Three Falls Forest The Falls in March thundering post-glacial ghosts Manlius, New York PHOTO LSpeer 8/28/05

Three Falls Forest
Three Falls
early spring floods amid winter meltdown
Sweet Road & Seneca Turnpike
Manlius, New York

Latitude: 43 00 00 N Longitude: 76 00 30 W Elevation: 620 - 780 feet USGS Topographic Quad: Manlius NYSGIS tile: Manlius_SW1

Three Falls are an ancient, post-glacial feature of the land where torrents of melting icewater poured over cliffs along the

see also: Three Falls Ancient Forest Escarpment Bluestones Mystery Spot Lime Kilns Slide Shows

west edge of Limestone Creek Valley, and eroded a 70-foot deep canyon into the hard limestone of the Onondaga Escarpment.

Twelve thousand years ago, when the last Ice Age ended and the massive continental ice sheet began to recede northward, streams of fast flowing, icy water funneled into a crease across an exposed, ice-scoured bed of Onondaga Limestone. Initially, these streams formed a massive waterfall plunging over the edge of the Escarpment. In a few centuries, this huge cascade gradually wore away a narrow canyon—a half mile long notch, cutting first directly to the west, then curving southwest into the Escarpment cliffs.

topographic map Three Falls Forest Manlius, New York click to enlarge

Eventually, the retreating ice of the melting glacier opened a lower drainage channel below the Escarpment, so the water level suddenly dropped, and the massive cataract in its half mile long canyon shriveled to three separate streams falling into the top of the ravine.

Upstream Rushing Down early spring torrent in the ravine Three Falls Forest, Manlius, NY PHOTO LSpeer 7/26/05

In recent centuries, rain and melting snow sheet off the largely impermeable surface of the limestone bedrock, and converge into the ancient crease in the bedrock, to drop 70 feet over three distinctly different cascades at the head of a flat-bottom ravine. Uniting in this hollow, the three streams run together and straight down the canyon to Limestone Creek along its floodplain below Brickyard Falls.

Frozen Cascade winter echo of an Ice Age Three Falls Forest, Manlius, NY PHOTO LSpeer 2/2005

In the last few centuries, the principal path for humans to travel east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie ran across the north end of the Finger Lakes along the upper edge of the Escarpment. From below Brickyard Falls, where east and west branches of Limestone Creek join, this ancient footpath climbed westward up out of Limestone Valley and through a break in the Escarpment cliffs to crest near this canyon with its trio of waterfalls. The Three Falls were a convenient rest stop for travelers after their steep ascent out of Limestone Creek Valley. In prehistoric times, this trackway was "the-warrior-path-running-east-and-west." After The Peacemaker brought The Great Law of Peace, this well-worn pathway became the Ambassador's Trail. Today, this prehistoric pathway is NY Route 173, known the Seneca Turnpike.

Spring Cascade snowmelt & rain sheet over the falls Three Falls Forest, Manlius, NY PHOTO LSpeer 3/2005

Three Falls Forest is an unexpected treasure of geology, nature and history hidden in suburbs seven miles southeast of downtown Syracuse, just east of the largest open pit mine in the eastern USA: the gigantic Jamesville quarry. This 175-acre property is the largest contiguous forest remaining in the Town of Manlius, and consists of a variety of fragile geological and biological landscapes. While some of the forest is severely disturbed, but quite a few areas are intact, with had minimal man-made intrusions—protected as a buffer between the village residences and the quarry's east end.

Largely forgotten and invisible, this woodland shelters several magnificent features, including the Ancient Forest Cathedral Sanctuary, cliffs and ledges of the Onondaga Escarpment, remarkable ringing Bluestone bedrock, and other post-glacial landforms and plungepool lakes. This relatively undisturbed Escarpment landscape may harbor some of the oldest trees in central New York—stunted, knarly cedar, hophornbeam and other species growing directly out of crevices, clinging tenaciously to moss-carpeted bedrock. This forest seems to contain some of the least disturbed sections of the Onondaga Escarpment.

Three Sister Streams below the falls, three become one Three Falls Forest, Manlius, NY PHOTO LSpeer 3/2005

The Three Falls themselves are

Three Falls Forest are 175 acres at the east end of the Onondaga Escarpment—a limestone ledge that runs west to Butternut Creek valley, then through Rock Cut into and up Onondaga

NOTICE Restricted Access These woods are privately owned. Respect the owner's stewardship of this forest: step lightly take nothing away leave no disturbance

Creek valley. This bed of Onondaga Limestone formed 550 million years ago in the Devonian Era during a long outburst of biological life in the warmer waters of Earth's early ocean. Limestone forms as fossil skeletons of living organisms left as sediments on the sea floor. This hard, resistant rock ridge forms the first foothills that rise from the sands of the Lake Ontario plain and climb into the Alleghany Plateau, the Appalachian foothills in southern New York.

Ten thousand years ago, as the last Ice Age ended, this thick limestone ledge at the receding glacier's edge was etched by torrents of post-glacial meltwater flowing west to east. Rushing rivers scoured the hard rock into deep channels with unique geological formations found few places on earth, including hanging waterfalls and plunge pools. Today, three waterfalls plunge almost 70 feet over this escarpment before uniting as a tributary to Limestone Creek along its floodplain.

Flooded Lower Ravine wall-to-wall water below the Escarpment Three Falls Forest, Manlius, NY PHOTO DYarrow 7/28/05

For many years, Three Falls Forest was quietly protected by a common belief in a Covenant between the Town of Manlius and quarry owner Allied Chemical for "no new and different future use of the Manlius lands, other than to leave said lands in their natural state" as a buffer between the quarry and town residents. This inaccessible woodland retreat was a well-kept secret among neighbors. With five miles of trails to hike, jog, cross-country ski, showshoe, bird watch, and over 65 species of mosses and many ferns, Three Falls Forest was an unofficial recreation park and nature preserve for Manlius residents.

But currently, Three Falls Forest continuation as a community greenspace is threatened. A private developer acquired the land from Allied in 1989, and recently revealed a plan to build 180 houses on the last contiguous greenspace in the Town of Manlius. A pristine common space will be chopped into private lots. Three Falls will become one lucky—and very wealthy—homeowner's personal backyard—a community resource now a private pleasure.

Winter Waterfalls snowmelt & silt sail over the falls Three Falls Forest, Manlius, NY PHOTO LSpeer 2/2005

Very soon, bulldozers will flatten this unique forest—the last intact natural community in Manlius. Flowforrn glacial topography formed in ten thousand years of geological history will disappear under hard fill for building lots, lawns, driveways, and roads. Unless an intervention occurs, this unique habitat and special refuge for biodiversity will be extinct. Longstanding members of our local natural community will be evicted. In some cases, entire families will be refused their home or any place by the human community.

This imminent end to this local sylvan sanctuary mobilized residents to form the Manlius Greenspace Coalition to advocate that Three Falls Forest is a unique geological, biological and ecological resource that needs protection

FOR MORE INFORMATION on Three Falls Forest as a community ecological resource Manlius Greenspace Coalition P.O. Box 131, Manlius, NY 13104 www.ManliusGreenspace.org Manliusgreenspace@earthlink.net

as a permanent Nature Preserve. Clearly, there is much here to protect, preserve and extend. Realizing they are indeed witnessing "the end of Nature" in their own community, Coalition members meet frequently to collect more information and devise a unified preservation plan.

So, the wraps are off the secret of Sweet Road—the backyard wilderness known simply as "Three Falls Forest". Tuesday, August 2, 2005 the Syracuse Post Standard featured a page one story:

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see also: Three Falls — Spring Floods — Ancient Forest — Escarpment Bluestones — Mystery Spot — Lime Kilns — Slide Show

The Earth Restoration & Reforestation Alliance — www.championtrees.org — updated 12/20/2005