Author: news
Melissa’s native plant picks – what to plant this year
February 12, 2016By Melissa Nase, Manager of Land Stewardship
Every garden reflects the individuality and personal taste of its gardener. Reasons for choosing specific plants can range from aesthetic values like color, texture, and shape to practical considerations such as space limitations, attracting specific pollinators, or even what was available at the local garden center. Some gardeners prefer well-behaved plants, and maintain exceptional order while others prefer a more natural look, or even, shall we say, slightly unruly. And there will be no judgments here! There is a place for all these styles to coexist, in the name of happiness, beauty, biodiversity,…
The Hidden History of Groundhog Day
February 2, 2016By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
At 7:25 This morning, a portly aging man in top hat and tails unceremoniously yanked a grumpy groundhog from his winter den and presented it to a roaring crowd numbering in the tens of thousands. The man whispered to the groundhog in their secret, shared language, what he calls “Groundhogese”…
And, for the 130th year since 1886, Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous rodent this side of a certain mouse named Mickey, predicted the weather.
Happy Groundhog Day. With today’s temperatures soaring into the 50s and tomorrow’s into the 60s, Phil did not see his shadow—no…
Day of Service and Reunion at Nature Preschool
January 29, 2016By Shannon Wise, Nature Preschool Manager
At Nature Preschool, support the connection among parents, teachers, and the Schuylkill Center as a whole. Preschool is often an early opportunity for parents to make connections with other families over shared values and interests. It is our goal to strengthen and foster these relationships through families’ time at the Schuylkill Center. In our first year running the Nature Preschool program, we hosted a day of service on Dr. Martin Luther King Day. Last year, we invited past preschool families to the Center for a reunion in the spring. Both events were great experiences…
The Foragers: A World of Enchantment and Intimacy
January 25, 2016By Catalina Lassen, Environmental Art & PR Intern
The Schuylkill Center is proud to present Melissa Maddonni Haims and Josh Haims’ latest venture, The Foragers, a whimsical exhibition featuring photographs and delicate yarn sculptures of regional fungal life. In my time helping prepare and install this exhibition, what has stood out to me the most has been the enchantment and intimacy of the world the Haims’ create. As I step into the gallery now, the show completely set and ready to go, I sense myself stepping into the deep of the forest. Quiet, but flourishing, The Foragers takes the viewer…
Dear Mayor: Schuylkill Center Members Write to Jim Kenney
January 19, 2016By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Dear Mayor Kenney,
Congratulations on being sworn in as the 99th mayor of Philadelphia. While you’ve got your hands full with a number of things—schools, public safety, jobs—your environmental agenda is crucial. Your predecessor, Michael Nutter, smartly advanced a strong environmental agenda, famously declaring that Philadelphia would emerge as the greenest city in the country—and took us a long way there. Last year, City Council happily decided to permanently retain the Office of Sustainability, and your choice of Christine Knapp to run the office signals that this momentum will continue.
And your promotion of Michael…
Naturalist’s Notebook: The meadow of 2040
January 14, 2016By Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager
Imagine your favorite meadow. I imagine mine in September: grasses stand waist high though the underbrush is falling back, seed pods hang in dark silhouettes, forests at the edges of the field mostly green, the promise of red and orange in their leaves.
This is our gift to the future: a meadow in seeds. In our time capsule buried in Jubilee Grove, are seven clear plastic envelopes of seeds. Inside are dogbane, bluestem, grasses, senna, and white snakeroot. These seeds, collected this past fall from the meadows around the Schuylkill Center, offer a…
14,000 hours & counting
January 11, 2016By Claire Morgan, Volunteer Coordinator, and Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Throughout our now 50-plus years of educating thousands of people, volunteers have been central to our mission. In fact, we could have accomplished surprisingly little without volunteers. Claire Morgan, our volunteer coordinator, calculates that in the 12-month period ending July 1, volunteers poured 14,000 hours of service into the Center, planting trees, feeding baby birds, measuring water temperatures in streams, hanging gallery exhibitions, even tallying supermarket receipts for dividends.
In this season of giving, we’d like to thank our volunteers for giving us so much.
Like at the wildlife clinic.…
Field Guide: Winter Understory Trees
January 6, 2016By Melissa Nase, Manager of Land Stewardship
With so many efforts dedicated to tracking the biggest or tallest members of our forest, I thought it was a worthy endeavor to dedicate some time to these smaller, perhaps lesser known, understory trees in our woods. While they will never be the biggest or tallest or most majestic, they deserve accolades of their own. Many produce fruit that are prized by birds and mammals, especially during these winter months. Others provide habitat and cover. And others are just simply beautiful trees, small in stature, but with intricate details that are much easier…
Dear 2040: Riverbend Environmental Education Center Imagines the future
December 10, 2015By the staff of the Riverbend Environmental Education Center
Dear Friends of 2040,
We at Riverbend Environmental Education Center in Gladwyne, PA, hope the future finds you well. Living in 2015, we hear reports of melting polar ice caps and experience an increasing number of violent storms. Perspiration trickles down our necks as we work through higher summer temperatures. Climate scientists tells us that global climate change will have accelerated over 25 years. While the Western United States and many parts of the world are projected to be drier and hotter, we imagine our already very-green corner of Southeastern Pennsylvania will…
Hackensack Dreaming: Big & Small
December 8, 2015By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
Nancy Cohen’s Hackensack Dreaming has transformed our gallery space into an immersive experience evoking the complex wetlands of the Hackensack River. One of my favorite parts of this installation is how it is big and small at the same time. I feel enveloped in the space, and at the same time there are seemingly infinite details to discover the longer I look – in a similar way to being in nature itself.
There are upwards of 120 individual pieces in Cohen’s installation, all handmade glass and paper. I asked a few staff and…
