“The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt
~ 1858-1919
~ Naturalist & Conservationist
~26th President of
The United States of America
~ 1901-1909
With the late afternoon air perfumed with the scent of honeysuckle and the early May landscape brightened with bloomin’ wild yellow mustard, this beautiful white-tailed button buck pauses from grazing ~ with his mama doe nearby ~ on a hillside of the Central Range of the 1,100-acre Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.
When the late General Harry C. Trexler established the preserve in the early 1900s, he did it to save the American bison, elk and white-tailed deer from extinction and assure the species’ survival.
A conservationist along the lines of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, General Trexler understood the importance of nature and preserving wildlife in its natural habitat.
A successful businessman who amassed a fortune in the timber and cement industries and founded the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company, General Trexler began purchasing small farms in the low hills of Lehigh County in 1906. By 1913, he had transported eight bison and 20 Virginia white-tailed deer to the preserve. The elk followed soon after.
When General Trexler died in 1933, he bequeathed the property to the residents of Lehigh County. Today, the Trexler Nature Preserve is open to the public for passive recreation and nature watching.
