Category: Uncategorized
Natural Selections: Manayunk and Manatawna: Our Lenape Place Names
March 5, 2020By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
One of the pleasures of teaching and talking about our Roxborough land are our historic place names, so many of them Lenape in origin: Wissahickon, Conshohocken, Manatawna, Cinnaminson, Manayunk. Widen the lens a bit, and Philadelphia maps burst with Lenape words: Shackamaxon, Wingohocking, Kingsessing, Tulpehocken, Tioga.
Sadly, Phildelphians are taught too little, if anything, about the Lenape, the original people here, our First People, and too much that is taught is at best misleading and too often wrong. That statue of a Lenape chief that guards a bluff above the Wissahickon? He is carelessly outfitted…
Natural Selections: New Year’s resolutions from the Roxborough community
January 28, 2020By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
[pullquote]2020 will see my continued fight for redistricting reform and to continue to work in a bipartisan manner to get good policy in place.” State Rep. Pamela A. DeLissio, D-194[/pullquote]With the calendar pages turning over to a new year – and a new decade to boot – it’s time for our annual roundup of New Year’s resolutions from community leaders across Roxborough.
Celeste Hardeseter, president of the Central Roxborough Civic Association, said that, “A century and more ago, people planted trees in their yards that, 100 years later, became magnificent mature specimens. Now, as these are becoming…
Kate Farquhar’s Synestates: Art, Nature, and Humans
August 15, 2019by Communications Intern Charlotte Roach
As you wander the trails of the Schuylkill Center, you may notice some objects that look a little out-of-place. What are those chains doing hanging from those tree branches? What are those white geometric shapes on the surface of Wind Dance Pond? Those objects are art installations, part of our LandLab environmental art residency, created by resident artist Kate Farquhar. Kate is a Philadelphia-based environmental artist and landscape architect with a passion for green design. Her series is called Synestates, and its purpose it to explore how human-made building materials can interact with nature.
pvines,…
The Buzz on Lanternflies
August 13, 2019By Executive Director Mike Weilbacher
A pair of concerned homeowners walked into the Schuylkill Center early last week in a bit of a panic. “We have lanternflies everywhere,” they told Steve Goin, our Director of Land and Facilities. “What do we do?” And many others have been calling our front desk with the same question.
What do we do indeed. Allow me to tell you.
[caption id="attachment_270974" align="alignleft" width="2268"] Photo credit: Shawn Riley[/caption]
The newest invasive creature in our backyards, spotted lanternflies were accidentally imported into Berks County from their native southeast Asia in 2014. And in the five years…
Hotter, Wetter, Weirder: Philadelphia’s Already-Changing Climate
August 8, 2019By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Climate change remains in the headlines, as wildfires, flooding, heat waves, ice cap melting, and more dominate the news. But what will happen here in Philly? How will we fare in a rapidly heating world?
As the city’s Office of Sustainability notes in “Growing Stronger: Toward a Climate-Ready Philadelphia,” we have weathered “the snowiest winter, the two warmest summers, the wettest day, the two wettest years, as well as two hurricanes and a derecho” since 2010, the latter an unusual, high-energy storm system. Climate change is teaching us new language.
And we’re getting hotter. Climate…
Illuminating the Plastic Crisis: Art from Waste at the Schuylkill Center
June 6, 2019By: Christina Catanese
Recently, plastic has been the object of much attention – environmental news feels saturated with increasing calls for bans on plastic straws and grocery bags; images of dead albatrosses on beaches with stomachs full of bottle caps and other small pieces of plastics mistaken for food; an unfolding crisis in the recycling industry triggered by China’s ban on imports on many recyclables, where most of America’s waste had been shipped for years; and the resultant environmental justice crisis in Chester, where Philadelphia’s recycling was being burned for a time this year. Statistics like “8 million tons…
New Program Opens for Two-Year-Olds
March 21, 2019Imagine witnessing a child's love of nature unfurl through a series of moments: the first time they hold a wiggling earthworm, hear a warbler call, or watch frogs scurry into a pond. These experiences play into the sensory needs of young children and help to bolster their language, fine and gross motor skills, and cognitive abilities. For the first time this spring, we are offering this curriculum to children ages 25–36 months through Fledglings, a "watch-me-fly" program for children and caregivers.
This five-week series will use walks and wanders, songs, stories, and art to tap into children’s innate interest in…
A Valentine to Bob and Nancy Elfant
February 13, 2019By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
It’s Valentine’s Day, that day set aside to think about the things we love. Bob and Nancy Elfant, local residents and strong supporters of the Schuylkill Center’s Wildlife Clinic, love animals.
“We both have a soft spot in our heart for animals,” said Bob last week. “And needy animals,” chimed in Nancy, noting their adoption of two rescue dogs 11 years ago. The Elfants were making a visit to the Wildlife Clinic, being given a tour by Chris Strub, the clinic’s assistant director.
“If I pass an animal along the road that has been hurt,…
Community: Creative Connections at the Schuylkill Center
December 13, 2018Lauren Bobyock, Environmental Art and Communications Intern
What does community mean to you? Here at the Schuylkill Center, community means connection. We offer a wide range of ways for humans of all ages and backgrounds to engage with nature—whether you are spending time with your family outside at our weekly Schuylkill Saturdays, or attending our Meigs Environmental Leadership Award ceremonies to learn about strides our community members take to further environmentalism. Our community contributes to the Schuylkill Center in a variety of ways, and we are excited to honor all friends, members, volunteers, and staff in an exciting and creative…
Autumnal Stream Walk
November 20, 2018By Lauren Bobyock, Communications and Environmental Art Intern
It was the perfect fall day to get a little lost in the woods. There are two parallel streams running through the valleys at the Schuylkill Center — Meigs and Smith Runs — and that day two teams of staff and volunteers set out to learn more about them. On an artistic and scientific mission, we began this journey to contribute to our latest environmental art gallery exhibit by Stacy Levy: Braided Channel.
Stacy Levy is an environmental artist with installations all over the world including…
