CERA Interpretive Path

The CERA Trail winds through a portion of UMBC's 45-acre Conservation and Environmental Research Areas (CERA). UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski dedicated CERA on Earth Day, April 22, 1997, "to further our understanding and appreciation of this natural landscape." During the ceremony, the words of Aldo Leopold were recalled:" When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." Since then, CERA has been used for a variety of undergraduate research projects, visited by a number of classes, and has been the focus of class projects.

The CERA Trail is a .6-mile self-guided interpretive path that provides information regarding the ecology and natural history of the area. Numbered wooden posts are placed at intervals along the trail (see map); the text below corresponds to those numbers. The trail is marked by white blazes placed at eye level on trees. A change in direction is indicated by a double blaze. For more detailed information about CERA, and to contribute your own observations, visit the CERA website at www.umbc.edu/cera (available Fall 2000) or send an email to Sandy Parker, Chair of the CERA Steering Committee (eparker@umbc.edu). Please do not disturb or remove anything from CERA. "Take only photographs; leave only footprints."

CERA Interpretive Points
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13