Valentine's day is for lovers. Valentines day is for wives, girl friends and sometimes your mistress. Besides my wife and girls and their families that I love dearly there is one other thing that my wife accuses me of taking her place. That is the outdoor community. Mother- Nature runs a close second to my wife and girls. Sometimes I suppose my wife thinks Mother- Nature is my mistress.
One place my wife showed me was the Montezuma Wetland Complex an Environmental Paradise. The location of Montezuma is in the central Finger Lakes Region in New York State. The complex comprises a mixture of wetlands, farms. grasslands, small woods lots and rural communities. The area is rich in diverse wildlife within one hour drive of my home in Rochester. The marshes are a migratory bird resting, feeding and staging area in the Atlantic Flyway. Annually more than one million birds pass through the complex along with innumerable shore birds and song birds.
Within the Complex are the federal Montezuma Wildlife Refuge and the state Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area. Both state and federal agencies became involved in the expansion of public lands and active management of public and private lands in the area.
The Montezuma Wetlands Complex is New York's Flagship Area under the North American Waterfowl Plan. A partnership formed between Ducks Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy, state local, private land owners federal agencies and others. Their role is to coordinate and communicate land conservation efforts in the area. Public recreational use like birding, hiking, canoeing, wildlife observation, hunting, fishing and trapping abound in the complex on public lands. Access to private land within the complex demands permission from the owner. The national Audubon Society recognized the Montezuma Complex as the first IMPORTANT BIRD AREA in New York State.
The Complex is rich in human and natural history. For thousands of year the area supported a large population of early Native American hunting and gathering groups. The last of these Native Americans were the Cayugas, a part of the Iroquois nation.
The first Europeans to map the area were the French Jesuit missionaries in the 1600s. Letters from these early explorations describe the areas natural salt foundations and abundant wildlife.
The Montezuma Wetland Complex is accessible from New York State Thruway- Route 90- Exit 40 or 41.For boaters you can access the Complex from the Erie Canal, Seneca and Cayuga Lakes.
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