Originally Posted on Utica Observer-Dispatch by Amy Neff Roth

Sept. 27, 2014

Things are looking up for the frosted elfin butterfly.

And it’s all thanks to a 15-year-old conservation project in the Rome Sand Plains, where biologists have worked to restore wild blue lupines, the host plant for the frosted elfin butterfly, which is threatened in New York.

Conserving more land in the sand plain, a unique area of the city with sand dunes, peat bogs, hardwood forests, meadows, wetlands and rare inland pine barrens, is listed as a priority project in the state’s Draft Open Space Conservation Plan, released this month by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

“There are some incredible resources that are called out here for further protection,” said Jim Howe, Central and Western New York director of The Nature Conservancy. “It’s not just about habitat for wildlife. Open space and a healthy environment are relatively fundamental to our economy and our quality of life.”

Brian Dam, a Vernon sportsman and member of the regional open space advisory committee, said he’s happy to see the plan’s emphasis on protecting areas around streams, part of the state’s plan to prevent flooding during extreme storms and protect drinking water.

With 86,000 miles of stream in the state and too much development along them, that’s an important feature, he said.

Dam also is happy to see a plan to preserve more land on the Tug Hill Plateau in Oneida, Oswego, Lewis and Jefferson counties, which is the source of Rome’s drinking water, center of a local forestry industry, and a key wildlife habitat and place for outdoor recreation.

“That’s one of the unique areas in New York state outside the forest preserve,” Dam said. “It’s the headwater of eight different rivers and streams. The work that they’re doing up there to protect that is good.”

The public will have a chance to share its views on the plan by submitting written comments until Wednesday, Dec. 17, or by attending one of several hearings scheduled around the state, including one in Utica on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

Conservationists seem to like the plan and its inclusive process.

“We think it’s a strong blueprint to guide the state’s open space conservation effort,” said Erin Crotty, executive director for Audubon New York, which protects wildlife. “And the state’s open space conservation effort is so vital to the protection of birds and other wildlife, but also the state’s economy.”

New York’s 4 million birdwatchers, part of the state’s fastest growing outdoor recreational pastime, contribute $4.2 billion to the economy, Crotty pointed out.

“Great plan,” Howe echoed. “Let’s make sure we put the resources we need into it.”

Peggy Rotton, a New Hartford planner, has sat on the regional advisory committee since 1991, and has seen ups and downs in funding over the years as priorities shift when money gets tight. But many worthwhile projects have gotten done, she said.

“We have an incredibly beautiful area here,” Rotton said, “and that’s worth working to keep and save for the future.”