NISKAYUNA — The Niskayuna town committee overseeing environmental conservation will review a proposed idea to keep areas of the town’s capped landfill, now Blatnik Park, as a low mow area to allow grassland birds and pollinators to thrive.

Resident Roy Thorton presented the idea during Tuesday’s town board meeting. 

“Pollinators and other butterflies and wild bees and so on are in trouble and the capped landfill can provide them with pesticide free living and dining,” Thornton said at the meeting Tuesday. “Grassland birds are also on the decline in the Northeast. There’s a variety of those and the capped landfill can provide the tall grass, enough acreage and undisturbed nesting for successful nesting.”

Thornton said Friday his advocacy started around 10 years ago in 2012 when he and his wife were walking around the landfill and saw a bobolink, a small blackbird. He said they are a marker species for grassland birds. 

Not long after seeing them, he said, the town began mowing the area again and often enough during the summer that it wasn’t possible for most grassland birds to survive. After that he began advocating to have areas for the birds to prosper.

Town officials love the proposal.

“I think it is a great idea,” said board member John Della Ratta. 

He said he’s already discussed the concept with town Highway Supervisor Ray Smith and plans to talk about it more at the Economic Development, Historic Preservation and Environmental Conservation Committee on March 4. 

Town Supervisor Jaime Puccioni also supports the initiative. The town’s Conservation Advisory Committee has also been active in preserving natural habitats in town, she said.

“In the case of this particular location I am aware that the Council/Committee is balancing the benefits of enhancing a habitat for pollinators and grassland birds with other uses for the area as a walking trail with a beautiful overlook and location for holes on the disc golf course,” she said. 

Puccioni said she has low mow areas of her own backyard to help birds and bees prosper that includes wild clover, natural grasses, wild flowers, shrubs and trees. 

Thorton also has the support of about 30 other people, the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club, the Environmental Clearinghouse of New York and Nicholas Klemczak, the executive director of the Schenectady County Soil and Water Conservation District. 

Reporter Shenandoah Briere can be reached at 518-478-3320 and by email at [email protected]

Categories: News, Schenectady County, Your Niskayuna