Edwards Lake Cliffs Preserve hosts one of the rarest plant communities in the local region. It is one of the few places with undeveloped lake frontage on the eastern side of Cayuga Lake. Upland boneset (Eupatorium sessilifolium), a locally rare member of the sunflower family, grows on the cliffs. The forested area is home to hop hornbeam, butternut, and a variety of oaks and hickories. The preserve includes lake cliffs, Shurger Glen, a forested ravine, old fields, shrub thickets, and successional forests with a history of agricultural use. Shurger Glen is a popular destination for geology field trips because of the diverse fossils in the strata above the streambed and below the large falls.

The area is currently under threat by pale swallowwort (Cynanchum rossicum), an invasive plant species in the milkweed family. Antonio DiTommaso, Integrated Plant Sciences, and Cornell Botanic Garden's staff have been conducting studies to assess the efficacy of different pesticide treatments to control the spread of the plant. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also researching a biological control for pale swallowwort in the area. In addition, the hemlock trees are at risk from the insect hemlock woolly adelgid. In 2009, Mark Whitmore, Natural Resources, began research on a biological control for this invasive species. 

DiTommaso, Antonio, Lindsey R. Milbrath, Todd Bittner, and F. Robert Wesley. “Pale Swallowwort (Vincetoxicum rossicum) Response to Cutting and Herbicides.” Weed Science Society of America 6, no. 3 (2013): 381-390.

Cascadilla Gorge is a massive display of rock, water, and trees. The warm, south-facing slopes are home to chestnut oak, scarlet oak, hickories, shadbush, and other plants adapted to drier conditions. The cooler north-facing slopes and the gorge bottom host hemlock, beech, sugar maple, and mountain maple, as well as ferns, mosses, and lichens.  Where the creek bed is stable, some sycamore, cottonwood, and box elder trees have taken root.

The iconic Cascadilla Gorge Trail offers hikers easy access to the scenic views, as well as the diverse plant and animal life that inhabits the area. The gorge and trail were restored between 2009 and 2014. This restoration included realigning and elevating sections of trail, removing invasive plants, repairing the retaining walls and staircases, and adding new drainage systems to divert stormwater under the trail.

The trail restorations have made it easier for researchers to access areas of the gorge that are most interesting. Rafael O. Tinoco Lopez, a former Cornell graduate student, would bring his class to the gorge to study transport, mixing, and transformation in the environment.

Fall Creek Gorge runs from Triphammer Falls at Beebe Lake dam to Lake Street below Ithaca Falls. It is an integral part of Cornell’s campus and offers scenic views, recreation, trails, plant and wildlife habitats, drinking water, and hydroelectric power to the community. The rocky slopes and steep cliffs have forests of Appalachian oak-hickory and Chestnut oak types. Many of the trees are over 200 years old. The north-facing slopes are cooler and have many eastern hemlock trees. 

In 1990, New York State declared this 1.8-mile stretch of Fall Creek a recreational river, which means the gorge is protected and preserved to the highest degree. Besides plant life, the land supports diverse aquatic and benthic macro-invertebrate communities.

The immense biodiversity of life at Fall Creek makes it popular for an array of research projects. Mark C. Whitmore, Natural Resources, currently studies areas of Fall Creek Gorge for canopy defoliation. Nicholas Sly, a previous student of David W. Winkler, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, studied the breeding behavior of northern rough-winged sparrows.

Fall Creek Gorge is 25.6 acres total, with waterfalls that flow over a series of sharp cliffs. The water drops 431 feet from Beebe Lake to Ithaca Falls.