Tifft Nature Preserve Management Plan - Buffalo Museum of Science

Buffers
Several adjacent parcels of property provide additional habitat for plants and
animals and function as valuable buffers to the preserve (Figure 1). To the south, there
are several parcels that create a barrier to noise and road pollution from Tifft Street, as
well as visually blocking the busy road. The largest of these parcels is the city owned
ball fields which have limited value for wildlife, but are still greenspace, and community
recreation is a very compatible adjacent land use. There is also a mitigated wetland
owned by NYS Department of Transportation (DOT) on the corner of Tifft Street and
Fuhrmann Boulevard. Although Phragmites is abundant in this wetland, it still can
provide wildlife habitat and a natural filter for water running off the adjacent roads.
Active management of this wetland could also reduce the amount of Phragmites and
improve the ecological function of the wetland. Between the ball fields and the wetland
there are three narrow parcels. Two are owned by the Niagara Frontier Transit
Authority (NFTA) and the other by an unknown owner. These thin strips are dominated
by wet woods that flood during heavy rains, spring snow melt, or when beavers dam the
culvert under Old Tifft Street. Extending from the southeast corner of the marsh to the
north on the east side of the preserve is a large parcel of land owned by the bankrupted
Lehigh Valley Railroad. This piece of property runs along the entire eastern side of the
preserve from the bridge on Tifft Street on the south to the railroad tracks that wrap
around the north along the Buffalo River. Between the Lehigh Valley land and the
preserve are two parcels under the power lines owned by National Grid on the
preserve’s northern and eastern border. The lease agreement between the City of
Buffalo and the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences allows the Society to operate Tifft
Nature Preserve on city land, and states that the city has a wetland easement on the
National Grid property and grants use and possession within the lease agreement to the
Society. Consolidated Railroad, as well as other railroad companies, own parcels not
directly adjacent to the preserve to the north and east. Lehigh Valley Railroad also
owns several parcels in the area north and east of the preserve which are separated by
active railroad tracks.
Expanding Tifft Nature Preserve to include some or all of these buffer lands
would increase the amount of habitat available to the preserve’s plants and animals and
would protect sensitive habitats, like the remnant marsh, from external threats such as
pollution, invasive species, and development. Since the Society currently doesn’t own
the property of the preserve, outright purchase of these lands is an unlikely option.
However, several other options exist for incorporation into the preserve including:
acquisition by the city and inclusion in the lease agreement with the Society, separate
easement or lease agreements between the Society and the current owners, or drafting
Memorandums of Understanding (MOU’s) designating access and uses between the
Society and the current owners. The exact legal agreements may differ for individual
parcels and owners, but should all be included under the umbrella mission and
management of Tifft Nature Preserve.
The incorporation of all of these parcels would create a contiguous preserve,
inclusive of the easement on National Grid’s property, stretching from the railroad tracks
Tifft Nature Preserve Management Plan 17