Head out for a day of enhancing and developing trails and sign posting efforts with the Cherry Hill Environmental Board (CHEB) on Saturday, Sept. 29 from 9 a.m. to noon.
The volunteer activities will take place on historic Croft Farm, which is off of Brace Road and Borton’s Mill Road, and is the home of the arts center and Kay-Evans House.
National Public Lands Day is an effort spearheaded through a National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) program, which is based in Washington, D.C.
There is no fee to attend.
According to Lew Gorman, chairman of Cherry Hill Township’s Environmental Board, the event is an effort to “connect people with nature” and to “do some hands on work on our public lands.”
The township has participated in the national event for several consecutive years, he said.
“In the past, we’ve had multiple locations,” he said. “This year, we’ll be at Croft Farm.”
The trails that wind through the farm were designated from the U.S. Department of the Interior as National Recreation Trails last year.
“That’s shown on the American Trails website,” said Gorman.
A talk by Mike Hogan on invasive species will commence the day of projects.
The hope from officials is to share why it is important to care about the environment.
“People have a sense of meaning to their work,” Gorman explained.
There are approximately 20 acres of open space land on the farm, he said, and it is public land.
“Public lands belong to the public,” he said.
Projects will be adapted dependent on how many people attend the event.
According to www.publiclandsday.org, more than 170,000 volunteers worked at 2,067 sites around the nation in 2011. An estimated 23,000 pounds of invasive plants were collected.
After Hogan’s talk, dependent on volunteers, some attendees will be assigned to remove invasive species while another team improves the trail surface.
“It gets used a lot now,” said Gorman, between youth groups, schools and parents taking day trips with their kids. “We’ll adapt to the projects depending on the people who show.”
A goal of the day, he said, is for residents to look for things around them that they otherwise might not notice.
“We want to expose them to that,” he said.
All work will be done in an environmentally sensitive way, avoiding erosion, Gorman added, citing that humans are just the visitors.
This is an opportunity, he said, for residents to come out to help improve and maintain the open space lands, while giving them care at the same time.
“Hopefully we’re enabling and supporting that national effort to improve our public lands,” he said.
Additional resources
To learn more about National Public Lands Day and national environmental efforts, visit www.publiclandsday.org or www.neefusa.org.
Visit http://www.chtownship.com/government/departments/recreation/croft.asp to learn more about Croft Farm, which is located at 100 Borton’s Mill Road in Cherry Hill.
To become involved with the Environmental Board, contact Earle Seneres, CHEB Liaison at (856) 424–3203 or ESeneres@CHtownship.com.
