Life's good in nature-bounded slice of Greece

Part II of a two-part series which takes a close look at the changing face of North Greece, New York

As we continue our trek northward on North Greece Road, the environs begin to open up to extensive fields and woods. Three streams cross the road at various points, Northrup Creek, Black Creek and Buttonwood Creek, and flow generally northeasterly toward the marshes that ring Braddock Bay, Cranberry Pond and Long Pond.

But it's Frisbee Hill itself that brings past and present together. The second-highest point in the Town of Greece, it's the site of the Davis-Smith-Bagley 1845 cobblestone, now home to the Forth-Finegans, as well as the 1840s Frisbee Family cemetery on the grounds that lead to the closed landfill, now a compost site. From Frisbee Hill, residents can actually see downtown Rochester. Ask Frisbee Hill Road resident Ann Pearlman, who often walks and cross-country skis on the Hill. "We can see downtown Rochester from our upstairs window," she said, "yet just last week I was walking behind my house and I counted 21 hawks roosting in a tree."

Ann, like many who chose to live close to the lake, relishes the cooler temperatures found there all summer long. They are gardeners, wildlife photographers, birders, boaters, fisherpeople, bicyclists, windsurfers and walkers. The 35-mph speed limit is often enforced by the Greece Police as pedestrian traffic is very common along all these roads.

Avid walkers Larry and Janet Frisbee, who live on Frisbee Hill Road, stopped one day on North Greece Road. "I remember when 'traffic' was three-to-four cars and a horse and buggy a week," Larry says. His own family farmed the area along with the Beatys, Baumans, Burgers, Hinchers, Flemings, Speers and Posts and he attended Frisbee Hill School #7 which still stands and interestingly, has one of the few, remaining healthy elm trees in New York state in its years.

Long-time friends of the Frisbees, Jack and Pat Quinn, also descendants of early farmers in the area, remember the old apple 'dry house' on the original Quinn farm ... when the DeMay's was called "The Domino" and Cabic and Badge Automotive ruled the northwest corner of Latta and North Greece Road. "My father, Walter Quinn, and my grandfather, Albert Wellington Post, were pioneers out here," Quinn said. "Fun was cutting ice on Braddock Bay, hauling cut flag (bull rushes used for insulation) to the Hilton cannery and fishing with Al Skinner, former Sheriff of Monroe County for over 50 years. Al and I went to the same one-room schoolhouse on Manitou Road." Along with Larry Frisbee, Jack Quinn and about 15 other old-timers meet regularly as the "Cripples Club," not to be confused with anything remotely new age, a club which definitely is casting a nostalgic eye to the past.

Kathy Tetlow, Hogan Point Road homeowner and naturalist, looks for birds from her private observatory overlooking a pond close to Salmon Creek and Braddock Bay. Photo by Barbara Carder Pierce.

But to fully understand what North Greece means to its residents, continue driving on North Greece Road until you can drive no farther north. It's there, where the road swings sharply to the west and becomes Hincher Road, that North Greece Road literally bumps directly into a marsh.

Now, close your eyes and imagine the chorus of spring peepers, red-winged blackbirds and other denizens of the swamp, four-foot-long carp coming up for air, otters, mink, muskrat and beaver messing about in the mud and overhead, a Great Blue Heron winging back to its nest after a day of fishing.

"Braddock Bay Wildlife Management Area is of significant ecological value," said NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Senior Wildlife Biologist Dave Woodruff from his office in Avon. "It's 2,467 acres of State DEC-managed wetland, one of the larger wetland complexes on the south shore of Lake Ontario. There is a significant fishery. It's a major migration route on the Eastern Flyway for songbirds and raptors who funnel up through the Finger Lakes, stage there at Braddock in great concentrations before continuing to fly east along the lake shore to their northern destinations. The habitats there are critical for migrating birds going both north and south."

You don't have to tell the Braddock Bay Raptor Research (www.bbrr.com) project, the Braddock Bay Bird Observatory (www.bbbo.org) or the Rochester Birding Association (www.rochesterbirding.com) the meaning of having so many hawks, eagles, cranes, terns, vultures, owls, songbirds overhead in the acres of marshland fringed by shrubs like the satiny dogwood, willow and red osier leading to succession forests of beech, maple and oak. Birders from all over the world flock to the Hawk Lookout in Braddock Park to count the migrating raptors and songbirds of which over 300 species have been identified; to band and release owls and hawks; to honor those birds with the annual "Bird of Prey Week" and support efforts to preserve habitat.

"This year, the D.E.C. is adding 67.9 acres adjacent to Salmon Creek on Hogan Point Road called 'Burger Park' to the Braddock Wildlife Management Area," Woodruff said. "The property was sold to the state by the estate of the Burger Family who maintained the area for light recreational purposes. An access road is planned for this summer."

"Credit for this acquisition belongs to the New York Trust for Public Lands which did most of the negotiations," Woodruff said. Last year the New York State Legislature designated Braddock Bay Wildlife Management Area a "Bird Conservation Area Program" which is granted only to those areas which are a combination of state-owned lands or waters and are judged to be important habitat for one or more species of birds. The American Birds Conservancy has also dedicated Braddock Bay an IBA (Important Bird Area), a "globally important site" for the survival of birds and important birds species.

The Town of Greece, which manages 375 acres of the Wildlife Area for both Braddock Park and Braddock Bay Marina, is currently constructing a 210-ft. marsh boardwalk and canoe launch for visitors, similar to extensive boardwalks on the Great Lakes found at places such as Point Pelee in Lake Erie.

Increased tourism for North Greece

The Town of Greece and the State of New York have begun to link the tourism potential of Lake Ontario including the Braddock Bay area to their planning, development and promotion. Upgrades to the Braddock Bay Marina and Park, including the Cranberry Pond Nature Trail, are first steps in preserving the light infrastructure that already exists in this unique area.

New York state has Braddock Bay on its Seaway Trail as well as War of 1812 promotions. Books on nature, history and biking the area as well as Nautical Seaway Trail Chartbook and Waterfront Guide are available by calling 1-800-SEAWAY-T.

On the bay and its tributaries are several eateries including the Braddock Bay Hotel/Restaurant, Willow Inn, Breakers Restaurant, Docksiders, Forest Hill Restaurant as well as the take-out deli, Stew's, on East Manitou Road. Private marinas dot the western side of the Bay and upstream on Salmon Creek off Manitou Road.

Two families in the area are taking the influx of birders and visitors to the area seriously. One is David and Kathy Tetlow of Hogan Point Road, backyard habitat specialists and owners of Nature Company on Fairport Road, supplier of birding, gardening and landscaping materials; and, Brett and Sheryl Ewald, naturalists and owners of Lakeshore Nature Tours, birding guides who offer tours in the Great Lakes area as well as more exotic locations including to Machias Island off the coast of Maine to see the puffin colonies.

As birders, homeowners and visitors find their way to the area, residents will be interacting with municipalities, state agencies, non-governmental organizations and neighborhood associations to maintain the social ties upon which the community was founded, the rural, agrarian values which take life with the seasons.

For further information about the history of the area, try Shirley Cox Husted's Images of Greece 2001. To learn more about revisions in the Town of Greece Master Plan and public hearings on those revisions, call 225-2000. To hear peepers at early evening, drive down North Greece Road and just over the bridge on Buttonwood Creek, roll down your windows and enjoy.

Note: In Part I printed last week, an incorrect reference was made. Robert Finegan is the husband of Jahn Forth Finegan, not John as stated.

This article, "What's so great about North Greece," (Part I, May 21, Part II May 28) included a reference to North Greece's unofficial 'Mayor.' This is Dave Quinn, not Jack Quinn as referred to in the article.

We regret the error.