On April 22, 2013, a chilly sunny spring day, 28 students from the Marie Katzsenbach School for the Deaf visited the Abbott Marshlands for an Earth Day trash pickup. They worked in the part of Roebling Park behind Independence Mall, near the Charles Conrad Abbott home site. They collected more than 20 bags of trash and removed a tire.
Students learned about Abbott and the Indians who had lived there, and had lunch at the Watson Woods picnic area amid a mass of Spring Beauty flowers. From the picnic tables they could see the tidal Watsons Creek.
After lunch, everyone walked to Spring Lake. Along the way they smelled spice bush and garlic mustard and at the far side of Spring Lake saw a pair of nesting mute swans, red winged black birds, and a beaver lodge and dam.
Students had a wonderful time!