Credit: Google Maps
A quiet 80-acre section of wooded land in Croydon, Bristol Township will be preserved for future generations.
The wooded wetlands lot called Croydon Woods was acquired by the Bucks County Heritage Conservancy from Dow Chemical for $2.05 million. Most of the sale price was obtained through grant funds.
Advertisements
The woods have vast wetlands, a portion of the Hog Run Creek and 14 acres of baseball fields that are leased to the Croydon Little League group. In 2014, Bucks County officials said that 32 acres of land preserved by Bristol Township, county and state park land also buffers the site. PECO does have two easements along River Road.
“For years, Croydon Woods has been a treasured piece of the Bucks County landscape,” said Claire Quinn, Dow Chemical’s site leader for their Bristol facility. “We are so pleased to know that the land will be protected for generations to come by the Heritage Conservancy.”
Dow agreed to sell the land to align with a program to with 2025 Sustainability Goals. The program makes a “commitment to make business decisions in a different way – one that appreciates the value of nature’s services.”
Advertisements
The Heritage Conservancy notes Croydon Woods is one of the last remaining wooded wetlands forests in the Philadelphia region. The Bucks County Natural Areas Inventory ranks the woods as an “excellent example of coastal floodplain with boggy, forested wetlands along both the north and south branches and headwaters of Hog Run Creek where seven species of endangered plants and four species of threatened plants exist.”
“Heritage Conservancy is tremendously excited to preserve land in the more developed portion of Bucks County,” said Jeffrey L. Marshall, president of the Heritage Conservancy. “Croydon Woods is an island of green, and the environmental, economic and emotional benefits of living near open space has been well documented.”
Advertisements
The site does feature a pump house used by governmental environmental protection staff to monitor the woods for trichloroethylene, also known as TCE, which was found to cause health problems. The chemical came to the site through the creek and levels at the site are now below maximum allowed levels, officials said in 2014.
The property previously underwent remediation after mosquito-spraying chemical dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, was spilled at the site by Bucks County in the 1960s. DDT was banned by many countries around the globe in the 1970s after its serious physical and environmental impacts were noted. Officials said the levels at the site are now within acceptable limits.
Aside from plans to add public access, passive recreation and environmental education at the woods, most of the 80-acres will remain undisturbed.
