Washington Crossing State Park has changed in almost unimaginable ways over the last 100 years. From farm fields to gardens to plantations to old fields, shaped by deer, disease, and invasive species, the park represents a fluid and ever-changing landscape. Every aspect of the park has, whether directly or indirectly, been shaped by human-driven forces. Using Peter Osborne’s book, Where Washington Once Led, this talk aims to uncover some of these forces to reveal how the park has evolved, enabling participants to read the landscape through natural signs and artifacts.

Human landscapes cannot go “natural” on their own. We have the opportunity to restore this landscape, either along the lines of original designs such as with the George Washington Memorial Arboretum, which opened in 1932 and displayed native New Jersey shrubs and trees, or in the form of ecological restoration, aiming to return the human-dependent landscape back to nature. The talk will conclude with a discussion of the different options and the conservation work of the WCPA.

This online event is in collaboration with the Pennington Library. Click here to register: https://www.penningtonlibrary.org/wcsplandscape/