Delaware Riverkeeper Maya K. van Rossum always knew 45 feet was a stopping point on the way down to 50. As head of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, she led a three-decade battle against the Port of Philadelphia’s plan to deepen the Delaware River’s main shipping channel. Despite environmental concerns and a lengthy lawsuit, the project
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On a windy March afternoon, Mark Berman poured a pile of sugar onto a piece of newspaper to feed one of his 13 bee colonies. Berman was providing the sugar supplement because the night temperatures were still dipping into the 30s, but there were signs that spring — and honey production — had begun. One
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On the first warm Saturday of the year, Taylor Bakeman organized a seed packing event to restock The Discovery Center’s new native seed library. Just a few weeks after opening, its seed supply was already running low. A dozen volunteers spent the day counting and sifting tiny seeds of New York ironweed, anise hyssop and
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Every Wednesday morning during spring and fall migration seasons, Peter DeStefano walks the brick sidewalks of Independence Mall in Old City in search of birds — dead ones. A volunteer for Bird Safe Philly, DeStefano combs the areas where, because of an abundance of large windows, migrating birds are most likely to meet their demise.
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Beginning by the Chamounix Mansion, The Fairmount Park Trolley Trail passes through acres of lush forest. It curves and slopes past trees that are home to birds and squirrels, trees whose trunks sprout mushrooms closer to the forest floor. After a 15-minute walk, visitors arrive at the Skew Arch Bridge, the trail’s most popular feature.
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The attendees came out for the living birds at the September 22 “Little Sit” held by the In Color Birding Club, the Feminist Bird Club, Philly Queer Birders, Disability Pride Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports, but John Eskate showed up with dead birds in his bag. Eskate, the volunteer and civic engagement
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Twelve million federal dollars granted to Philadelphia’s tree canopy expansion efforts are caught in the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze, officials said at a City Council hearing on Wednesday, March 5. Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR) Commissioner Susan Slawson told Councilmember Jamie Gauthier that the department does not have access to the funds. PPR declined
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There aren’t as many American bumble bees (Bombus pensylvanicus) as there used to be in the state the insect is named after. The big black and yellow bees are in decline, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature rating the species as vulnerable. Although the American bumble bee might need protection in Pennsylvania, there
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Philadelphia is facing a silent crisis: the rapid loss of its urban tree canopy. Over the past decade, we’ve lost at least 7% of our trees—shade-giving, air-cleaning, life-enhancing sentinels that shape the character of our city. The benefits of trees are indisputable. They cool our neighborhoods, lowering summertime heat indexes by as much as 22
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In 2003 former Tuskegee Airman and pioneering Black journalist Chuck Stone wrote “Squizzy the Black Squirrel,” about a Philadelphia boy who bonds with a black squirrel in Fairmount Park. Squizzy was the only black squirrel the boy had ever seen in the park, but visitors today still spot them gathering acorns and running up trees.
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