> On Jan 13, 2026, at 3:28 PM, AB Clark <anneb.clark...> wrote:
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> To all local birders,
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> The article attached below is worth noting and turning out to the Jan 22 meeting for if you value the Hile School Road Wetland, of which the Freeville Fir Swamp UNA is part. There are many other potential impacts of this proposed development. I am speaking to you all as a concerned nearby resident of the property, but the impacts on Dryden Township and the county go beyond this.
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> Happy to answer more questions insofar as I can,
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> Anne
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> Anne B. Clark, Ph.D.
> Biological Sciences, Emeritus
> Binghamton University
> Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
> (607) 222-0905 (cell)
> (607) 777-2438 (Biol Sci office)
> Power concedes nothing without a demand.
> It never did and it never will. Frederick Douglass
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> This from the Jan 11 issue, Tompkins Green Scene:
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> Two of Tompkins County’s Unique Natural Areas in Dryden Threatened by Potential Development
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> Two of Tompkins County’s Unique Natural Areas (UNA) would be threatened by a proposed residential subdivision development that seeks to carve up all of the Trillium Woods (UNA-73) and a large portion of the Freeville Fir Tree Swamp (UNA-74) into units for sale. Trillium Woods contains one of the densest collections of breathtakingly beautiful spring wildflowers in the County. The Freeville Fir Tree Swamp is an extensive wetland environment, and the only one of its type in the County, that supports mammoth hemlock trees and species that can only be found elsewhere hundreds of miles north of Ithaca. It also includes a population of the rare and endangered globeflower.
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> The county’s Environmental Management Council’s designation of a land parcel as a Unique Natural Area does not in itself convey any legal protections. It provides a planning tool so that landowners and municipalities will be made aware of the special, sometimes irreplaceable, qualities of these areas so that they will be protected and any disruption of them can be avoided before approval for land development is granted.
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> In this case, it will be up to the Dryden Planning Board to require these areas be protected as part of the development plan. The Dryden Planning Board’s next meeting is Thursday, January 22 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, in the Town Public Meeting Room, 93 East Main Street, Dryden, NY 13053, or via Hybrid tools, and the current owner’s development proposal is expected to be formally introduced at that meeting.
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> For the Planning Board to resolve to defend the UNAs, it is vitally important that the public let the Board know how important protecting these sites is to them, by attending the Board meeting and/or sending letters. Together we can make the Board aware that protecting these rare, beautiful, environmentally sensitive, and special places is the only correct decision.
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