Number: 1984-19
WHEREAS, high quality habitat is critical to the continued maintenance of our fish and wildlife populations; and
WHEREAS, the 11,645 acre Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area, located in Schuyler and Tompkins Counties, provides such high quality habitat for wild turkey, white-tailed deer, at least 12 mammalian species, and approximately 159 avian species; and
WHEREAS, the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area is considered a national treasure for the prominent role it has played in ruffed grouse research and management as the result of studies conducted there by the N.Y. State Department of Environmental Conservation and Cornell University; and
WHEREAS, in October of 1976 the Ruffed Grouse Society of North America conducted a seminar for its membership on the area at which time the Society leadership described the area as one of the historic and current focal points of grouse research and management in the United States; and
WHEREAS, the studies conducted on the area have resulted in valuable baseline data that wildlife biologists use nationwide in the management of ruffed grouse; and
WHEREAS, officials of the U.S. Government and State of New York are considering transfer of the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area from public ownership to the Cayuga Indian Nation as a partial means of settling a land claim by the Nation against the State of New York, the U.S. Government and approximately 7,000 property owners in Seneca and Cayuga Counties of New York;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, in annual meeting assembled March 15-18, 1984, in Atlanta, Georgia, hereby urges the full and fair settlement of the Cayuga Indian Nation land claim on a basis which will not require the transfer of the Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area or other unique and valuable state or public lands into other ownership.