Annapolis' Poetry Trail - Have You Walked It Yet?
By Nadja Maril
Just a few miles north of the Severn River Bridge meandering trails wind their way through groves of trees interspersed with prickly bushes, wildflowers, and vines—home to a variety of small creatures that include squirrels, foxes, birds, snakes, and crickets. Depending on the path you take, you may see a line of sailboats making their way up the Severn River with the Naval Academy in the far distance or encounter one of the three remaining radio towers that once were part of the Naval Radio Transmitter Facility (NRTF). And intermittently on the trail you will encounter a verse from a poem or a literary quotation, printed out on a wooden sign.
You have arrived at Greenbury Point, a 231-acre peninsula at the mouth of the Severn River, a resource conservation area under the stewardship of the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) that is used for light midshipman tactical training, according to Ed Zeigler, director of public affairs for HQ Naval District Washington. “The undeveloped areas are being managed as wildlife habitat,” explains Zeigler, “therefore, human access is limited to designated trails.”
A sign reading, “Welcome to the Poetry Nature Trail!” greets you after you park your car in the lot adjacent to the Greenbury Point Nature Center opened under the leadership of the Naval Academy’s first Natural Resources Program manager, Tina Lorentzen. You read the words, “This is a place to wind through wooded trails while reading beautiful poems and quotes. It is also a place to hear a multitude of bird musicians in the spring; to linger under cool, leafy boughs during the summer; to watch yellow and gold leaves spiral to the ground under a fall sky; and to listen to the tick tick of snowflakes as they land upon dried leaves on a winter’s day.”
Although Lorentzen is no longer alive to continue her preservation work, her legacy lives on in all she created at Greenbury Point. “Tina was responsible for nearly everything involving the conservation area, from the nature center and its exhibits, to the waterfowl viewing stands, to the butterfly garden, to the former education programs,” says Zeigler. “She employed assistance from USNA Environmental Division staff, as well as numerous volunteers, ranging from midshipmen and community members to schoolchildren.” Lorentzen died in 2007 at the age of 47. She served as program manager from 1989 through 2002.
Her work is currently being carried on by the Environmental Division’s Natural Resources Program manager, Kimberly Hickey. “This property is such an asset to the Naval Academy,” says Hickey. “There is so much we want to be doing over there but we need to address repairs first. We are working hard to restore the trails and the habitat. Invasive species are being cut back, signs for the poetry trail are being restored, and the few that have disappeared are being replaced.”
The words painted in white on a brown sign on the trail read thus:
“A bubble of music floats
The slope of the hillside over;
A little wandering sparrow’s notes;
And the bloom of yarrow and clover.”
Lucy Larcom
The trails are so quiet you can hear birdcalls, leaves rustling in the breeze, and twigs snapping in the underbrush as wildlife scramble to hide when they hear the footsteps of humans. “Many interesting wildlife make this area their home,” says Zeigler. “For example, Greenbury Point supports the only bobwhite quail population in Anne Arundel County, Maryland (although none have been seen or heard since 2007).”
Greenbury Point contains wooded coves; shallow, wetland ponds; forests; and scrub-shrub areas. According to naval historians, it was part of the settlement called Providence, established by Puritans seeking religious freedom in 1649. The land now contained in Greenbury Point was once owned by Nicholas Greenberry (original spelling) and then was sold to Colonel Charles Hammond in 1737 for agricultural use. After the Civil War a portion was sold to Colonel Theodore Corner. The Navy purchased the land in 1909 for use as the Naval Academy Farm and it also served as the Naval Air Facility, the U.S. Navy’s first, from 1911 to 1917. In 1918, the NRTF was commissioned. During wartime it provided a secure link between the United States, France, and Britain.
“Beginning in the 1940s,” says Zeigler, “NRTF served to communicate with our submarine forces in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.”In 1993 NRTF was disestablished and in 1996 the property was conveyed to the Naval Academy.
Sixteen of 19 former navy radio towers were demolished in December of 1999. The three remaining towers were turned over to Anne Arundel County for telecommunications and training purposes. Nineteen osprey pairs that nested on Greenbury Point’s radio towers were displaced. They were provided with new platforms before the towers were destroyed. Unfortunately the land platforms failed to attract the birds. Now, as part of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area mitigation for the construction of the nearby Brigade Sports Complex, 10 new nesting poles are being installed in the water along the shoreline, according to Zeigler.
“Everything is connected,” says current Natural Resources Program Manager Hickey. “The creeks, streams, and tributaries all have an effect on the Bay. One of our goals,” she explains, “is to have a lot of educational opportunities for the mids, navy personnel, and the community. We want visitors to understand the Chesapeake Bay and how all the little things you do all have an effect on everything else. Hopefully we can all learn to become better stewards of the environment.”
April is National Poetry Month. There is no better time, with the arrival of spring, to take a walk on the poetry trail at Greenbury Point. And when you stop on the trail to read one of the many poems, read it again for Tina Lorentzen.
To get there from downtown Annapolis go north on Maryland Route 450 over the Severn River Bridge, bear right on Maryland Route 648/Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd., and the go straight to enter Greenbury Point Road, which then becomes Bullard Blvd. The nature center is at 265 Bullard Blvd.
Editor Nadja Maril walked the poetry trail with her husband, Peter, and dog, Grace (yes, dogs are allowed, on leashes), several times last year, and she looks forward to walking the trail again in warm weather. She gives special thanks to Mr. Jeff Morris, the Naval Support Activity Annapolis Environmental Division director, who was of great assistance in providing the historic information for this article.
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