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News: Tree Trim

Fairmount Park cuts down trees to make way for meadowby Cassie CumminsUsually when you hear about someone cutting down trees, it’s a bad thing. Not in this case: Fairmount Park’s Houston Meadow Reclamation and Management Plan is using the systematic removal of trees to restore a valued ecosystem, and return breeding birds to a beloved

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1 min read
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Gardening Issue: Snakes in the Garden

Gardeners, meet your new best friend: the brown snake
Don’t freak out—it’s just a snake. It’s a really tiny snake, totally harmless. The worst it can do is poop on you.
Sure, you weren’t expecting to find a real live snake in West Philly (or North Philly, or Northwest Philly), roaming the soul patch of green that passes for

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2 mins read
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Profile: For the Birds

The Audubon Society's Keith Russell tracks migrating birds felled by windowsby Bernard Brown
Keith Russell shows me two white-throated sparrows and an ovenbird, all dead, at 5:30 a.m., when I meet him at 19th and Market. Russell, the Pennsylvania Audubon Society’s Fairmount Park Outreach Coordinator, had found the three migrants just on his walk over from

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1 min read
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Cover Story: A Natural Fit

The ultimate vision of an eco-friendly and educational urban oasisby Natalie Hope McDonaldThe sounds along Lancaster Ave. in West Philadelphia’s Overbrook neighborhood don’t usually include chirping. But on one overcast day in May, across the street from the U-Haul rental center and footsteps from a fruit and vegetable bodega, a small red-breasted bird whistled over

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9 mins read
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