On yet another wet weekend, a group of ten braced a downpour to walk along the trails of Strawberry Mansion’s Discovery Center for a wild plant tour. Their journey began at the trail entrance, where an innocuous weed was growing. Tour guide Lady Danni Morinich, a local herbalist and forager, identified the plant as yellow
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As a publication committed to a healthy, sustainable, and just city, I am extremely disappointed in Grid’s April coverage calling for the resignation of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell. Like many Philadelphians, I expect Grid to do tough, but fair, reporting on environmental issues and public works projects. However, your recent op-ed
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From April 29 to May 2 Philadelphia will take part in the City Nature Challenge, an international urban bioblitz in which hundreds of cities around the globe will try to get as many people making as many observations of as many species as possible. Anyone using the citizen science platform iNaturalist to observe plants, animals,
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The City of Philadelphia is not serious about climate change. Yet many people who work for the city are incredibly serious about it. They are dedicated, talented and passionate civil servants. Leadership, on the other hand, is lacking. The result is a mishmash of positive programs trying to methodically tackle the challenges we face colliding
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Over the last decade I have searched abandoned riverfront properties for skinks and black rat snakes, spooking deer and watching warblers, as I climbed over riprap shorelines and picked my way across the rotting timbers of overgrown piers. A city in decay offers the naturalist unlimited opportunities, while a city on the rise takes them
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The challenges of climate change can seem overwhelming, but the city can take clear steps to protect the most vulnerable renters and homeowners while enforcing existing development standards. To do this, we need to look inside and outside of the home. When construction or demolition is taking place, dangerous substances like asbestos and lead can
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On January 3, 2022, the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) told the Union League of Philadelphia that it had to wait to cut down 43 large, native trees at its golf club at Torresdale. The private member’s only club had sought to clear the trees in order to expand their golf course and
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The sun shone bright on a landscape cross-hatched with felled trees on a walking tour of the Cobbs Creek Golf Course on April 4. The Cobbs Creek Restoration and Community Foundation, the organization overseeing the revamping of the golf course, had the trees cut down, said Dana Henry, the tour guide and a spokesperson with
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Parks advocates led by the Philadelphia Parks Alliance gathered on the afternoon of April 21 for a “Rec It Philly” rally at City Hall. Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2023 budget proposal asks for a $2.5 million increase over 2022 funding for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, less than the $8 million increase that the Parks Alliance says
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At a recent community walk-through to review the deforestation executed by the Cobbs Creek Restoration and Community Foundation, a foundation representative said (as quoted in Grid’s coverage of the event) that the foundation had taken part in more than 100 community outreach meetings. “We had more than 100 meetings to tell the community about the
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On April 13, the Philadelphia Art Commission dealt a setback to the Cobbs Creek Foundation in its plans to renovate the Cobbs Creek and Karakung golf courses, voting to deny conceptual approval to two planned buildings. The Cobbs Creek Foundation has cleared about 100 acres of woods in its overhaul of the public golf courses
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