Rev. Chester Williams has been dealing with floods in his basement since the fall of 1969, when he returned from service in Vietnam and bought his house in Germantown. Chronic flooding and sewer backups have been a fact of life for him and many of his neighbors ever since — and it’s getting worse. The
MoreI love food. I feel like I need to say that because last month we did a vegan issue and I wrote a diatribe about Facebook’s failure to recognize that they are publishers, and how they shirk their responsibilities to society. Since publication, I’ve tried Vannah Banana’s vegan ice cream and it is delicious. This
MoreOf course the toothy mascot on Chris Muller’s bright orange cap is a beaver. “Oregon State,” he explains. I should have known. We are meeting up on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at the Fairmount Dam, where we could talk while admiring the view—not of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fairmount Water Works or
MoreSometimes referred to as the “voice of the Delaware River,” Maya van Rossum has served as the Delaware Riverkeeper since 1994. To her, protecting the watershed has always been deeply personal. She grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and returned to the area after law school to protect the Delaware and its tributaries. Van Rossum
MoreTwo beavers sat in the shallows of the Delaware River eating breakfast as I met Jim Fries, project manager at Riverfront North Partnership, for a tour of the living shoreline at Lardner’s Point Park in Northeast Philadelphia. True to their reputation, the large rodents busily stripped the bark off branches they had clipped from willows
MoreSome classrooms keep guinea pigs or guppies as pets, but last year at Cook Wissahickon School in Roxborough, sixth-graders tended young freshwater mussels. “The students feed them and then, when they reach a larger stage, the Fairmount Water Works will place them in a creek,” says Jose L. Ramos, a middle-years reading and English language
MoreWith birds singing in the background, three fellows at the Alliance for Watershed Education (AWE) walk through Camden’s Cramer Hill Nature Preserve. They point out a frog in a puddle, examine bones and feathers of a wild turkey, and point out invasive plants, among other conservation challenges. They wrap up with a request for visitors
MoreRefuge manager Lamar Gore watched as Tropical Storm Isaias tore up footpaths and surged over the boardwalk at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. “It was too much for the banks to hold,” says Gore. Gore’s place of work, John Heinz, is the first and largest urban refuge in the United States. It is responsible
MoreVirtual learning may not seem optimal for interacting with the natural world, but for the teenagers in the Philadelphia Watershed Stewardship Program, digital instruction has been a source of empowerment. Now in its fourth year, the program has more stewards than ever before. Students from more than 40 high schools applied to the program to
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
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
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