Personal Connections to Onondaga Creek: Part II

"Onondaga Creek is the main artery flowing through the heart of the city of Syracuse. Beginning in headwaters fed by springs and rivulets along the Valley Heads Moraine, it flows through the Tully Valley, the Onondaga Valley, and north eventually into Onondaga Lake. I grew up on Onondaga Hill, and when I was a teenager I practiced on the swim team at Valley Pool. Outside the floor-to-ceiling pool windows you could see Onondaga Creek flowing in the ditch designed for flood control. I often thought, wasn’t it strange that we could swim in a man-made pool, but not in the Creek flowing outside?

The Creek was dangerous because the waters were too fast and too dirty. I would like to see Creek waters clean enough to swim in, not just for humans but for fish, invertebrates, waterfowl, amphibians. For my master’s thesis work I studied Onondaga Creek riparian habitats and their potential for restoration. I learned that “the Creek” is not just the ribbon of water we see flowing, but includes the adjacent floodplain, as well as groundwater and alluvial systems. Land and water, surface and underground, form one continuous watershed system. Plants play a huge and critical role in this system, and I’m interested in recovering and renaturalizing plant communities throughout the Onondaga Creek corridor, through forests, gardens, wetlands."

-Catherine Landis, OCCC participant

Inland Waterway Designation

Thanks to the efforts of several actors, including the OCCC, Onondaga Creek is now officially designated as an inland waterway as of July 2009. The bill was authored by State Assembleyman Al Stirpe. The creek is now eligible for funding from the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) which could go towards conservation and cleanup efforts. More updates on this coming soon!

Personal Connections to Onondaga Creek: Part I

From time to time we will post about members of the community and their personal experience and perception of Onondaga Creek. This will serve to bring the large and sometimes overwhelming concept of conservation to a more intimate and visual level:

"I have lived on both urban and rural stretches of Onondaga Creek. I have walked miles by its waters in early spring and heard the peepers croaking their robust songs. I have watched, time after time, awed by the beauty of circling marsh hawks and gliding blue herons. I have smiled at new born calves sneaking out of their pastures. I have been soothed and renewed by the creek's gurgling flow.

I am especially committed to protecting the Tully Valley Onondaga Creek watershed. Tully Valley is a place of incredible beauty, quiet and wildlife. It is an absolute gem... a place of working family farms, wetlands and forested hillsides. Vast amounts of farmland and wetlands have been destroyed by suburban sprawl. I am trying, with OCCC, to prevent this from happening to the Tully Valley.

Also, as a Syracuse, low-income, single parent, I would like to bring children to the urban stretches of Onondaga Creek and have it be safe, green and serene. It can be. Cities all across the world have worked cooperatively to reclaim channelized, polluted creeks.

Over 40% of Syracuse residents do not own cars. This number will increase with the current economic crisis and global warming. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could walk and bike along Onondaga Creek right in the city? We don't have to drive for miles. Nature is right here."

-Stacey Smith, OCCC participant