Take a walk around the Barden or Veblen House and Cottage at Herrontown Woods, and you may notice some new labels on some of the trees. There are 38 of these professional-grade labels thus far, each with a QR code that takes you to
information on the Friends of Herrontown Woods website about the tree.
This wonderful addition to Herrontown Woods would not have happened but for the generosity and organizational and technical abilities of Alastair Binnie, whose recent retirement has afforded him time to pursue this community project.
Inga Reich, who is now Princeton's open space manager, also has helped, researching and writing the
tree descriptions. Assistance also came from FOHW's webmaster Nicole Bergman and mapmaker Alison Carver.
Herrontown Woods has long been called an arboretum, but only now is it moving towards living up to that description, with 26 native and nonnative species labeled thus far. Though labeling is limited to the "cultural zone" of the preserve, there are now more than 300 tagged trees along the trails, 57 species total, with
the identity of each tagged tree available on the website.
Alastair announced the completion of the labeling at FOHW's Veblen Birthday Bash on Sunday, June 30, celebrating the birthdays of Elizabeth and Oswald Veblen, whose donation created Herrontown Woods in 1957. In this 50th year since Elizabeth passed, I'm thinking the Veblens would be delighted with such a birthday gift.
