FOHW Receives Land Ethics Award for Best Community Effort

The Friends of Herrontown Woods is proud and honored to receive a 2023 Land Ethics Award from Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve. Our Botanical Art Garden--Barden for short--received their award for Best Community Effort. At Bowman's Hill's annual Land Ethics Symposium, Santino Lauricella read at length from our application about how the Barden evolved to become a gathering place for native plants, art, whimsy, and people of all ages. Next to the main parking lot off of Snowden Lane, the Barden's paths are lined with 150 species of native plants, many of them labeled.

Santino particularly liked the last paragraph of our application:

The Barden was not planned, but instead evolved through a dialogue between people and the land. As thickets of invasives were cleared, the topography and fallen trees suggested where the next pathway might go. Each new volunteer brings ideas and passion to influence the mix. We try to adopt theater’s “Yes, and” approach that promotes positive interactions and allows ideas to grow. “Building community through stewardship” is the group’s informal motto. A garden is viewed not so much as something installed but as a relationship formed. For someone who loves nature and people of all ages, the Barden can feel like a paradise, where we can combine physical work with intellect, as the Veblens did, and collaborate with nature-- the most generous and creative force of all.

I found Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve to be inspirational when I first moved to Princeton back in 2003. In reading the history of Bowman's Hill on their excellent website, it occurred to me that the Veblens' land acquisitions in the 1930s and '40s--both at Herrontown Woods and through the IAS for what later became the Institute Woods--could conceivably have been inspired in part by Bowman's Hill as well. The Veblens bought the cottage property in 1936, two years after Bowman's Hill was formed.

The award announcement can be found on the Bowman's Hill website at the bottom of this webpage.

Observing the Heavens at Herrontown Woods

This story contains elements of community, serendipity, astronomy, and history, and gives a sense of how we get things to happen at Herrontown Woods. For more than a year, a friend and Herrontown Woods volunteer, Jim Manganero, had been telling me about a telescope he was given by a friend. Jim is a retired engineer and was a close friend of John Nash, the great mathematician, and John's wife Alicia. Jim has come to some of our volunteer days at Herrontown Woods, and one particularly memorable day he showed me how to wield a hedge trimmer against the formidable invasive multiflora rose, whose thorns make it otherwise perilous to approach and subdue. 

Jim would remind me periodically about his telescope, and each time we agreed it would be great to figure out how to work it and to invite people to look through it some night at the preserve. But not being particularly adept with technology, I wouldn't follow up--this despite my being the son of a distinguished astronomer, W. Albert Hiltner, and having spent considerable time around observatories as a kid.

Then one day this winter, two women were walking past Veblen House and we got to talking. Somehow astronomy came up, and one of the women, Gitanjali Bakshi, said she knows an astrophysicist at Princeton University who loves the outdoors and community involvement, and might well help us with the telescope. 

His name is Gaspar Bakos, and when I sent him an email, he happened to be down in Chile, on a mountain top, building a special kind of telescope he had designed that will watch the whole night sky, with the aim of detecting anything out of the ordinary. As it happened, he is building his telescope high on a mountain within a few miles of the twin Magellan Telescopes that were my father's last design project. 

Gaspar agreed to meet with us after returning to Princeton, and quickly got the telescope up and running. Jim ordered some additional parts, and we were ready to observe. 

At last, the long awaited night arrived to try out the telescope. Gaspar oriented the telescope using two stars far apart in the sky.  The telescope could then navigate on its own to any star he typed into the remote control. 

The night skies in Princeton, as Gaspar will tell you, are highly polluted with waste light from buildings and streets, robbing us of a good view of the heavens. Nevertheless, we were able to see the Pleiades, and hear Gaspar's fascinating story of how cultures all around the world share the same mythology--which astronomy has helped determine to be the oldest mythology of them all--about Orion and the Seven Sisters. 

Gaspar is an advocate for dark skies, which involves convincing people and communities to minimize the waste light that bleeds upward, washing away what once was a magnificent view of the universe. He describes what we are missing in a wonderful video, entitled The Lost Wonders of the Night Sky. 

When we finally aimed the telescope at the moon, Gaspar captured the image on a piece of paper held up in front of the eyepiece. Now that we have the telescope functioning, the next step is to organize an evening of observation at Herrontown Woods. That's the goal, but as you can see, the journey is as pleasurable and meaningful as the destination. 

Advocating for Trail Access to Herrontown Woods

Two developments bordering Herrontown Woods were required to build publicly accessible trails to connect to the preserve. One was Stone Hill Church, whose trailhead leads in to our Red Trail from the back of their parking lot. The church has done a great job of maintaining that trailhead, which gets frequent use and proved critical for hauling in the stones and boards necessary to make our Red Trail more walkable during the muddy season. The other is just being installed at Windy Top, the cluster of seven homes built on Snowden Ave across from Smoyer Park. 

The Friends of Herrontown Woods has worked with the Windy Top developer, Liping An, for many years. He allowed us to scavenge hundreds of flat stepping stones to make muddy trails passable, and we convinced him to donate 7.5 acres of woodland behind the development to the town to expand Herrontown Woods. 

Windy Top's public trail into Herrontown Woods was designed to skirt this detention basin at the back of the development.

Recently, I was surprised to find that trees had been planted around the detention basin where the trail had been designed to go. 

I called Cindy Taylor, the town's open space manager, who organized a meeting with Liping and others to figure out what to do. It was agreed that the trees would be moved, and a 4 foot wide bed of woodchips would be applied to make clear how hikers can access Herrontown Woods from the Windy Top cul de sac. 

When installed, this woodchip trail will connect with the purple trail that Kurt Tazelaar built in the 7.5 acre donated woodland. 

To Walk a Duck (repost)

By chance, I happened upon this post from my PrincetonNatureNotes.org blog, in which my younger daughter and I took one of our pet ducks for a walk in Herrontown Woods exactly ten years ago, on January 24, 2013. That would prove to be a momentous year, for the Friends of Herrontown Woods would come into being that summer. When ducks are young, they will follow you anywhere, and can walk great distances. This is one of a whole raft of posts I wrote about the ducks we had in our backyard.

January 24, 2013:
Ducks made a surprise entry into our lives this past fall (2012), when our younger daughter began asking to get ducklings. We made what seemed like compelling arguments against. Winters are cold, ducks are messy, and then there's the question of longterm care. To all these concerns she offered answers gleaned from the internet. She broke down our resistance with her persistence, passion, and finally a sophisticated powerpoint presentation that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Youtube's surprisingly rich offering of poultry videos may also have inspired the request to take one of the ducks, which had grown quickly after emerging from the box they arrived in from California, on a nature walk.

This fleet-footed "runner duck" had no problem keeping up with us, and appreciated the occasional puddle we encountered in Herrontown Woods. I didn't even try to teach it the subtleties of winter-time tree identification. It seemed content just to explore on its own.

Happiness is a duck in the lap and a cell phone in the hand.

Despite having scaled the Princeton Ridge and scurried under and over countless fallen trees, the runner duck led the way back past the Veblen farmstead towards our car. Molly, as this runner duck is called, can be described as liking to take long walks in the woods, frolic in the backyard minipond when it's not frozen, and is considering a career in egg laying. Hopefully we didn't violate any leash laws.

Advocating for Safe Bike and Pedestrian Access Up Snowden Lane

The Friends of Herrontown Woods has for many years been advocating for better bicycle and pedestrian access to Herrontown Woods and Smoyer Park. This past week, the last stretch up from town along Snowden Lane got a little safer.

A strip of asphalt was laid down for bikes and pedestrians in front of the Windy Top development at the top of the hill. Though in the original plans finalized years ago, the walkway was only added after the last of seven houses was finally built. 

The portion at the very top of the hill is especially welcomed, since a pedestrian was hit and badly injured there some years back, perhaps due to the limited sight lines at the crest. 

The walkway deadends at either end, however, at the edge of the Windy Top property. Extension to the entrances to Herrontown Woods and Smoyer Park will likely be the town's responsibility. 

And extension of the walkway down to Van Dyke will likely need to wait until the housing development being built on the larger corner property there is completed. 

Even when that happens, there will still be what we call "the gauntlet" that extends from Van Dyke down across the bridge to Overbrook Drive. Building a walkway along that stretch is critical for anyone in the Littlebrook neighborhood wanting to access Smoyer Park and Herrontown Woods in anything other than a car. 

Long ago, Snowden Lane was a charming country road with a little stone-arch bridge over the stream. With all the houses going in, the charm of the narrow road with steep ditches on either side is giving way to a need for safe access to the preserved public recreational lands at the top of the hill.   

One remnant of that distant rural era that we'd like to see preserved and repurposed is the old stone bridge over the stream. FOHW has alerted the town to the existence of the bridge, and is advocating for finding a way to utilize it for bike and pedestrian access up Snowden Lane. 

The Many Stories a Barden Can Tell

There are many curious sights in the Barden at Herrontown Woods, and each has a story behind it. This figure was carved two years ago by our chainsaw virtuoso, Victorino, as a bit of whimsy after a morning of tree work in the Barden. Is it sad because it has lost its bark?

The gazebo in the background has a long but fun story behind it. 

This dugout has two stories behind it. One is the story of how it was carved by Princeton High School students. The other is the story that inspired the carving: the Odyssey. 

I'm sure the kids who made these mudpies can tell you all about them, and how delicious they were.

This tree is very quietly telling its story every day at the Barden.

This tree, a dead ash cut down by Victorino, has a story to tell if we take the time to study its markings. The story will be not only about the tree but about the woods or abandoned field in which it sprouted.

I bet its rings will take us back to a time when Herrontown Woods was mostly farm fields. And what sort of insect made that blue-stained channel?

This version of a leaf corral, with a central cylinder for food scraps, tells the story of organic matter's journey back to the soil from which it came. 

Venture up the red trail from the Barden to the little red barn, and the stories really start to get interesting. So impressive that this skeleton is defiant even long after passing. Now that's spirit!

On the next wall over, Teddy Roosevelt has the same pose. Maybe the skeleton is Teddy's!

And it's great to see a skeleton maintaining its flexibility, despite the attritions of age.

Herrontown Woods doesn't have any skeletons in the closet. Just in the barn.

Princeton Council Approves Funding to Remove Asbestos at Veblen House

November 14 was a great day for Veblen House. At the town council meeting that night, council members unanimously approved funding for removal of asbestos in the house. The funding comes from a reserve put in place when Mercer County transferred ownership of Herrontown Woods to Princeton Municipality. 

An article in Town Topics provides more details, and also reports on other ways the town has been assisting the Friends of Herrontown Woods (FOHW), including some assistance in removing dangerous trees and treating invasive species. 

FOHW leases the Veblen House and Cottage from the town, and our volunteers also maintain trails on 220 acres of public land in Herrontown Woods and Autumn Hill Reservation. Though FOHW is primarily responsible for raising funds to repair and repurpose the buildings, we are grateful for the town's key assistance. 

The Return of Portapotty

Much to our individual and collective relief, the portapotty is back. Gray has been replaced by green and brown, and our fear of being liable for a $750 replacement fee has been replaced by a better understanding that mistakes can happen. 

The mystery of the disappearing portapotty, first noticed missing the day before Thanksgiving, continued through the weekend. Were we now living in a world where not even portapotties are safe from theft? 

There had been some detective work. We inspected the spot where it had last been seen. The nearby leaves were undisturbed, suggesting a clean removal. Turned out that the portapotty had not been stolen after all. Rather, one of the company's drivers had mistakenly hauled it away. 

If it had in fact been stolen, we might then have thought twice about getting another one. That in turn would get us thinking more about investing in a composting toilet, which comes up now and then as an alternative. Reportedly, there's one at Rosedale Park. Time for some field research.

The Case of the Disappearing Portapotty

Portapotty 15750, where are you?

Yes, our portapotty at Herrontown Woods has gone missing. Is portapotty theft a thing? Apparently yes, according to United Site Services, from whom we rent. Turns out that, as renters, we may have to bear responsibility for the replacement cost of the humble structure, plus delivery fee for a new one. 

Rumor has it that the half-marathon that's been going on in our part of town also had a portapotty disappear. We strain to understand the logic. Is there a black market in portapotties? Is it really that hard to find relief these days? Did someone fall in love with portapotty #15750 and decide to elope? Without regular servicing, that romance is not going to last.

Hopefully this mystery will be solved soon. The apparent theft has a potential silver lining, however. After meeting with a police officer on-site to file a report, I was about to head home when I saw a hiker emerging from one of the trails. I went over and started a conversation, thinking he might have been there earlier in the week and noticed something. He hadn't, but having first visited the preserve 25 years ago, he gave a testimonial about how neglected the preserve had been before we formed the Friends of Herrontown Woods in 2013. Then he said that he has worked at a number of historic houses, and is currently a docent and researcher at the Frelinghuysen-Morris House in Massachusetts. 

My jaw dropped a bit, because the Whiton-Stuarts--the wealthy family that first owned what we now call Veblen House--lived for some time in Morristown, and had had a parcel of property near the Frelinghuysen Arboretum there. The Veblen House is a prefab that was originally moved by the Whiton-Stuarts to Princeton from Morristown. He also said that the Frelinghuysen family had a Princeton connection. We exchanged contact info, and will talk more. It would be quite the irony if a missing portapotty led me to someone who can help solve the riddle of the Veblen House's origins and why it was moved to Princeton.

Thanksgiving Weekend Nature Walk at Herrontown Woods

Update: A big blob of predicted rain has been sitting atop the planned timeslot for a nature walk this Thanksgiving weekend, finally causing us to delay the walk by a week. It is now planned for Dec. 4, 1-3pm.

Note: The consistency of the weather prediction, which showed the blob sitting in exactly the same Sunday time slot for five days straight, and which ultimately proved accurate, surely represents a triumph for meteorology.  

Astute readers will note a distinct resemblance between the blob of rain that swallowed our nature walk and the drawing of a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant in The Little Prince. 

A nature walk is planned for this Thanksgiving weekend, on Sunday, Nov. 27, from 1-3pm. If the weather looks iffy, check the events page of the HerrontownWoods.org website for an update. 

We'll meet at the Herrontown Woods parking lot at 600 Snowden Lane, across Snowden from the Smoyer Park entrance. Sturdy shoes are a good idea. Maps at this link.

The photo is of a pokeweed that came late to the fall color party.