Category: Nature
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…
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…
Time + Art: A sculpture Changes with the Forest
November 5, 2015By Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art, and Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager
Since it was installed in April 2015, Jake Beckman's installation Future Non-object #1 has been changing with the forest around it. Created through the LandLab environmental art residency program, the sculpture was designed to address a local ecological problem. In this case, a lack of woodland fungi. The installation, involving over 1,000 small pieces of wood inoculated with fungi, will slowly decompose into the forest, providing habitat for the fungi.
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By the way, Jake Beckman's going to be…
Dear 2040: From an ecologically-minded artist
November 2, 2015By Stacy Levy
To be Opened in 25 years: A letter from an ecologically-minded artist
Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education Time Capsule
What does your world look like? I am sitting at a table in the rain 25 years ago, writing in pen on a pad of paper— already an outdated method for wrangling words in my day. The rain is falling and it feels natural and normal to hear the pattering sound of the drops on the roof. Will rainfall be considered with such comfort and coziness for you?
These same molecules of water could be raining on you…
Field Guide: October Colors
October 29, 2015By Melissa Nase, Manager of Land Stewardship
Enjoy our October mobile field guide as you walk, hike, and play in the fall forests. See other Field Guide posts here.
Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) and Blue Wood Aster (Symphotrichum cordifolium)
The deep red foliage of the blueberry bush is a great contrast to the lighter, more delicate blue wood aster. Both of these plants have their own unique characteristics. Highbush blueberries produce edible fruit enjoyed by humans and birds and are a nice, sculptural addition to your garden. The blue wood asters provide a mat of tiny flowers throughout the fall season. They…
The Pope and Climate Change
September 23, 2015By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Before Pope Francis arrives in Philadelphia on Saturday, he will present groundbreaking speeches, one to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, the other to the United Nations on Friday. He’s likely covering a number of hot-button topics, including immigration, poverty, homelessness...
...And climate change. The pope, blessedly fearless, walks where angels fear to tread. His June encyclical, Laudato Si’, or “Praise be to you,” rocked the world in its condemnation of how we treat the environment, using language no pope and too few world leaders have used before. Humanity’s “reckless” behavior and “unfettered greed”…
Field Guide: Blooming in August
August 17, 2015By Melissa Nase, Manager of Land Stewardship
Welcome to our new mobile Field Guides! We'll regularly post guides about what's blooming, what animals you can see, and other interesting things to observe in the woods, meadows, and streams. These posts are designed to be easy to read on a phone, meaning you can take this mobile field guide out with you as you walk, hike, and play. See other Field Guide posts here.
Common yarrow - Achillea millefolium
With small white flowers and feathery, delicate leaves, Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a pretty addition to the meadows and sunny edges at the…
History and Nature Intertwine at The Wagner Free Institute of Science
August 13, 2015Originally written by David Hewitt on the blog Growing History; adapted by Wagner’s Cara Scharf
North Philadelphia, with its closely packed houses and shops, cracked sidewalks and streets, and vacant lots and overgrown parks, is not necessarily where you’d expect to find a historic landscape.
It’s there, however, in the yard of the Wagner Free Institute of Science. Though there are many historic plants in the yard, some of the most noticeable are the large trees such as London planes (Platanus x acerifolia) and silver maples (Acer saccharinum) that ring the yard. Their size alone suggests they have been here for…
What to do outside before summer is over
August 7, 2015By Kiley Sotomayor, Summer Environmental Art Intern
Now that we are in the final month of summer vacation, it is the perfect time to fit in something you’ve been unable to do all summer in between graduation parties, sports games, and weddings. For me, that means doing new things and spending as much time as possible outside. The Schuylkill Center is a great place to do both! I’d like to recommend three things to check off your list before August flies by:
Hit the trails. We as a country spend about 8.5 hours a day in front of the screens, usually sitting.…
Natural Philadelphia: Where Do We Fit In?
July 24, 2015By guest contributor Rhyan Grech, Audubon PA
Are humans a part of nature? This important question spans generations, geographic locations, fields of study, vocations, religions, political parties and the city of Philadelphia. Working to protect wildlife and their habitats in the fifth most populated metropolitan area in the country may sound like a one-step-forward-two-steps-back sort of process, but it’s exactly what Audubon Pennsylvania and many other organizations are doing. And illustrating the relevance of our work to every city resident is a challenge we all share. (more…)
