Volunteers at Work
October Recap
October 10: Last Devil’s Pool Clean Up day of 2009!
Thanks to the volunteers who came out to give a final scrubbing to Devil’s Pool for 2009. The area was in fairly good shape so we just had some final things to take care of to get it looking nice for the STI trail project:
September Recap
September 26 through October 2
Plugging Away at Bell's Mill
It took a supreme effort from volunteers at the plug planting in late September. More than 80 volunteers joined us throughout the week and and planted over 4,000 native plugs along the Early Implementation Trail at Bell's Mill. Native herbaceous plugs were planted from the entrance area to the concrete bridge over the next tributary. The herbaceous plugs will help establish a native under-story habitat of plants in the area impacted by the 2008 trail project, as well as reduce erosion.
September 19
Bell's Mill Invasive Removal
Thanks to the volunteers to helped out at Bell's Mill on Saturday 9/19. It was great to be out in the park on such a gorgeous day!
We got a lot of work done in preparation for the native plug planting. Volunteers removed a whole bunch of smartweed, stilt grass and garlic mustard among other assorted invasives. We also removed some more bricks that seem to keep popping up in the entrance area!
Thanks to John Cassidy and Wendy Willard for conducting the inventory of trees and shrubs from the fall 2008 planting.
Here are some photos.
September 12
Stormwater Management at Andorra
Thanks for the volunteer help help with the storm water management work at Andorra Natural Area on Saturday, 9/12. The rain stayed away long enough for us to get a lot of work done. With a great turnout of volunteers we were able to move all of the soil that had been staged and use it for rolling dips and building up trail all over the hill above the parking area. The work will help sustain the area that has been hard hit by recent storms.
August Recap
Keeping Devils Pool Clean
In August, volunteers participated in two work days cleaning up Devil's Pool.
August 15
On a HOT August day, we picked up about 15 bags of trash and 7 bags of recycling, talked to pool users about stewardship, and set up a new trash can on the Wissahickon Creek side of the pool. Not to mention we unveiled the limited edition: "KEEP DEVIL'S POOL CLEAN" tee shirts!
August 29
A group of saintly volunteers did an incredible job of cleaning up Devil's Pool on this work day. To say the least, it was not a pleasant task as some of the trash had been sitting out in the sun for awhile. But we got the job done and the park is better off because of it! We removed about 30 trash bags out of there.
Stormwater Management at Andorra
August 8
Thanks to the volunteers who helped out at Andorra. With all the rain we have gotten recently the area has seen tons of erosion. We took measure all over the grounds to improve stormwater management:
1) Installed rolling dips on one of the large, steep trails. This will get water off the trail and reduce the build up of stormwater.
2) Installed rolling dips and nicks on many of the smaller trails. Volunteers connected one of the new rolling dips to an existing basin that should catch some of the storm water.
3) Some hefty volunteers moved large boulders and rebuilt the berm on a catch basin toward the top of the hill. The berm had been breached in a recent storm.
Special thanks to:
Bowdoin College Alumni
Chestnut Hill Academy
Crefeld School Episcopal Academy
Fairmount Park
High Point Café
Philadelphia University
T&F Farmers' Pride Market
The folks at the Tree House: Steve O'Kula, Trish Fries and Megan Sgarlat
Rich Berman
Ann Breen
Nick Bucci
John Cassidy
Dave Dannenberg
Ulla Forssen
Joe Jennings
Dan Mercer
Debbie Reissynder
Irv Rosen
Eric Sabaroff
Howard Snyder
Noah Snyder
Wendy Willard
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