What’s in Store for Summer?

On Tuesday, June 6, Summer Ryan-Dinmore @darkbaysfordays captured the

unsettling haze on of smoke in Stewart Park, a result of wildfires in Canada.

It’s incredibly rare for us to say this, but please don’t visit Stewart Park or the Cayuga Waterfront Trail today. You may have seen that Tompkins County Whole Health is alerting the community that local Air Quality has now moved to a hazardous level as defined by the Air Quality Index (AQI) scale, and is discouraging any unnecessary outdoor activity until the air quality returns below hazardous levels. Stay safe, and thank you!

There will be Free Carousel Rides this weekend — June 10 and 11 — thanks to Carousel Sponsor Purity Ice Cream! The carousel will be operates from 11am to 7pm. Thank you Purity Ice Cream!

If you, your business, or organization would like to provide free carousel rides, Visit

www.stewartpark.org/carousel-sponsor to learn more! In 2021 and 2022, Carousel Sponsorships provided between 15,000 and 20,000 free rides!

Pop over to Stewart Park for an hour or two on Tuesday, June 13 between 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm for a Weekday Work Party! We'll be trimming back invasive vegetation and working the garden beds along the Waterfront Trail. Together we'll improve views of the lake and beautify the park for summer!

Wear boots and gloves if you can and bring hand trimming tools (we have some as well). Meet at the DPW garage door of the Wharton Studio Building.

*Rain date June 14

Friends of Stewart Park, the City of Ithaca, Wharton Studio Museum and Historic Ithaca are proud to announce that as of May 5, 3023, Stewart Park is now officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This comes on the heels of the park’s placement on New York’s State Register earlier this spring. A listing on the State and National Registers recognizes the importance of the property to the history of our country and, in the case of Stewart Park, provides the park with added protections that preserve the integrity of park buildings, which were built in the late 1800s; and makes the park eligible for state historic preservation matching grants.

Thanks to Tompkins Weekly for their article about the park’s new designation! You can read the article on their website here!

The last of the guided Spring Bird Walks in Stewart Park will be Saturday, June 17 at 9 am. Join Cayuga Bird Club leaders for a lovely guided Bird Walk in Stewart Park! Dress for the weather, bring your binoculars, and meet at the Cascadilla Boathouse at 9am.

As you may have read in recent newsletters, the Cayuga Waterfront Trail is now a Pollinator Pathway and listed on Pollinator-Pathway.org. Pollinator pathways are public and private pesticide-free corridors with native plants that provide nutrition and habitat for pollinating insects and birds. If you have entered the park during the past couple of weeks, we hope you have enjoyed the colorful park entry landscape now featuring Catmint - Nepata ‘Walkers Low’. While Nepeta is not native, it is deer resistant, a durable survivor, and increasingly popular in our area. You will note that we allow Common Milkweed to flourish in the small, northernmost entry planting island, shown above, and in many other planting beds in Stewart Park and along the trail. It’s the course-leaved perennial that is about to flower. Milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) are the required host plants for caterpillars of the monarch butterfly, playing a critical role in the monarch's life cycle as they migrate through Ithaca during the summer months.

More Park and Trail News

We’re Hiring! Come work with us!

Friends of Stewart Park is looking for a Campaign Manager for our upcoming Capital Campaign for the Wharton Studio & Cafe’ project in Stewart Park. The position a part-time hands-on campaign management and fundraising staff position, reporting to WSM’s Executive Director who is also Board President of FSP. Learn More Here.

Happy to report we've recently repaired Elayne's Lending Library in Stewart Park and restocked it with great books! In 2022, FSP received a grant from Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library to get more books that amplify voices of Black and brown youth, as well as youth with disabilities. We also found tons of incredible gently used books at their Book Sale!

Help fill the library! Bring your gently used books to add to Elayne’s Lending Library whenever you head to Stewart Park!