Heritage Conservancy’s Croydon Woods receives 2024 Governor’s Award

Robert Marx

Doylestown Borough-based Heritage Conservancy recently won the 2024 Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence for its conservation species studies and educational programs at the nonprofit’s Croydon Woods Nature Preserve.

The Conservancy, with its mission of natural land conservation, historic preservation and environmental education, owns and manages more than 50 properties. This recognition, however, focuses on what he does at Croydon Woods.

The Environmental Protection Agency designated Croydon Woods a Superfund cleanup site in 1986 after the land was found to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds such as trichlorethylene. Prolonged exposure to TCE is known to cause kidney cancer, among other health risks.

The forest, an 80-acre parcel of land in Bristol Township, is next to a Dow Chemical plant (formerly Rohm & Haas Chemicals LLC).

The EPA began the cleanup in 1989 and completed it in 1996. The groundwater extraction and treatment system built by the EPA at the site is still used today to remove TCE from the area’s groundwater—and that of the homes that had to be changed at Bristol District Water and Sewerage Department Water Supply.

Corporations responsible for environmental damage must pay for “Superfund site” remediation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

Although the chemical plant had been in operation since 1917 and another TCE plume at the same site was attributed to Rohm & Haas, the plume below Croydon Woods could not be definitively linked to the company, so could not be held responsible for the cleanup . .

Croydon Woods, one of the last remaining coastal lowland forests in southeastern Pennsylvania, is home to more than 350 species of plants, mammals, reptiles, birds and insects, including endangered plant species.

Since the Heritage Conservancy purchased the land from Dow in 2016, it has committed hundreds of hours of staff and community volunteer time to restore the once-blighted property into a publicly accessible green space. It also worked to connect the reservation to the surrounding community, such as the neighboring Keystone Elementary School.

The Conservancy built a Motus Wildlife Tracking Tower on the roof of Keystone Elementary School as part of the Motus International Wildlife Tracking System.

The tower detects wildlife along the Delaware River/Atlantic Flyway migration route, and its antenna is capable of picking up the signal of any tagged animals that come within five miles of the station. The data is then entered into a central Motus database for use by scientists around the world.

The Heritage Conservancy’s partnership with the school also includes a Tree Guardians Initiative, a Watershed Connections program and other outdoor classroom learning opportunities in Croydon Woods.

The conservancy’s ‘BioBlitz’ event brought volunteers and scientists into Croydon Woods for a 24-hour wildlife tracking survey that documented nearly 360 different species of plants and animals living in the woodland.

The BioBlitz celebration that followed was a public event that invited neighborhood families to connect with the forest and learn about the different species that live there.

“It was a real community engagement,” says Shannon Fredebaugh-Siller, manager of community engagement programs at the Heritage Conservancy. “Our volunteers and scientists have been surveying the forests and we have shared their findings and data about the diverse animal and plant life in this local green space with the people of this community.”

These educational programs are a culmination of the Heritage Conservancy’s cleanup and stewardship efforts, and community and educational activities have connected neighbors to this natural area, stimulating interest and care for the local natural environment.

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