specifically soil impacts the toxicity of our bodies of water. When chemicals used in agriculture run off into the water it can create the conditions that allow toxic algae to grow in the water. When this happens it is not safe to drink or swim in the water. This happens often and in the past year every single finger lake has had an outbreak of this.

Have you ever noticed where Cornell’s water supply comes from? Did you know that during certain times of the year, it is unsafe to swim in Cayuga Lake? Andy Zepp discussed the answers to these questions and more about how land trusts in upstate New York protect the environment and our well-being. Zepp explained how land trusts acquire land to prevent development. Preventing development in Tompkins County, for example,  saves the county money and protects our water supply. By restricting urban or agricultural development, the amount of runoff chemicals and sediment is prevented from reaching creeks and Cayuga lake. Cornell receives its water from Fall Creek, and higher pollutants in the water require stronger water filtration systems that become increasingly more expensive. These same pollutants are generally prevented from reaching creeks by the Finger Lakes Land Trust. However, in late summer as more pollutants enter creeks and streams, harmful bacteria build up in Cayuga and form a murky green film. This film is toxic to humans and can kill small animals if consumed in high doses. However, as the land trust gains support and protects more land around the Cayuga watershed, these bacteria are less likely to form, and the lake will be safer for recreation.

Environmental conservation has always been an interest of mine, which is why I found Andy Zepp’s discussion on his work at the Finger Lakes Land Trust both fascinating and valuable. Throughout our talk, I was amazed by the impact of Mr. Zepp’s efforts in preserving tens of thousands of acres of land for not only ecological value, but also for recreational and economic importance as well. However, the part of our discussion that was most intriguing to me was our talk on harmful algal blooms that are becoming increasingly common in the Finger Lakes, as this is a topic I have prior exposure to.

Before our discussion with Mr. Zepp, I did not comprehend the large scale impact of harmful algal blooms on the Finger Lakes. According to Mr. Zepp, and confirmed by my prior coursework on the topic, these algal blooms are a result of the runoff of phosphorus and other nutrients into the lakes caused by rainfall. Particularly, Mr. Zepp stated, these nutrients, such as phosphorus, that are credited with causing the algal blooms stem mostly from agricultural runoff from rural areas. In my previous environmental science courses, I learned about the impact of phosphorus on natural water areas, and when phosphorus and other nutrients are in high abundance, this can cause eutrophication, or too many nutrients in the body of water, resulting in these harmful algal blooms. However, my environmental science courses mainly focused on the ecological impacts of algal blooms, such as killing marine organisms due to the water’s toxicity. But in our discussion, Mr. Zepp mentioned not only the ecological impacts, but also the economical and recreational impacts of algal blooms on the Finger Lakes. For instance, during one algal bloom period, people were banned from entering the water due to its toxicity. This ban not only hurt the people looking to use the lake for recreational purposes, but it also negatively impacted the nearby businesses who rely on users of the lake for income. Therefore, it was astonishing to see not only the ecological impacts of the algal blooms on the Finger Lakes, but also the recreational and economic impacts as well.

After listening to Mr. Zepp’s talk, I am more intrigued to get involved in local conservation and preservation efforts not only here in New York, but also in my hometown. Hearing not only about the ecological impacts, but also about the recreational and economic impacts of human activities such as farming motivates me to want to understand the issue more and try to take necessary action to conserve and protect our ecosystem. Thus, after our discussion with Mr. Zepp, I am not only more informed, but also more inspired to take action, such as through possible volunteer work, to protect our valuable environment.

At this weeks Rose Cafe, we heard from an ILR grad who has dedicated a substantial part of his professional life to conservation through a land trust. What a land trust does is buy preservable land from private owners in order to convert the plot into public space. Never before had I considered the environmental repercussions from private owned land. When interests collide and environmental considerations are set aside, large issues arise. It is in the public interest to ensure the longitivtiy of our environment.

What really sparked my interest during the Cafe is our discussion of why this system is seldom implemented in Europe. Our discussion revealed that the inefficient and expensive land trust system is implemented in the U.S. by lack of alternatives. In Europe, the system allows for much easier and cheaper preservation. This really makes me think about what our different regions value. Both areas espouse themselves as leaders of the progressive future– yet one government actually follows through with this promise.

This weeks rose cafe really surprised me. I had no idea that conservation cost so much money and how much time and energy goes into protecting land. I had never really thought about it and to be honest I’m surprised it’s so difficult to protect certain areas compared to other european countries. I guess it speaks to American independence and the amount of freedom we have with our property. I was surprised to hear that European countries had regulations on what you can do with you and because that feels like the government is overstepping its bounds. I do think that you shouldn’t be able to build a skyscraper in a residential suburb so obviously permits are a good idea but this freedom to develop your land (with permits) comes with cost to the environment. As a society we seem think that taking care of the environment is important but aren’t willing to ives the necessary resources order  to ensure that the land we want protected is protected.

I went to a Rose Cafe today where we talked to the head of the Finger Lakes Land Trust. This was a really interesting conversation because we talked about environmental problems, especially in relation to the Cayuga Lake and the growth of toxic cyanobacteria. One big problem is fertilizer runoff that contaminates the lake with phosphorous and allows harmful bacteria to grow. Fertilizer is a great tool for modern farming because it allows the world to feed its inhabitants but I’ve never thought about the fact that it can also be damaging to the environment. A potential solution might be to mandate that farmers only use “green” fertilizer which doesn’t have an excess of phosphorous, but this might come at a financial cost. Another potential problem is the salt that we use during the winter times. Even though this isn’t a huge problem due to the size of Cayuga lake, it definitely has a negative impact. Salting our roads seems essential in the wintertime but there are other options. A couple years ago, I went to Alaska over the summer. We learned that during the harsh winters, a lot of places use gravel to generate traction for cars and make wintertime travel possible. This might be a solution that we should consider, but again, this might generate its own problems like damaging cars or the road itself. As we discussed, we can also plant more trees to hold the soil down. Even though this will come at a financial cost, it will also have the added benefit of making our planet greener. All of these measures would be to ensure that cyanobacteria don’t grow to an extreme level. With other species, we can usually introduce natural predators to curb the population if need be, but we can’t do that with bacteria. All we can do is ensure that the conditions are such that they find it very challenging to grow. Today’s talk mentioned a lot of the problems that climate change causes. Not only does it mess with the weather and makes the planet warmer as a whole, it also impacts individual species and does damage to the environment that way. We should do whatever we can to combat climate change before it’s too late