Warminster Couple Combines Nature with Technology

During our modern age when technology seems to be honored over nature, residents Marge and Raymond Schwegel are finding a way to combine the two in order to raise awareness about what actually surrounds us.

As members of Friends of , the couple has taken it upon itself for the past three years to research, identify and map the GPS coordinates of more than 130 trees (so far) along the trails of the park, located in Upper Southampton.

The Schwegels are currently developing a “seek-and-find” program mostly for kids.

“Ultimately, I want to give the kids GPS coordinates, and they can use their own unit—which these days can be a cell phone—and then they can go find the trees,” Schwegel said. This helps the younger generations, those who may be spending more time in front of the computer screen than out in nature, learn about their surroundings, and through knowledge comes appreciation.

The Schwegels’ came by their knowledge of the trees at Tamanend the old fashioned way: the library.

“I didn’t know anything,” Ray said. “I had to go teach myself. It was either that or hire a bunch of arborists, and I didn’t have the money for that.”

According to Schwegel, before the park was formed, it was a nursery where non-native plants were planted, such as redwoods and sequoia. After identifying a certain tree, the Schwegels mark it by etching the name on aluminum tags and hanging them from branches.

“The aluminum is sturdy against the weather and discourages the squirrels from chewing on it,” said Ray.

The aluminum tags are placeholders for nicer-looking, long-term signs with full descriptions of the tree that Ray screws into the trunk.

It is during the summer and winter months that Ray and Marge go through the identification process. In order to get good readings from his GPS device, they have to wait until fall and spring.

“The problem in the summer is that the leaves block and deflect the signal from the satellite,” said Ray. “And the winter weather is just too cold.”

A former salesman for IBM, Ray works with a master list of identified trees and constantly tries to perfect the readings from the GPS device.

“These devices are not military grade,” said Ray. “They give you an accurate location, but it is not precise. You are located within a pretty wide radius.”

Being a retired “IBMer,” Mr. Schwegel knows that technology could be an advantage, and he also knew of IBM’s incentive program that encourages retirees and employees to volunteer and give back to the community. “If the program has a certain merit,” Schwegel says, “IBM will donate money towards funding it.” 

Once his system is perfected, Ray hopes to have the database published on the Friends of Tamanend Park website, a site that does not exist yet. Members of the organization for more than 10 years, the Schwegels hope that their group will have an online presence soon.

“It’s on the agenda for the next meeting,” said Ray.