Hunter's Creek Park
(This 763rd Buffalo Sunday News column was first published on
November 13, 2005.)
Hunter's
Creek Park is one of Erie County's undeveloped or, as now re-titled,
conservation preserves. This 740-acre property is located about three miles
east of the Village of East Aurora. To the northeast it abuts the Land
Conservancy's 141-acre Kenneglen sanctuary. Together the two areas protect more
than 1 1/3 square miles of rapidly maturing forest.
The
Hunter's Creek Park entrance is on Centerline Road where a scout-constructed
kiosk provides a trail map. Park visitors should copy or memorize this map
before hiking this area as it would be very easy to get lost among the spiderweb
of trails.
This
wasn't a problem for me, however, as I was escorted through the park in late
October by John Sly, my candidate for nature hike leader of the year.
John
has known this area since he visited it as a youngster with his family. Then
the area was mostly farmland, but in the 1960s farsighted county leaders saw
the need for parklands. Under state oversight they acquired areas like this to
set aside. To make up the Hunter's Creek property, thirteen parcels of land
were taken under eminent domain, a process by which government expropriates
land for specified projects. In this case, thankfully, no court battles
resulted as amicable financial agreements were reached with all of the property
owners.
Although
we found signs of former farming -- leftover fencing materials, a few fruit
trees now dropping apples for local deer and piles of stones removed from
fields -- this must always have been low grade agricultural property. Recently
fallen trees displaying only inches-deep root systems suggested that in many
places plow blades would have scraped the surface of base rock.
There
were other impediments to farming. The soil itself is low-quality glacial till.
And the typography is unfavorable to agriculture: the creek and its tributaries
have carved steep-sided gullies into the glacier-formed moraines. Those early
farmers might have been glad to sell out to end their backbreaking labor trying
to work this unforgiving land.
John
has been able to follow the progress of this park since the 1960s from open
fields through brush and small trees until now larger trees have taken over and
the forest is maturing. In the gorges still older trees remain and John hopes
to have them aged by coring. The random character of the good mix of tree
species is only marred in a few places by pine plantations set out by well
meaning boy scouts. They planted the saplings close together in lines according
to older forestry dictates.
On
the day of our hike the forest was in full splendor. We walked on golden paths,
the colorful leaves that had fallen not yet acid-stained to deeper brown. I can
identify some trees by their leaves but only a few by their bark. John, on the
other hand, knows them all, with or without leaves. He pointed out red and
sugar maples, basswood, black locust, cherry, bitternut hickory, ironwood,
beech, aspen, yellow birch, white ash, cucumber tree, spruce, white pine and
hemlock. In a lowland area he found willows and even a long-dead elm. Shrubs
too: he displayed those strange yellow witchhazel blossoms and we smelled that
pleasant lemony scent of a broken spicebush twig. Raspberry bushes were
widespread.
So
far few wildflowers have returned to this area but we did find dead leek
blossoms and similar snakeroot flowers.
Only
a chimney remains of the cabin constructed by Albert Hubbard's son Sandy over
40 years ago. John hopes to see it incorporated into
an educational instructional area as proposed in the Erie County Parks Master
Plan. He's also proud of the park support among mountain bike and
horseback riders, joggers and dog walkers. Many of them have helped with trail
construction and maintenance.
It
is clear that John Sly is deeply invested in this property. Having read about
the possibility of Erie County privatizing its parklands, he is