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| Established | 1981 |
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| Location | 1420 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca, New York |
| Visitors | 25,000 |
| Director | Warren Allmon |
| Website | www.cayuganaturecenter.org |
| Ithaca Discovery Trail | |
The Cayuga Nature Center (CNC) is an educational institution addressing nature and environmental issues. It is located on the west side of Cayuga Lake in Tompkins County, New York.
CNC traces its history back to the Cayuga Preventorium, founded in 1914, which was a non-profit organization that provided a summer camp on the east side of Cayuga Lake for children exposed to tuberculosis. As tuberculosis cases diminished, the Preventorium sponsored the Cardiac Clinic to serve underprivileged children afflicted with heart disease. In 1936, Ernest T. Paine donated 75 acres of land on the west side of Cayuga Lake, at the current Cayuga Nature Center property, "for the health and welfare of the children of Tompkins County". [1] Construction of the 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) Cayuga Preventorium Lodge [2] on the property was completed by the Works Progress Administration in 1939. The Preventorium summer camp ran until 1942, where diminishing cases of tuberculosis, competition from other summer camps, and staff reductions due to the Second World War forced the camp to close its doors. [1] : 16–17 The lodge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. [3]
After the war, Cornell University leased the facility as housing for graduate students. In the 1960s, the lodge was reopened as a conference center to be used year-round. Under a new program sponsored by the State Education Department, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) began to offer the site for outdoor education programs. Based on the success of the program, BOCES, Onondaga Nature Centers, Inc., and the Ithaca City School District collaborated to open the Preventorium as a Nature Center in 1975. Dubbed the Cayuga Nature Center four years later, the center was incorporated as a private non-profit organization in 1981. [4] [1]
In January 2011, having experienced funding difficulties, CNC merged with the Paleontological Research Institution, with programs continuing at both locations. [5]
The Cayuga Nature Center is located three miles south of Taughannock Falls State Park on the west shore of Cayuga Lake. [6] The CNC Lodge is heated by a biomass furnace designed and installed as a Cornell engineering student project [2] [7] and features exhibits combining live, mounted, and fossil specimens with interactive stations to highlight the ecology and biodiversity of the Cayuga Basin. CNC's other facilities include Smith Woods, an old-growth forest; TreeTops, a six-story tree house built by the Ithaca High School class of 2000;, [1] : 18 a zoological collection consisting of 30 animals; a seasonal Butterfly Garden, a turtle pond; and a 120-acre campus [5] with five miles of hiking trails. [8]
Henry A. Smith Woods is a 32-acre old-growth forest in Trumansburg, New York. The forest was originally owned by New York City businessman Henry Atterbury Smith, who used it intermittently as a summer residence. In 1909, his sons left the property to the Village of Trumansburg to be used as a public park. Ownership of the forest was transferred to the Cayuga Nature Center in 2007, where it continues to be preserved and used as an educational and recreational site. [9]
CNC offers day summer and school's out day camps as well as year-round programs and classes focusing on environmental issues and natural history. Programs and classes are available for all ages and include animal encounters, and outdoor educational programs that cover survival skills, ecology, and geology, among other topics. CNC also offers seasonal programs on maple sugaring, making apple cider, butterflies and moths in the Butterfly Garden, and winter ecology. [10]
The Cayuga Nature Center is a part of Ithaca’s Discovery Trail, which features the center and seven other educational institutions in the area: the Museum of the Earth, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Cornell Botanic Gardens, the History Center, the Johnson Museum of Art, the Sciencenter, and the Tompkins County Public Library.
Cayuga Lake is the longest of central New York's glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area and second largest in volume. It is just under 39 miles (63 km) long. Its average width is 1.7 miles (2.8 km), and it is 3.5 mi wide (5.6 km) at its widest point, near Aurora. It is approximately 435 ft deep (133 m) at its deepest point, and has over 95 miles (153 km) of shoreline.
Ithaca is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named after the Greek island of Ithaca.
Scouting in New York has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live. The first National Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Headquarters was in New York City, and the Girl Scouts of the USA National Headquarters is currently located at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
Cayuga Heights is an upscale village in the town of Ithaca, in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 4,114 at the 2020 census. The village is located adjacent to Cornell University and is home to many University faculty members, including its president.
Trumansburg is a village in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 1,797 at the 2010 census. The name incorporates a misspelling of the surname of the founder, Abner Treman. The Tremans spelled their surname several different ways; "Truman," however, was not one of them. The village's application for a post office established the present spelling. The Village of Trumansburg is located within the Town of Ulysses and is northwest of Ithaca, New York.
Taughannock Falls State Park is a 750-acre (3.0 km2) state park located in the town of Ulysses in Tompkins County, New York in the United States. The park is northwest of Ithaca near Trumansburg.
Stewart Park is a municipal park operated by the City of Ithaca, New York on the southern end of Cayuga Lake, the largest of New York's Finger Lakes.
Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL) is the public library for residents of Tompkins County, New York. The library has one branch which is located in Ithaca, New York.
The Cornell Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden located adjacent to the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York. The Botanic Gardens proper consist of 25 acres (10 ha) of botanical gardens and 150 acres (61 ha) of the F. R. Newman Arboretum. The greater Botanic Gardens includes 40 different nature areas around Cornell and Ithaca, covering 4,300 acres (1,700 ha).
This is a list of trails in Ithaca, New York.
Gimme! Coffee is a coffee roaster and third-wave coffee shop, based in New York, with espresso bars in Ithaca and Trumansburg. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gimme! announced the permanent closure of the Manhattan and Brooklyn based locations and also began an Ithaca-area delivery service. Gimme! Coffee also has a wholesale service that caters to coffee and espresso establishments. In January 2020, Colleen Anunu replaced founder Kevin Cuddeback as CEO after he served 20 years in the role. Anunu then transitioned the company into a worker-owned cooperative, which it remains since July 25, 2022. A focus at Gimme is to form relationships with farmers who grow coffee. As part of this bond between consumer and producer, the farmer may receive a price premium, which in turn, can help them improve their operations.
New York State Route 89 (NY 89) is a north–south state highway in central New York in the United States. It extends for 62.35 miles (100.34 km) from an intersection with NY 13, NY 34, and NY 96 in the Tompkins County city of Ithaca to an interchange with NY 104 in the Wayne County town of Wolcott. The route spans a total of three counties, connecting the heart of the Finger Lakes Region to a point 6 miles (10 km) south of Lake Ontario. Along the way, NY 89 intersects two regionally important highways: the conjoined routes of U.S. Route 20 (US 20) and NY 5 in Seneca Falls and NY 31 in Savannah. NY 89 runs along the western edge of Cayuga Lake from Ithaca to Seneca Falls.
The Museum of the Earth is a natural history museum located in Ithaca, New York. The museum was opened in 2003 as part of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), an independent organization pursuing research and education in the history of the Earth and its life. Both PRI and the Museum of the Earth are formally affiliated with Cornell University. The Museum of the Earth is home to Earth science exhibits and science-related art displays with a focus on the concurrent evolution of the Earth and life.
The Paleontological Research Institution, or PRI, is a paleontological organization in Ithaca, New York, with a mission including both research and education. PRI is affiliated with Cornell University, houses one of the largest fossil collections in North America, and publishes, among other things, the oldest journal of paleontology in the western hemisphere, Bulletins of American Paleontology.
William Henry Miller (1848–1922) was an American architect based in Ithaca, New York.
The Lime Hollow Center for Environment and Culture is a nature preserve project in Cortland County, New York. It was founded in 1993 as the Lime Hollow Nature Center, the culmination of efforts 20 years earlier to develop a nature preserve to protect an unusual assemblage of marl ponds, a peat bog, and kame-and-kettle topography along an abandoned railroad right of way in Lime Hollow, just west of the city of Cortland.
Ithaca is a town in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The town's population was 22,283 at the 2020 census. The town is in the central part of the county, in the Finger Lakes–Southern Tier region of New York, and is part of the Ithaca Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Town of Ithaca is a horseshoe-shaped portion of the metropolitan area of Ithaca, New York, surrounding the City of Ithaca and being the city's only border. Ithaca College is located in the South Hill section of the town.
Lansing is a town in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 11,691 at the 2020 census.
The Ithaca Discovery Trail is a collaboration among hands-on museums and the public library in Tompkins County, New York. Its member institutions are: Cayuga Nature Center, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell Botanic Gardens, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Museum of the Earth, Sciencenter, The History Center of Tompkins County, and Tompkins County Public Library.
Cayuga Inlet is a river located in Tompkins County, New York. It flows into the south end of Cayuga Lake by Ithaca, New York.
42°31′08″N76°33′18″W / 42.518768°N 76.55493°W
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