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
MoreSpotted lanternflies landed on my hat, my face and every other available surface of my body on August 5, at The Woodlands in West Philadelphia. I was there tagging along with a team of Penn State researchers on a mission to collect 3,000 of the bugs that morning. Alongside me were entomologist Osariyekemwen Uyi; Michelle Niedermeier,
MoreAn assortment of bees were hard at work on native flowers at Wyalusing and Belmont avenues in the Belmont neighborhood of West Philadelphia in late July. A colorful row house-sized mural of Ed Bradley, the late award-winning journalist and West Philly native, towered overhead, blending into the bright yellow of the sweet coneflowers, the pink
MoreAround 200,000 ash trees stand in the city of Philadelphia’s watershed parks. But in the next five to 10 years, most will be gone—killed by the emerald ash borer, an invasive species of beetle that has destroyed tens of millions of American ash trees in the Midwest and Northeast since it arrived in Detroit from
MoreOn May 25, Christian Cooper, birder and member of the New York City Audubon Society’s Board of Directors, was birding in Central Park. He asked Amy Cooper (no relation) to follow the park rules by putting her dog on a leash and then recorded what happened next: Amy, who is white, called 911 to report
MoreA lot of americans have a vague idea of where their water comes from, says Kayla Callender, a former participant in the Independence Seaport Museum’s River Ambassador program. “We take water for granted,” she says. “We assume it’s never going to run out.” The River Ambassadors program is bridging the disconnect between citizens and their
MoreOn August 19, 2019, Matthew George decided he had enough of the litter lining Germantown’s streets. He created a GoFundMe campaign for a trash-can program he called “I ♥ Thy Hood.” He reached out to his neighbors in the hopes that he could raise enough money to buy 10 44-gallon trash cans for the neighborhood.
MoreI don’t think i would have noticed that the patch of forest off Livesey Lane had been restored if Steve Jones, president of Wissahickon Restoration Volunteers (WRV), hadn’t told me. I visited the area on a humid morning in late May. The canopy was complete, shading out the sun completely. I heard the usual forest
MoreIf you’re like me, summer means paddling on our urban waterways. And, if you’re like me, the thought of getting out on the water offers freedom from your largely homebound life and the hassles of visiting crowded parks while social distancing. Many people from New Jersey and Pennsylvania consider paddling to be exercise, just like
MoreLooking back at the start of the pandemic, I’ll remember everything closing in March. Walks around my neighborhood took me past locked storefronts with apologies taped to the doors, and almost every email announced a cancellation. I got an email about the City Nature Challenge the evening of March 12. The City Nature Challenge (CNC)
MoreI had low expectations for the fungus walk that the Philadelphia Mycology Club hosted last year in April. I showed up as part of the City Nature Challenge, an international urban citizen science event that connects people to nature while documenting urban biodiversity. I sit on the Challenge’s local organizing committee, and while we welcomed
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