Field Trips
Whether in our 100-level intro course or upper division classes, students regularly take field trips to significant environmental sites, facilities, and places in the area.
Field trips are a fundamental part of learning about the complexity of environmental problems, including the social and ecological dynamics that shape diverse places and efforts to reduce the impacts of humans.
Southeastern Pennsylvania and the surrounding region are home to a plethora of parks, natural areas, and conservation features as well as numerous other facilities related to environmental management and sustainability.
- Bullfrog Creek stream restoration project site (ENV 100, ENV 452 Land Ethic)
- Coastal NJ (ENV 372 Oceanography)
- Composting facilities in the area (ENV 100, ENV 450 Talkin’ Trash)
- Dolphin watching (ENV 272 Marine Mammals)
- Area Farms (ENV 340 Community and Sustainable Food)
- Forests of special significance in the area (Unami Creek/Serpentine Barrens. ENV 338 Forests, ENV 355 Conserving Biodiversity)
- Geology/Coal (ENV 102 Geology, ENV 105 Environmental Geology)
- Green Homes (ENV 100)
- John Heinz NWR (ENV 268 Wetlands)
- Area Landfills and Waste to Energy facilities (ENV 450 Talkin’ Trash)
- Ocean/Lake Research (ENV 372 Oceanography)
- Perkiomen Creek Cleanup (ENV 100)
- NJ Pine Barrens (ENV 268 Wetlands)
- Area Recycling facilities
- Sewage Treatment (ENV 450 Talkin’ Trash)
- Stone Hill Conservation Area (ENV 454 Sustainability in Urbanizing Watersheds)
- Suburbia in SE Pennsylvania (ENV 332 Urbanization)
- New York City (ENV 332 Urbanization)
Recent Field Trips
Fulshaw Craeg Nature Preserve
Operated by Natural Lands Trust.
Shagbark hickory tree.
Students explore an important forest.
Seeing the creek up close.
Forests and People class photo.
Exploring cultural landscape legacies.
Discussing forest ecology.
Reflecting on the day’s adventures.
Riding the New York City subway.
Heading for Prospect Park.
Urban foraging tour in Prospect Park, New York, NY.
Smelling the edible plants of Prospect Park, New York, NY.
Surveying damage from wind storms to trees in the park.
Tree damage from in Prospect Park from a microburst wind storm.
Touring the farm fields of Added Value urban farm in Brooklyn, NY.
Learning about compost at the Added Value urban farm in Brooklyn, NY.
Students listen to presentation by USFS Researcher Lindsay Campbell.
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Exploring the new green infrastructure of New York City.
Visiting “The Last Harvest,” or the New Daleville Subdivision.
Pocket park in the development.
Layout of New Daleville superimposed on former cornfields.
Walking the neighborhood.
House under construction.
Delivery of pre-fab interior components.
Border area with neighboring property.
Stormwater basin
Meadow open space.
Crow’s Nest Preserve.
Overview of the preserve and its management.
Examining the interpretive signage at the trailhead.
Some basics on local plants.
More plant discussion.
Wandering fields that were tiled historically to improve drainage.
Visiting the equipment barn.
An American chestnut tree.
Visit to nearby high density planned unit development.
Pocket park in Traditional Neighborhood Design development.
Visiting the Quakertown Swamp in western Bucks County.
Old fields forest recovery.
Tohickon Creek
Historic bridge and wagon road.
Local historic park.
Old stone walls.
Visiting Hopwell Furnace National Historic Site.
Charcoal-making demonstration site.
Interpretive trail through forested area.
Reservoir in adjacent French Creek State Park–site of historic power source for the bellows.
French Creek
Housing for workers.
Animal husbandry at the forge.
Exploring a 19th Century industrial site.
Main house for management.
Interpretive signage for the ornamental gardens outside the main house.
Visiting Nottingham County Park and the globally rare serpentine pine barrens of southeastern Pennsylvania and northwestern Maryland.
Hiking through a pine savanna.
Open and welcoming.
Pine forest.
Soaking it in.
Grassland restoration site.
Lone pine amidst the restoration site.
Stopping for lunch.
Heading out to help.
Receiving instructions on work elements.
Moving brush.
And carrying logs.
Helping a threatened grassland-forest ecosystem.
