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Students Speak for the Trees

Students are organizing to oppose the Lower Merion School District’s 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. As Grid has reported, the school district acquired the land this year for about $13

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1 min read
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A Need for Urban Wildness

The sycamore leaves rustle as a tiger swallowtail flutters overhead and a Cooper’s hawk screeches from above. A ruby-throated hummingbird couple is nectaring at our feeder, a woodpecker tries (in vain) to peck holes in our stucco wall, a red fox chases a baby rabbit that was just feeding on clover in our grass and

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4 mins read
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Anonymous Donors Save Boy Scout Tract from Development

The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education announced on December 7 that it has secured $3 million in funding from anonymous donors to preserve the Boy Scout Tract, the 24-acre parcel of land whose potential sale to developers over the summer caused a firestorm of community opposition. The center began exploring a sale after they received

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1 min read
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Update: Opportunities to Weigh in on Legislation that Would Exempt Developer from Logging Restriction

Members of the public will have two chances to weigh in on legislation proposed by council member Curtis Jones to exempt the Cobbs Creek golf course from restrictions on cutting trees on steep slopes, rules meant to protect water quality and prevent erosion. On December 6th at 10am, the City Council Rules Committee will meet.

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1 min read
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“Encroaching Amenities” Under Threat

Homeowners whose properties back up to the Cobbs Creek golf courses could lose their decks or backyard sheds according to a letter sent from Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s Kathryn Ott Lovell to Cobbs Creek Foundation founding CEO Christopher Lange. In the June 20, 2019 letter, obtained in response to a right-to-know request by Lawrence Szmulowicz,

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Twelve-year-old launches nonprofit to save butterflies by building one microhabitat at a time

If Noah Raven, founder of Monarch Defenders, dashes from plant to plant in his pollinator-friendly garden with the kinetic energy of a 12-year-old, there’s good reason: he is one. Raven’s Monarch Defenders website rivals that of any big-budget nonprofit. Complete with a mission statement, educational facts, resource citations, ways to take action and an interactive

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4 mins read
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Opposing Views of Cobbs Creek Development Aired at In-Person Town Hall

On Wednesday, November 16, the Cobbs Creek Foundation held a town hall meeting at the Overbrook Educational Center, the first time that foundation representatives and elected officials faced the public in person to answer questions about the controversial golf course renovation, in which over 100 acres of trees have been cleared by the West Conshohocken-based

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2 mins read
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Opinion: Curtis Jones is Subverting Environmental Protections

Councilmember Curtis Jones’ proposed ordinance, if passed, would subvert local environmental protections and violate the Overbrook community’s right to self-determination by giving the golf course developers free reign to cut trees on any steep slopes on the premises without going through the regular zoning process and without community approval. The developers originally applied for and

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1 min read
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