Trexler Nature Preserve

The Trexler Nature Preserve is an 1,108-acre county park (448 ha) owned and maintained by Lehigh County in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. The preserve is situated in Lowhill Township and North Whitehall Township near the community of Schnecksville. The land that comprises the preserve was originally purchased between 1901 and 1911 by local industrialist General Harry Clay Trexler. It was originally Trexler's desire to stock the preserve with big game animals such as bison, elk, and deer with the express goal of saving bison in North American. When Trexler died in 1933, the preserve, in accordance with his will, passed to the care of Lehigh County. Lehigh County assumed title in 1935 and has been in control of the site ever since. In May 1975, the county opened the Lehigh Valley Zoo on the grounds of the preserve. In 2004, Lehigh County reduced its budgets and proposed closing the zoo portion of the preserve. A local group, the Lehigh Valley Zoological Society, formed to assume private control of the zoo under a lease arrangement with Lehigh County. Concurrent with the transfer of the zoo to private control, the Trexler Trust brought civil suit against the County of Lehigh demanding, under the terms of Trexler's will, that the entire preserve be opened to public use and that public funds be devoted to that public use. The county, under pressure from the Trexler Trust, acceded to a settlement in 2006.