To nature lovers, canoeists, environmentalists, and even some politicians, the Hamilton-Trenton Marsh is a broad stretch of tidal wetlands and streams, home to beavers and turtles as big as dogs.

But to the average person, whose idea of a well-spent Saturday is watching a football game and catching a movie, the marsh is a mere curiosity.

Seemingly inaccessible, most county residents may catch only glimpses of it while traveling down interstates 195 and 295, which traverse the marsh.

For years, the Delaware and Raritan Greenway, an environmental nonprofit group, has been trying to raise the profile of the marsh with canoe trips and nature tours.

Arousing public interest is no small feat, said Mary Leck, professor of biology emeritus at Rider University, who is also chair of the Marsh Education Committee.

"It has been difficult certainly in some ways," she said. "I've had students who are local who don't have a sense of the marsh or that it even exists. It really is amazing."

But it is the average citizen that may be more powerful when it comes to lobbying for the marsh.

Tomorrow about a dozen county residents will gather for a second meeting of "Friends for the Marsh" at the Bow Hill Mansion on Jeremiah Avenue, which sits on a bluff overlooking the marsh.

The plan is to create an enthusiastic coalition of residents who will attract not just nature-friendly tourists, but local citizens who are clueless about what lies just beyond Trenton's city limits.

"Friends for the Marsh" will work on several goals: designate the marsh as a National Wildlife Refuge, improve trails and organize fund raisers.

The group's ultimate goal is to raise awareness of the marsh. Its most ambitious goal is to build a nature center on one of the bluffs overlooking it.

It is Leck's dream to build a small nature center, ideally at the Bow Hill Mansion, which would hire personnel educated enough to lead tour groups through the marsh and contain proper resources for local teachers.

Carolyn Foote Edelmann, a Princeton resident and free-lance writer, is a member of Friends for the Marsh and frequently writes about the marsh.

"We have people who say `yes, yes, we love the marsh,' `yes, yes, we need more urban parks,' but if it isn't organized, that energy dissipates," she said.

John Roebling Park, a county park that is home to the mouth of the marsh, begins at Sewell Avenue, off South Broad Street, where densely packed houses and restaurants hide the neighboring wetlands and streams.

"There isn't even running water, restrooms or a phone," Edelmann said. "If people are truly committed to using urban parks, basic facilities are called for."

The county and the state have expressed interest, and even developed proposals to capitalize on the marsh, but the group will have to vie for more attention, Edelmann said.

"What I would describe as enthusiasm without commitment we can count on," Edelmann said. "It's not that (legislators) won't help us. It's just disparate. We'll have more attention from legislators if there is a focused organized group."

The threats to the marsh do not include developers hoping to fashion a mall or an enormous housing complex in the middle of the site, which Leck acknowledged may be part of the reason why the general public does not cry out for more federal or state protection.

"Most of the area that can be developed has been developed. In part you're identifying some of the problem that there is not a big deal involving a big huge mall coming in. There is not a jet port coming in," Leck said. "But there are lots of little things that have their impact."

For example, trash and pesticides from the nearby housing complexes wash into the marsh through storm drains.

Jet skis and motorboats speed through the creeks, disturbing wildlife and polluting the streams.

What may also complicate cohesive plans for the marsh are its many owners.

The marsh extends to Bordentown in Burlington County.

Hamilton Township owns 258 acres, while the county owns nearly 200, including Roebling Park and the area around Spring Lake. More than 200 acres are owned by private parties, which have been negotiating with the county.

"It's really a complex situation," Leck said. "Figuring out how to have an oversight group that would oversee the kinds of projects that might happen there is a fairly complicated thing. How do you think about developing trails without worrying about running into someone else's property?"

Before developing ambitious plans for the marsh and its outlying areas, one needs land, said Donna Lewis, county planner, about the county's increasing interest in purchasing property along the marsh.

"There is not a whole lot of opportunity for natural areas like this to have access to the urban population," said Lewis. "It's a beautiful area. There is an amazing diversity of wildlife."

Friends for the Marsh will meet at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Bow Hill Mansion on Jeremiah Avenue. The meeting is open to anyone interested in wildlife and wetlands, Edelmann said.