Category: Uncategorized
Schuylkill Center appoints Erin Mooney as Interim Executive Director
April 15, 2023The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education announced today that it has parted ways with its executive director, Mike Weilbacher.
Erin Mooney, a six-year member and vice president of the board of trustees will serve as the organization’s interim executive director, going forward, and a national search for a permanent executive director is underway.
“On behalf of the board of trustees, we are grateful for all that Mike has contributed to the Center over the years of his service and wish him well,” said board president Christopher McGill. “Mike has led us through important years of growth.”
Mooney, a longtime non-profit…
Welcome to New Staff Members
December 20, 2022This fall we welcomed several new staff members (and two returning staff members in new roles) to the Art department and to the Education department. We are thrilled to have you and look forward to seeing the great work you will contribute to the center.
Zaina Asaad
Manager of Public Programs
[email protected]
Zaina is very excited to join the amazing team at Schuylkill Center. She grew up in the Middle East and moved here to find opportunities that allow her to explore more diverse ecological systems and be a part of an equally passionate community. She is specifically interested in…
Wild Turkeys: The Truth Behind the Bird
November 23, 2022On Thursday, Americans of all shapes, sizes and colors gather around tables overflowing with colorful cornucopias of food. And whether that table includes cranberry sauce or couscous, tortellini or tortillas, the centerpiece of the meal is likely that quintessential American bird, the turkey.
Consider that turkey, one of our biggest natural neighbors. Likely one of your holiday plates includes an image of the tom turkey, chest all puffed out, strutting its stuff. That's not how turkeys appear in November. Sleeker, thinner, turkeys are now forming winter single-sex flocks, a tom and its brothers joining a fraternal order of other males.…
Deadly Fungi
October 24, 2022According to the Poison Control Center at CHOP, there have been 11 wild mushroom poisoning cases in the last month. While this may seem alarming, severe mushroom poisonings are rare. In our area, there are only a handful of species that will cause life threatening illness or death. These species include: Funeral Bells, Destroying Angels, and Gyromitra korfii. A few others are known to cause severe discomfort and GI distress including Jack-o-Lanterns and the Vomiter.
Here are some FAQs about mushroom safety that everyone should know:
All mushrooms are safe to touch and must be ingested to cause illness of…
The Now-Endangered Monarch Butterfly
July 27, 2022[caption id="attachment_275332" align="alignright" width="169"] Monarch caterpillar on a milkweed plant outside our front door[/caption]
When one worries about nature, the world is so much like a Springsteen song, one step up and two steps back.
One step up: the Schuylkill Center’s staff have seen multiple monarch butterflies and their caterpillars in and around the center recently, many of them right outside the Visitor Center’s front door. This beats several recent years when there were few-- if any-- sightings of the Halloween-colored insect. For butterfly lovers like me, it’s been a great week for monarchs. In fact, only hours before I…
Two Great Summer Flowers: Monarda and Milkweed
June 20, 2022
If you come to the front door of the Visitor Center this week, two extraordinary-- and extraordinarily important-- flowers are waiting to greet you, two flowers you should not only know, but plant in your own yards.
The bright blossoms of Monarda, commonly known as bee balm, greet you first, their scarlet red flowers simply impossible to miss. Can a flower ever get more red than this?! That color is a clear signal as to who pollinates it, as hummingbirds are highly attracted to red flowers. Also, check out the long floral tubes, specifically evolved to allow a hummingbird to…
Spring Processional: Adventures in the Outdoors
June 1, 2022[caption id="attachment_275145" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Naturalist and author Craig Newberger with a hitchhiking praying mantis.[/caption]
It’s the first day of June, with the spring season in full flower-- pun totally intended. Want to know what you might do to more fully experience nature now? Simple. Grab a copy of “Spring Processional,” a hot-off-the-press book by local naturalist Craig Newberger, where you’d learn now is the time to see horseshoe crabs mating on the Delaware Bay and the first meadow wildflowers blooming.
He’s recently retired as the Lower School science coordinator for the Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, a position he held…
Bicycling with Butterflies
April 11, 2022[caption id="attachment_274978" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Author, educator, and "butterbiker" Sara Dykman observes a monarch sipping nectar on goldenrod during her epic 10,201-mile bike trip as she followed the butterfly's migration.[/caption]
Sara Dykman did something that no other human on this planet has ever done, or even thought to do. In 2017, she followed the entire migration route of monarch butterflies from their overwintering spot in Mexican mountains, north to Canada as far as monarchs go, and back to Mexico. Over a full year, she followed the butterflies.
On a bicycle. By herself. Logging 10,201 miles, to be exact. (That’s only like…
Snakes, Turtles, and Toads, Oh My!
April 4, 2022[caption id="attachment_274929" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Why did the box turtle cross the road? Likely to lay her eggs, Bernard "Billy" Brown says.[/caption]
While Philadelphia is a big, old, well-developed urban area, one of its many surprises is the abundant wildlife found not just in natural places like the Wissahickon, the Schuylkill Center, the John Heinz refuge, and more, but tucked into the many nooks and crannies across the city. Especially surprising might be the large number of reptiles and amphibians living alongside us as our natural neighbors.
One of our city’s most engaging naturalists, Bernard “Billy” Brown, will introduce you to…
The Unraveling of the Red Knot
March 28, 2022
The red knot is one of the region’s most extraordinary birds, facing one of conservation's biggest threats, but sadly flies under the radar of too many people. Too few of us have heard of the knot and fewer still know its story. But on Thursday, March 31 at 7:00 p.m, we'll offer you a unique opportunity to dive into this incredible story.
A nine-inch-long sandpiper with a terra cotta belly, the red knot makes one of migration’s longest runs, flying 9,300 miles each spring from Tierra del Fuego at the bottom tip of South America to nest above the…
