![[Map of nature trail]](gifs/winslowparkmapcolornumbers2.jpg)
Station 1
You are entering an interactive community of living and nonliving components, an ecosystem. This ecosystem is made up of different habitats - unique areas that provide food, water, shelter and living space to plants and animals.
While you visit the park, please be aware that this is their "home", and it is entrusted to your care. When you are entrusted with or responsible for the care of a natural land and its inhabitants, it is called stewardship.
"We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our children." (Ancient Native American proverb.)
Station 2
Geology is the study of the earth's composition and the process of rock formation throughout its history.
New Jersey is divided into 4 geologic regions, each having distinctive sediments (soils), rocks, and landforms.
This park is located in the Coastal Plain region, an area that consists of sand, silt and clay carried here by wind and water. Some of these sediments were deposited 135 million years ago.
Soils, the surface sediments, provide the foundation for life. They are home to plants and animals, provide essential nutrients for all beings, and act as a natural filter for purifying water.
Station 3
A forest is an area of land primarily covered with trees. Forests provide valuable habitat for wildlife and a variety of plants. All forests have varying amounts of soils, nutrients, water, and light - conditions that affect the trees' life cycle.
Forests are composed of different strata, or layers. Look around at the forest. Can you see the different layers?
Closest to the ground are the vines, which can also climb other vegetation, and the herbs, which are non-woody plants. The next layer is the shrubs, which are woody plants having thin twigs and range in size from 3 - 20 feet tall. The two tallest layers above are the understory and the overstory. The understory is the second tallest layer formed by the crowns of smaller trees, and the overstory is the top of the forest canopy.
Station 4
Like any natural habitat, forests face challenges to their survival. We often think of human impacts on forests, such as logging or the clearing of trees for development.Natural threats to forests are just as great. Examples are fires, plant illnesses, insect infestations (such as the gypsy moth), and natural blights.
An example of blight is that of the American Chestnut (in front of you), which began in the early 20th century.
Station 5
An ecotone is a transition area between two habitats. The edge between the forest and grassland ahead is an ecotone.
A forest edge can host three times as many species as its neighboring habitats because it offers the best of both worlds. This increase in species population and density is called an edge effect.
What type of habitat do you live in? Is it a forest or a field or is it both? Humans have often chosen the forest edge as a settling place. Though on a much grander scale, we have made this ecotone our home.
Take a seat on the benches, close your eyes, and experience the forest with your other senses. Smell the freshness of the forest around you. Listen to the birds sing. Feel the breeze as it flows by. These sensations are all part of experiencing nature as it surrounds us.
Station 6
Old field habitats are lands that are no longer used to produce agricultural crops, but instead are allowed to revert to the natural plant cover. If left untouched, other plants would change this grassland into a forest.
When a natural area is maintained as a specific habitat, the area becomes a managed landscape. You are experiencing a managed landscape, a natural garden of wildflowers and butterfly bushes that helps to attract pollinators such as birds and insects, including butterflies.
Station 7
Without water, there would be no life. It accounts for 75% of the human body and covers three-quarters of the world. Water is also a main ingredient for photosynthesis, a biological plant process that provides food for plants and air (oxygen) for animals to breathe.
The primary source of drinking water in New Jersey and for half of the US population is ground water obtained from aquifers, underground layers of rock or soil holding usable amounts of water replenished naturally by rainfall.
There are more than 100 aquifers scattered throughout New Jersey, covering 7,500 square miles. Water is provided to Camden County by six aquifers, and Winslow Township draws its water from four, the primary being the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system, which contains 17 trillion gallons of water.
Camden County receives about 45 inches of precipitation annually, and about half of that soaks into the ground and recharges the aquifers.
Another type of water is surface water, precipitation that flows into streams, lakes, rivers, ponds, wetlands, oceans, and manmade reservoirs.
Station 8
The recharge basins in front of you host a variety of wildlife, but also help in recycling water.
The CCMUA Winslow Water Pollution Control Facility treats about one and one-half million gallons of sewage per day through a treatment process that removes 90 - 95% of the pollutants. Treated wastewater is pumped to these recharge basins, and the water seeps slowly through the special fine sand in the bottom of the basin as a final treatment step.
Once the water filters down to the natural soils, purification continues until this water enters the Kirkwood-Cohansey squifer system, approximately 20 - 50 feet below.
Recycling water is an essential part of the water cycle, a natural process that involves the transfer of water in its various forms (liquid, solid, and vapor) from oceand and land to the atmosphere and back again.
Station 9
Ecological succession is the change from one plant community to another.
As discussed earlier, this Park is a managed landscape. The natural areas here are maintained in such a manner as to prevent ecological succession. Without continued upkeep, however, ecological succession would take over and eventually the grassland would develop into a forest.
Station 10
From this station you can see the environment shared among forest, field, ecotone, and pond; an environment of which we are a part. Each one of us must realize that we are an important part of a much larger ecosystem, an ecosystem that is relying on us for future survival and for which we have the responsibility to care.
This concept, known as environmental citizenship, encourages humanity to appreciate and respect the world around us, and protect it for future generations.
![[Drawing - group of Canada geese]](gifs/winslowgeeseeditduo2.jpg)