Lime Hollow News

Lime Hollow Center for Environment & Culture Goes Electronic – With Introduction of New Web Site

“Paperless” limehollow.org expected to be time and tree-saver

The Lime Hollow Center for Environment and Culture (LHCEC) today announced it has launched a new website (on the web at www.limehollow.org). While the member-supported nature center situated on the boarder of Cortland and Tompkins Counties in the Finger Lakes region of New York State is a leading regional advocate for turning off our increasingly ubiquitous electronic gadgets in favor of tuning into the outdoors – the organization has embraced the Internet as a convenient, cost-saving, and “paperless” way to further its mission.

“In this instance, we see the outdoor environment and the electronic environment as entirely compatible,” says Executive Director, Dr. Charles Yaple, who is among the organization’s most impassioned proponents of enjoying the physical, rather than the virtual, world. (He’s lately been promoting “Nature Deficit Disorder” as espoused in Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.)

 “We’re a not-for-profit always looking for ways to economize and be environmentally savvy, and launching our new website is consistent with both principles.”

Yaple indicated the site, which quietly went live in October, 2005 has already proved a time-saving and less paper-intensive information source for the Center’s members, particularly parents seeking access to schedules and forms relating to the center’s day camps – and hikers interested in the Center’s 9-mile trail network over 400 acres of protected land.

Speaking of trails, this is not the first time the LHCEC has walked down the technology path in order to further its mission: The Center’s new maps are derived from a GPS study conducted by SUNY Cortland graduate student, Walt Anderson, as part of his masters project (“The Development of Detailed Maps for LHCEC: A Resource for Future Site, Facility, and Program Development”) and the organization is increasingly using email and list-serves to spread the word about its annual “Snake Night” event and monthly meetings of its birding club.

“We’ve also signed new members and received donations via the new website,” adds Yaple with the enthusiasm you’d expect from the head of a member-funded organization. “Every dollar helps us keep our trails free to the public.”

Case in point, the new website was jointly developed through the donated time and resources of several individuals: it was written and conceived by Lime Hollow board Vice President John Hoeschele , designed by graphic designer Jerome Natoli , and jointly programmed by Cornell interactive expert Una Moneypenny and Sue Reynolds, owner of web design company The Cortland Connection.