Green Pond Marsh meeting is tonight

Ross's Goose, one of 160 species seen

Traditions of America, the company that plans to build a housing project adjacent to Green Pond Marsh, will make a presentation tonight at 7 o'clock at the Bethlehem Township Municipal Building to explain several changes to its plan.

The revised plan calls for reducing the number of homes to 261 from 265 to accommodate newly identified wetlands at the marsh. The citizens group Save Green Pond retained a consulting ecologist, Schmid & Company, to evaluate the scope of the wetlands.

Schmid identified two locations—a woody area near Green Pond Road and a depression in a farmed field that often ponds for long periods at various times of the year. The ecologist said these areas should remain undisturbed because they are an integral part of the marsh itself.

The Easton Express-Times published an account on February 4 of the developer's plan to change the plan it presented last August. Tonight's presentation is more in the nature of an update, rather than a full review of the plan it its entirely. A full review will come at a later date, yet to be determined.

Last August about 100 people attended a meeting to protest the development, which would harm the wetlands, a site frequented by 159 bird species over the years, including eight that are in danger of disappearing in Pennsylvania.

Since then Traditions of America drilled numerous test wells on the property that includes Green Pond Marsh. Save Green Pond says the wells may have harmed the wetlands by penetrating the impermeable layer of clay and muck that keeps the wetlands from draining into the bedrock.

The public is welcome at tonight's meeting. The Township Building is located at 4225 Easton Avenue.