Trail Guide for Rancocas Nature Center

The Rancocas Nature Center and its trails are operated and maintained by the New Jersey Audubon Society, a privately-supported, not-for-profit, statewide membership organization.  Founded in 1897, and one of the oldest independent Audubon Societies, the New Jersey Audubon Society has no formal connection with the National Audubon Society.    The Society operates nine staffed facilities statewide.   Additional information is available in the nature center.

TRAIL GUIDE

The nature trail begins in front of the visitor center.  Go down the stairs and follow the NJAS trail markers to the east through a grove of 50-year old Douglas firs.  The trail forms a loop  about 4000 feet long; you can walk it easily in half an hour, but you will enjoy it more and see more if you take more time.  About 150 kinds  of birds, and 200 kinds of plants, can be found here in season.  Please stay on the trail, don’t litter, and don’t damage plants or molest wildlife.  Dogs and bicycles are not allowed on the trail.  

After crossing a usually-dry drainage ditch and passing through a thicket, the trail enters an open field.  Twenty years ago, this was a cultivated field.  The dominant plants here now are shrubs, including the thorny, many-stemmed multiflora rose.  Also found are young, sun-loving trees such as persimmon and sweet gum.  In time, the trees will shade out the shrubs, and additional, shade-loving trees such as hickories and oaks will move in.  This gradual development and change of a plant community with time is called “succession”.

In about 100 yards, the trail bends around to the right. There will be a dense thicket of young trees, shrubs, and vines on the right, and the shrub-dominated old field on the left.    Areas like this, where several habitats come together, are called ecotones.  Animals and birds favor these areas because they provide easy access to both food and cover.   On the left , a bird house on a tall pole was designed for American kestrels, also called sparrowhawks, a small bird of prey which feeds largely on  insects and small rodents.

Continue on, past a side trail on the left, through another thicket.  The trail will make a sharp bend to the left.  At the bend, on the left, are several young black cherry trees.   In the summer these trees produce small black fruits which are edible, but sour.  In spring, tent caterpillars often feed heavily on black cherry leaves; they may sometimes completely defoliate the tree, but the leaves soon grow back.

The trail continues more or less straight ahead for   about 250 yards, with young forest on either side for most of the way.  Thirty years ago, much of this area  was a  shrub-dominated field, much like the area near the start of the trail.  Succession has proceeded very rapidly here because this area was close to a woodlot with mature trees that produced many seeds.   Typical trees here include tulip tree, sweet gum, sassafras, and black cherry.   Vines such as Asiatic bittersweet and Japanese honeysuckle grow on the trees.

Sweet gum is a common tree along this section of trail; look for its distinctive five-pointed star-shaped leaves.  The fruit is a spiny ball, about an inch across. You will find them scattered on the trail in many places.  Squirrels sometimes tear these fruits apart to get at the small black seeds within them.  Sweet gum gets its name from a sweet, sticky substance that exudes from injuries to the bark.

White-tailed deer are common in these woods; look for their tracks, and for the narrow “deer paths” that they make in passing repeatedly from feeding areas to shelter areas.  This mammal was almost extinct in New Jersey a hundred years ago; now it is too common in many parts of the state, and its feeding habits are destroying the habitat in which it lives.  Sport hunting provides only a partial control.  As open spaces become fewer and smaller, human intervention is increasingly required to maintain populations of native animals and plants at their optimum levels.

At about 200 yards from the last bend,  a conifer plantation can be glimpsed on the left.  The trail will go through it later on.  These trees were planted in 1957, and they were then about a foot tall.    The grove is pleasant to walk through, but  it is almost a biological desert; the densely planted trees provide very little food for birds and animals,  and they exclude most other vegetation except for a few shade-tolerant ferns, grasses, and fungi. 

In another 80 yards or so, the trail bends to the right. A young forest will be on the right, and a much older forest on the left.   Note that the trees in the young forest are smaller, and much closer together, than the trees in the older forest.  Again, this part of the process of succession.  As they compete for light, water, and soil minerals, the sun-loving trees of the young forest are crowded out by shade-loving species, and slower-growing, less healthy specimens are crowded out by more vigorous individuals.

In summer, large areas of forest floor here are covered with a tall, bright-green  grass.  Most of this is Japanese stiltgrass, a very invasive non-native species  that was accidentally introduced in the northeast about fifty years ago.  It now covers thousands of acres of forest floor, where it spreads rapidly, grows thickly, and displaces native wildflowers, ferns, and tree seedlings.    The spread of non-native species of plants  such as stiltgrass, Norway maple, and Asiatic bittersweet is a major threat to populations of native plant species and to the insects and birds that depend on them for food.

After passing a medium-sized tulip tree on the left, the trail enters a somewhat older section of forest.  The trees are larger, and the species include many typical forest trees including oaks and hickories.  One understory shrub here is spicebush.   The leaves, berries, and inner bark of this shrub have a distinctive spicy smell when crushed.   The leaves  have been used to make a herbal tea, and  it is said that early settlers and Native Americans  used the dried berries as a seasoning..

Several young trees of American holly can be found in this section of forest.  This species, which is typical of many South Jersey forests both east and west of the Pine Barrens, is abundant along our trail but is scarce in many places where it once grew, as a result of habitat loss and overpicking.  Almost one-eighth of North America’s native plant species are in danger of extinction from these and other causes.

These older forests include a number of dead or dying trees.  These are not just wasted wood, and we usually leave them standing unless they are a hazard to visitors.  They provide shelter, and sometimes food, for hundreds of different animals, from wood-eating insects to insect-eating birds.   Woodpeckers make holes in the decaying wood, and these holes may later be used by other birds such as Carolina chickadee and  screech owl, or by mammals such as the flying squirrel and white-footed mouse.

Where the trail bends left and trends downhill, a pair of gray-barked trees grows on the left side of the trail.  These are American beeches, one of the easiest trees to recognize; the smooth gray bark, often carved by vandals as these are, is distinctive, as are the sharply-pointed brown buds.  Also, the dead leaves of beech usually remain on the tree all winter, and only drop off when they are pushed off by new growth in the spring.

About  50 yards further on, an unmarked trail leads off to the west, crosses a bridge over a small stream, and continues into what was once Rancocas State Park.  In the 1800’s, a grist mill was located near the stream crossing, but very little trace of it remains today.  Likewise, a lime kiln was located near here; oyster and clam shells were brought in by barge on Rancocas Creek and burned to make lime for agricultural purposes.   A few shells can sometimes still be found, scattered about the slope to the left. 

Beyond this point the land slopes down, and where the trail bends again to the left you enter the flood plain of Rancocas Creek, the main channel of which is about a quarter of a mile to the south.  Several times each year, when high tides coincide with high stream flow, the water rises almost to the edge of the trail. 

Skunk cabbage, cinnamon fern, sensitive fern, bog fern, and netted chain fern  can be found growing here.

An enormous tree with gray-green outer bark that  flakes off to expose patches of light-colored inner bark is a sycamore, or “buttonwood”.  Like many large trees, this one is at least partly hollow, and an opening can be seen in the stub of a branch that hangs over the trail.  In past years, wood ducks, gray squirrels, raccoons,  great horned owls, and black rat snakes have used this tree as a home.

A bit farther on, where the trail rises out of the flood plain, an old trash dump can be seen on the right.  A hundred years ago,  relatively little inorganic trash was produced by most households, and disposal in rural areas was as simple as dumping it in a hole in the ground.    Today, the average American generates about 1,800 pounds of household garbage each year.

What will be done with it when all the holes in the ground have been filled and land is no longer available?  Recycling is only a partial answer.

A very common, woody, thorny vine in this area is greenbrier, or “catbrier”.  This plant might be considered a pest by many people, but it provides nest sites for cardinals, brown thrashers, and gray catbirds, and its blue-black berries are eaten by robins, cedar waxwings, and many other species of birds.   Greenbrier bears tiny yellow lily-like flowers in May.

About 100 yards past the trash dump, the main trail bears left.  On the right, an old woods road leads downhill to to Rancocas Creek, while passing through several interesting plant communities.  On the slope, there is a forest of American holly and oaks; on the floodplain, there are trees like umbrella magnolia and sour gum that prefer wetter sites; and at the bottom of the slope is a freshwater tidal marsh, dominated by wild rice and arrow arum. 

You soon enter the conifer plantation that was glimpsed earlier.  The species include white pine, Austrian pine, Norway spruce, and European larch. 

White pine has long needles that grow in bundles of five, Austrian pine has long needles in bundles of two, larch has short needles that grow in bunches on short spur branches, and Norway spruce has short, sharp-pointed needles that grow singly.

The large-leaved vines that are draped over the trees as you leave the conifer plantation, are wild grape.  There are several species along our trail; this one is summer grape.   The fruits are small, black, and rather sour, and they ripen in late summer.  They are eaten by many birds, and by mammals including opossums and raccoons.  The grapes are produced on the new growth of the vines, and are usually high in the trees.

The woods on the left of the trail parallel an old drainage ditch, and are often flooded in the early spring, though they are dry in summer.  A typical tree here is red maple, which is tolerant of wet soils.  Typical shrubs include arrowwood viburnum and silky dogwood, which are also indicators of wet habitats. Wetlands are not necessarily permanently wet.  But even seasonally dry wetlands can be identified by their vegetation and soil characteristics.   

When you rejoin the main trail, turn right and retrace your steps to the picnic area.  We hope you have enjoyed your walk.  Keep in mind that nature is never static, and that you will see different sights if you visit this trail again at a different season.  If you have any questions about nature or about our programs, or if you have noticed any problems with the trail such as litter or fallen trees, please ask about them or report them in the visitor center.

Clear here to see the Trail Map.

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