Thursday, August 25, 2016

Herrontown Woods Trail Update

Volunteers with our nonprofit, the Friends of Herrontown Woods, have been doing lots of trail work this summer. One initiative, primarily being carried out by Kurt and Sally Tazelaar, is installing a new, simpler color scheme that will make the trails easier to follow. The red trail loop will now begin and end at the park's main parking lot off of Snowden Lane, and a yellow trail will form an inner loop featuring the boulder field, quarry site, and 19th century farmstead. The yellow trail is now completely marked, and a couple redundant connector trails have been closed off. Sticking with our theme of using found materials, trail markers are homemade.


Another initiative is to reduce trail erosion. With climate change bringing more intense storms, particularly to the northeastern U.S., trails are more frequently turning into streams during heavy rains. Water bars are a way of directing water off trail.

New volunteer, Glenn Ferguson (in photo), helped install the first two waterbars yesterday, between the Veblen House and cottage, using stone donated by a Herrontown neighbor. Glenn is an environmental studies major who discovered the preserve a year or two ago, and liked it so much he contacted us wanting to help out. He mentioned that the Veblen cottage reminds him of cottages he's seen in Batsto, the historic town in the Pine Barrens, which also dates back to the 19th century.

We continue to note how important it is, while doing trail maintenance, not to disturb some of the rarer native wildflowers that grow along the trail edges, e.g. wild comfrey. Trail widening can inadvertently harm wildflowers adapted to the special conditions along the trails' edge.

Whether you want a relaxing walk or a workout, come join us to walk the trails of Princeton's first nature preserve, where Veblen, Einstein and others would find inspiration and room for their thoughts to roam.

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