How well do you know your neighbors? In a city as big as Philadelphia, there are always more folks to meet, but let’s talk about more than just Homo sapiens. Maybe you know your local squirrels. Are they simply entertaining, or do they steal your tomatoes? Perhaps you hear the starlings singing from telephone lines
More
The Lower Merion School District plans to raze a wooded area — home to towering tulip poplars and red and white oaks — to build practice athletic fields for the nearby Black Rock Middle School. The grounds of Oakwell, an estate on County Line Road in Lower Merion, have greenery that includes high rhododendron bushes
More
At its September 14 meeting, the Philadelphia Art Commission again did not approve the first element of the Cobbs Creek Foundation’s renovation of the Cobbs Creek golf courses: the driving range and education center. This is the foundation’s third attempt to gain final approval for the driving range and the education center at the golf
More
After twice being told to come back with more-detailed plans, the Cobbs Creek Foundation is again on the Philadelphia Art Commission’s calendar — for Wednesday, September 14, at 9:30 AM. At that time the foundation will present plans for buildings on the golf courses at Cobbs Creek, 350 acres of land the foundation has leased
More
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice on September 3 in the Pennsylvania Register that it has approved the environmental assessment and the restoration plans for the Cobbs Creek golf courses — nine months after the Cobbs Creek Foundation began work on the project. Specifically, the approval is for the restoration of
More
The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education has announced that it is “indefinitely suspending its request for proposals to develop the Boy Scout Tract,” a 24-acre wooded parcel across Port Royal Avenue from the center’s core grounds in Upper Roxborough, according to an email sent on Tuesday, September 6, by the center’s executive director Mike Weilbacher.
More
On a blisteringly hot day during Philadelphia’s mid-July heat wave, Bruno Rodrigo and Rafael Ibero leapt from the floating dock at Pleasant Hill Park in Northeast Philadelphia and into the refreshingly cool water of the Delaware River. Further into the channel people on jet skis zipped by, water spraying into the air in their wake.
More
The canopy of red oaks, sugar maples and tulip trees provided a respite from the 94-degree heat on a July visit to the Boy Scout Tract. The cooling provided by the trees was a reminder of the importance of preserving tree canopy as global warming raises the temperatures in Philadelphia. The calls of blue jays,
More
The Mural Arts Institute is hosting a two-week series of events from September 12 through 22, looking at the transformative work happening at the intersection of community-based cultural practice and environmental justice. The 2022 Arts & Environmental Justice Symposium invites local, regional and national artists, activists, cultural workers, environmental justice advocates, organizers, scientists, scholars and
More
Equipment used to clear-cut the South Philly Meadows at FDR Park was disabled by vandalism, according to a report by 6 ABC News. Six unspecified pieces of equipment were damaged some time between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. According to the report, crews say that sugar was put in diesel tanks and that wires were
More
The destruction of the South Philly Meadows has begun, and, according to witnesses, not in a safe way. As of the morning of Tuesday, August 24, there was no fencing securing the land while trees upwards of 50 feet were being felled close to park users. “As I walked through the Meadows I noticed a
More