Signage highlights partnerships to connect Circuit Trails

PRINCETON, N.J. — With funding from the William Penn Foundation, D&R Greenway plans to develop

more interpretive signage like the new one at Bordentown Beach that connects communities.

As part of its new “Community Conservation” initiative, D&R Greenway, Abbott Marshlands, and TravelStorys App will partner to connect the Greater Philadelphia and Greater Trenton Circuit Trails.

The connectivity of these trails will feature historical and educational signage along their paths. There will be about four new signs.

“D&R Greenway’s expertise lies in maximizing existing partnerships and building new partnerships at all levels – State Government, County Government, Municipal Government, corporations, community groups, nonprofit organizations and individuals,” says President and CEO Linda Mead.

D&R Greenway recognizes all the beneficiaries of land preservation, and so the new totem-designed signage at Bordentown Beach in the Abbott Marshlands lists collaborators of the effort.

The sign helps to promote the use of the Circuit Trails, Tulpehaking Nature Center, and the TravelStorys app.

“D&R Greenway has acted as the leader to bring all these groups together to understand the importance of connecting communities and merging resources to do so,” Mead says.

“The signage will also acknowledge the perseverance and volunteer work of key community people, those who ultimately protect and care for our watershed with boots on the ground,” she says.

For 25 years now, D&R Greenway has been working toward preservation and stewardship of the Abbott Marshlands. It has worked with Mercer and Burlington counties to make the Abbott Marshlands and the Circuit Trails the robust community assets they are today.

An oasis of natural beauty, the Abbott Marshlands is a unique urban wetland where osprey, marsh wrens, and many kinds of butterflies and dragonflies live. There are also the occasional beluga whale and harp seal.

Human visitors include students on field trips, hikers, cyclists, bird watchers, canoeists, kayakers, fishers, hunters, photographers and artists.

Folks along these trails can also enjoy the offerings at the Tulpehaking Nature Center created by D&R Greenway and N.J. Green Acres Program in partnership with Mercer County.

Along with 15 new signs and trail maps, the new TravelStorys app that was released in 2017 provide paddling and walking tours, enabling visitors to imagine journeying back in time.

This app allows them to navigate Crosswicks Creek in the Abbott Marshlands, visit the bluffs that witnessed Lenape Indian life, early English settlers and French royalty. App users can hear the sounds of a railroad, summer insects and the call of an osprey while learning about key events that shifted the course of American history.

Both the app and new signage along the regional network of hundreds of miles of multi-use trails, enhance community connections, and will soon add the Tulpehaking Nature Center, Abbott Marshlands and Lawrence-Hopewell Trail to the Circuit network.

The William Penn Foundation not only funds the new signage for the Circuit Trails, but it also funds the Alliance for Watershed Education, which is a group of 23 nature centers that bring educational programs to the public with a goal of protecting natural resources of the Delaware River Watershed. More than 15 million people get their drinking water from the Delaware River Watershed.

D&R Greenway Land Trust and the Tulpehaking Nature Center are members of the Alliance for Watershed Education.