Named after the Iroquois great swamp area.
By Laura Hand
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 6:26 p.m.
CANASTOTA -- The old farm and muckland on the southeast corner of Oneida Lake is seeing a change. It's going back to what it was, before it was agricultural land, thanks in part to a man with a vision and a plan.
Michael Patane thought about a land conservancy 15 years ago, after realizing that the ducks he was hunting as a young man were not around. He figured a change in the environment would make them come back--and it has.
12 years ago, Patane started The Great Swamp Conservancy, which now owns 200 acres of land, centered north of Canastota.
But, Patane says, the objective is not to pull land off the tax rolls, and another 5,000 acres of the 30,000 acre focus area is in conservancy, thanks to help by his organization in showing landowners alternatives to agriculture.
The Great Swamp Conservancy is named after the Iroquois great swamp area, but a ridge of higher land, a glacial remain, runs through it, making for a diversity of habitat and a concentration of artifacts from where Native Americans had lived. There are now archaeological digs, in addition to the many nature trails for walking and observing the wildlife that's moving back in. An 1800s farmhouse, now restored, is the center of activity and shows off cases of furs and more of native species, including bear, muskrat, fox, mink and pheasant.
The old barn complex is being remade with tribute to another era of history. The entry is being repaved with bricks, torn up from Canastota streets. They are yellow, and it's entirely possible they were the inspiration for Oz author L. Frank Baum's yellow brick road. We do know he traveled through the area to visit a relative in Rome.
It's not just the land that is being changed. A room off the barn is an incubator, for 1500 bobwhite quail. They've been rearing and releasing the birds for several years now, and they seem to be re-establishing in the area, after their last documentation in the wild in 1893.
The Great Swamp Conservancy is north of Canastota (on Main Street) and it's open year-round. For more information, click on the link below.
