Dear Mayor: Schuylkill Center Members Write to Jim Kenney

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Schuylkill Center

By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director

Dear Mayor Kenney,

Congratulations on being sworn in as the 99^th 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 DiBerardinis from deputy mayor and director of Parks & Rec to managing director is another signal sustainability retains prominence.

As you get started, I asked the Schuylkill Center’s members to pass along their environmental recommendations to you. What do some of your environmentally concerned citizens want to see you do?

“The most important thing,” wrote Valerie Keller from your own South Philadelphia, “is to expand upon the stormwater management and river protection work of the groundbreaking ‘Green City, Clean Waters’ program. This plan put Philadelphia on the map for green solutions to basic urban infrastructure problems, and the enormous coordination of various organizations with incredibly inventive, creative ideas for ways to add rain gardens, retention basins, porous paving, and many other green infrastructures to the city should be used as a springboard for other ecologically relevant projects. Keeping the momentum going on this will make good use of everything that has been learned so far… and serve as a solid foundation from which other ecological programs can grow.”

A big hot-button issue for our members is fracking and the push for the city to become a hub for the transport of fracking gas. Many members had strong feelings here.

Like John Margerum of East Falls: “I am firmly opposed to Philadelphia developing as an energy hub. We will assume all the risks of an environmental disaster to enable the connected few to make excess profits. Philadelphia’s future must be envisioned as an opportunity to recover from the damages of past industrial development and a commitment to a greener, sustainable way of living.”

Walter Tsou of West Mt. Airy says he is “opposed to the energy hub simply because fossil fuels will be phased out in the next 30 years, and investing in an energy hub is like opening Blockbuster video on the dawn of the Internet. The Mayor can begin by purchasing 100% of the city’s energy from renewable sources, and installing electric chargers in all (public) garages.”

East Mt Airy’s Kathy Lopez was blunter: “We should have NOTHING to do with fracked natural gas and we should NOT have carbon-based fuels transported through our city, or any city as far as I’m concerned!”

Valerie Keller also commented on energy, offering that “I would like to see Philadelphia lead the country in alternative sources of energy. I don’t see fracking as a long-term sustainable answer to our continuing energy needs, and the long-term problems are not worth the short-term gains.”

Open spaces, green spaces, and cleaning abandoned lots were noted by lots of writers. “While I’m not a Philly resident anymore,” says Robin Eisman, “I suggest that… literal green space be added to as much as possible (converting lots to pocket parks, community gardens, etc). Mayor Kenney, I’d remind you of the studies linking greenery and nature with reduced crime, higher home values, and other benefits, which I’m sure you’re familiar with.” Dick Wexelblat, another former city resident, said his “two priorities would be open space and the aggressive cleanup of abandoned and run-down properties.” Kitty Stokes of Newtown Square has “grandchildren living in Philadelphia and for them I would like to see the greening and vacant lot work continued. Preserving open space is (the) most important (goal); once it’s gone, it’s gone!”

Continuing this thread, Roxborough’s Michelle Havens, also our gift shop manager, writes that “as a candidate, you were vocal on both environmental issues and education. You speak of saving green space and reducing litter and of helping our schools and our students. Is there a plan to blend the two? Too often… our youth are separated from green space, or have access to very little. And much of that consists of a community garden put together by neighbors in their vicinity or a playground with limited clean green space. How will you assist the youth of our city, the very future you represent, in becoming more aware of their part in the world around them? How will you make sure that all children in the city have access to green space and lessons explaining the significance and importance of such space? Because saving green space… will be a moot point if the youth we hope to one day take care of and respect it are ignorant of its importance.”

And Mayor Kenney, all of us at the Schuylkill Center and in the city look forward to working with you to advance these important concerns.

And come for a walk here anytime. Love to give you a tour.

Editor’s note: a version of this blog post was published in the Roxborough Review on Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Naturalist’s Notebook: The meadow of 2040

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Schuylkill Center

By 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 little picture of what an autumn meadow looked like in our moment, right now, in 2015. Continue reading →

14,000 hours & counting

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Schuylkill Center

By 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. There, some 70 volunteers in the clinic greatly extend the reach of clinic staff, taking regular weekly shifts cleaning cages, feeding animals, even helping administer medicine. In 2015, about 3,300 wild creatures were brought to the clinic, a record for one year—and without volunteers, rehabilitators Rick Schubert and Michele Wellard would be unable to provide this critical level of service.

Here’s one measure of the importance of clinic volunteers: 10,000 of the hours of volunteer service come from the wildlife clinic alone.

Dan Featherston is one of those volunteers. Helping us for 2½ years now, he “deeply cares” about rehabilitating wild animals, and has a special fondness for pigeons, a bird usually overlooked.

We capped off the recent jubilee year of celebrations with the planting of Jubilee Grove, 200 new trees planted mostly by volunteers and interns. Year round, land stewardship volunteers help stewardship manager Melissa Nase propagate native plants in our greenhouse and nursery. As our native plant sales have been growing in importance, our volunteers are invaluable here, potting plants, caring for the nursery and greenhouse, and even advising customers during the sales as to what plants to use in their own gardens.

Monthly, restoration volunteers join us on the front lines of ecological restoration, removing noxious invasive species that choke out native plants while planting new trees and wildflowers as well.

And then there’s Toad Detour. Unique to Roxborough, every year thousands of toads cross Port Royal Avenue to mate in the reservoir. Instead of getting squashed on the road by passing cars these toads are ushered across by volunteers. This spring, some 1,400 adult toads made the journey through the help of many volunteers, including Scout troops.

The Senior Environment Corps run by Claire leans on a core of wonderful retired adults who, this year, have been monitoring the stream along Wises’ Mill Road to measure the impact of storms on water quality. They share this data with Philadelphia Water and the statewide program Nature Abounds.

We also have a small but dedicated group of volunteers who help us with office skills including data entry, shredding, mailing, organizing, etc. And a new volunteer has just started helping our facilities staff with carpentry and handyman jobs.

Last but not least, an incredible board of 18 volunteer trustees has supported and guided us this year, offering their gifts of time and talent.
Henry Geyer, one of the SEC volunteers, summarizes the experience for many. “Volunteering is my way to say thank you and to give something of myself back to my community. It’s a chance to be with caring people who have your same interests, and hope to make a difference , no matter how slight, in our world. I hope that what little I have contributed will be of some significance.”

Henry, it is. And we are deeply indebted to Henry, and all our extraordinary volunteers.

With a New Year just around the corner, perhaps you’ll make a resolution to give back both to the environment and the community through volunteering.

Field Guide: Winter Understory Trees

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Schuylkill Center

By 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 to observe up close due to their size.

Dogwood (Cornus florida)
A common tree in both the woodland and residential landscape, this tree is easily identified by its white spring blooms in April or May. In the winter, however, the bark and form gives it away. With its light tan, scaly, shallowly furrowed bark, dogwoods take on an alligator type texture. It has a graceful, pyramidal form and is often low branching or multi-stemmed. Later in winter, the buds of new flowers will form like little caps on the ends of the upward facing branches.

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
When you find a sassafras tree, you tend to find many sassafras trees. This is one native plant that suckers readily, sending up new shoots from its root system, forming clusters of new trees. In the forest, they are typically found in groves, easily identified by their twisted, gnarly shaped branches. The brown bark is deeply furrowed and forms rectangular blocks with horizontal “breaks”.

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)
While the common persimmon is not as common at the Schuylkill Center as the two aforementioned understory trees, there are a handful of them spread throughout old meadows and fields here. This is another tree with distinct bark: it resembles the scales of a dogwood, but it is thicker, more deeply furrowed, and very blocky. You may see bright orange, plum-sized fruits hanging from its bare branches from fall through the winter. Often they are too high to reach, but you may get lucky to snag one for a snack before the wildlife does.

Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)

You may have come across a pawpaw grove on a hike in our woods and not even have realized it. The few young groves that exist here more closely resemble sticks in the ground during the winter than a distinct cluster of trees and saplings. Like sassafras, pawpaws spread through their underground root system, forming new trees by sending up shoots. They can also be propagated fairly easily through seed, although pawpaw often has trouble with pollination and therefore its fruit production is often unreliable. Pawpaws have smooth grey-brown bark that gets slightly more textured with age and dark brown buds. They often have arching trunks and don’t branch until more mature.

Dotted Hawthorn (Crataegus punctata)
Dotted hawthorns grow along forest edges and in old meadows and fields. At the Schuylkill Center, they were planted in the 1960s along a fence row toward the front edge of the property to discourage trespassing. How would a tree discourage trespassing, you may wonder. Hawthorns have sharp spiky thorns, sometimes several inches long, which could be very painful to any passerby. These thorns on the branches are a good way to identify the plant, as well as their bright red berries that persist through the winter as food for birds. It has greyish bark that is irregularly ridged and furrowed.

Enjoy our January mobile field guide as you walk, hike, and play in the winter forest. See other Field Guide posts here.

Dear 2040: Riverbend Environmental Education Center Imagines the future

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Schuylkill Center

By 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 be even warmer and wetter.

Yet we like to think positively. After all – we’re in the business of investing in children and our future. Riverbend’s mission is to teach children environmental principles through a direct connection with nature. Our goal is to inspire respect for the natural world and action as aware, responsible, and caring citizens. In 2014, our center had nearly 20,000 visits from and to school students — 65% of whom were from underserved communities in Norristown, Philadelphia, and nearby communities. If we did our work well, we will have inspired a lifetime passion in others for protecting the natural world. It is our hope that many of our diverse young learners are now diverse young leaders — actively working to solve the environmental problems of 2040. Environmental educators, scientists, and policy advocates are predominantly white in 2015. Yet at Riverbend we believe that increasing this movement’s diversity will strengthen it and give us the wider perspectives needed to tackle tough problems affecting all of us.

With fossil fuel used for transportation at a premium and with global issues of water scarcity and food costs likely to be of even greater concern in 2040, we imagine that environmental education may now be a requirement in schools. Those of us who deliver this education well will be called upon to provide expertise and proven education methods to all children in the region with in-school curriculum and teacher training complemented by on-site visits for experiential learning. Outside of school, environmental education centers and nature centers, will be sought-after havens for the many families who long for authentic nature experiences and who seek respite from an increasingly artificial world.

In 2015 Riverbend launched our Aquaponics Program, the first of its kind in the region. Aquaponics is the science of growing food crops and fish in an integrated, self-sustaining system. Perhaps we don’t need to explain to you what aquaponics is. Perhaps it is as common as gas stations are in 2015. It is our dream that our aquaponics program, aimed at facilitating scientific inquiry, has inspired the implementation of larger-scale projects that address food security. Aquaponics, for example, uses only 10% of the water used by traditional agriculture and it can be done in compact, indoor growing spaces. This makes aquaponics practical for urban and suburban farming. It is our hope that growing food locally on a much larger scale will reduce high transportation costs and negative environmental impacts.

As we zoom out from our corner, we imagine that abundant water resources will make Pennsylvania attractive to businesses and employees. Perhaps some of you relocated to this region in order to benefit from lower costs associated with plentiful water and compact, walkable communities. We imagine public transit and zoning laws will need to keep pace with increased population density – and dense it will be. Most new developments will consist of apartment-style housing with electric car hookups, green roofs, geothermal heating, trail connections, and public courtyards with native plantings. The current trend of spending less time on yard work and more time in public spaces will increase the use of public parks, nature centers, and environmental education centers.

Blessed with water and even more abundant vegetation, the population will grow in the city center and Philadelphia will be celebrated and visited for all things green and water-related including the Water Works, Fairmount Park, Wissahickon Valley Park, and the canals of Manayunk and Mont Clare.

We hope you are enjoying expanded parks, creeks for kayaking, and an extensive network of trails. They were already pretty good in 2015, a year when Pennsylvania has the second highest number of trails in the U.S. We are third in fly fishing waters, ninth in kayaking arenas, and fifth in the number of national parks. The Schuylkill River Trail was voted the number one urban trail in the U.S. We hope you are enjoying its completed route from Philadelphia to Pottsville, with spur trails taking travelers to parks, cafes, and best of all — to environmental education centers.

Best wishes to all,

Riverbend Environmental Education Center

Editor’s Note: Dear 2040 is a series of blog posts containing some of the letters included in our 50th anniversary time capsule, buried in October 2015. Throughout the rest of 2015 we’ll be posting some of those letters, sharing what our leaders, thinkers, artists, and Schuylkill Center staff are thinking about the year 2040. You can read all the posts here.

Hackensack Dreaming: Big & Small

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Schuylkill Center

By 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 students of the Schuylkill Center to tell me about their favorite piece, and why it speaks to them. Don’t miss the installation, on view until December 19^th, and tell us about your favorite.

Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager
I love this piece because each time I approach it it’s become something new. Because it hangs, it rotates slowly, showing me perspectives. When I first saw it the profile was boney, spine-like, rising from the ethereal blue surrounding it. The next time I looked, I was peering into a pale cavern within it.

Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
Walking through Hackensack Dreaming, my eyes keep coming back to one of the organically shaped structures, one of the many jellyfish-like pieces that are actually not jellyfish, but inspired by ice forming on the marsh in winter. What catches my eye is its deep cobalt blue color unique among all the shapes in the installation, and one of my favorite colors all time. The cracks and lines in the shape give it the appearance of a turtle dragging itself slowly across the meadowlands. Who doesn’t love a turtle, especially a deep blue one?

Donna Struck, Director of Finance & Administration
My favorite piece is a beautiful shiny, corally blue piece that is magical to look at. (It’s on the right side as you enter the gallery, on the floor.) It is my favorite because it caught my eye and held it with its beauty and shine. It almost looks like sunlight is reflecting off of it. The whole exhibit speaks to me because I love the ocean so much and while I know it’s not an ocean being represented, the blues and objects remind me of such. Or perhaps it’s my overall love of water.

Elisabeth Zafiris, Manager of Public Programs
This is an almost overwhelming exhibition. The different stimulants grab at you upon entering. I spent my time in the gallery walking slowly, taking everything in. Or so I thought. It wasn’t until I reached one of the last objects that my attention was fully on the object itself. It made me question what I was looking at. Are those spoons? Trash? It’s something that was once something else, that much is for sure. This attention to detail, intricacy, and demand for closer looking echoes what I love about being in nature. It gives you pause, slows you down, a focuses your attention. It’s a sensory experience.

Christina Catanese, Director of Environmental Art
While the suspended objects and forms on the floor immerse the viewer in the space, the large paper drawing on the back wall takes the eye away into the horizon. Looking deceptively like paint, carefully placed paper pulp on handmade paper has an incredibly rich texture, and the rich red color stands out starkly among the bluegreengray of most of the rest of the space. Shimmering portions evoke for me light in the landscape that might reflect off of water or human infrastructure, contrasting with the organic forms.

Rebecca Dhondt, Nature Preschool Lead Teacher
When I look at the show there is so much to see and process. One thing, however, really stayed with me after I left the gallery. I just kept picturing the tiny spots of blue that were on the black paper next to the larger lakes of paper pulp. These little spheres were obviously splashed there when the ocean was being created. Some might even say these dots were a mistake, but imperfections are what make things real. Nature is not perfect, and neither is the best art.

Nature Preschool

The Sassafrass Preschool Classroom made a visit to the gallery.

“These look like fairy flowers. Look, they are floating!”

“I like the mushrooms on the walls because they remind me of mushrooms outside.”

“I like those hanging things… they are like butterflies!”

“I like the hanging things too! They are like flying palaces… for, like, a good community”

“It’s so beautiful!” (several times)

Dear 2040: Damien Ruffner wonders about the future

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Schuylkill Center

By Damien Ruffner, Program Coordinator: Camps & Afterschool

October 2, 2015

Dear Future Program Coordinator: Camps & Afterschool,

I hope this letter finds you well. As I sit here wondering what 2040 will look like at the Schuylkill Center, I can’t help but wonder if even the position will exist in that year. I have been here exactly three years as I write this and my title has changed three times in as many years. So I imagine it will continue to grow and evolve as the programing we offer moves forward.

I’m not sure if compensation time will still be in the handbook in 25 years, but I hope it is. Because this position requires a lot of it! I’ve worked 10 hour days, 14 hour days, I’ve slept here at the center, and I’ve worked overnights with kids for 3 or 5 days at a time. The position requires so much energy and dedication. But in my opinion it is clearly the best position to have here. No one does more fun stuff than I get to do. Kayaking, canoeing, parasailing, standup paddle boarding, camping at the most beautiful spots the mid-Atlantic region has to offer. And all of this doesn’t come close to the best part of my job, the kids. I am in the unique position where I not only get to see kids grow, I get to help in the process. Shaping the young minds of the future is such a satisfying thing for me. I’ve been here 3 full years now and have seen some small kids grow into young adult and mature right before my eyes. And my heart swells every time I think of each and every one of them. I hope you love this place as much as I do. I hope you love the early mornings. Mornings when you’re the first one here, working a 10 hour day-off camp and closing the building after everyone has left. Those are the days I’ll remember the most. Those are the days where your dedication and determination will be the only thing you have to rely on. But even with those long days, you get so much more out of the center than you put into it. Working a 10 or 12 hour day would be torture if it was in a hospital, or some corporate office. But here, on these 340 acres, it’s paradise. I hope you take advantage of the outdoor space. Take walks alone. Sit and just be in the presence of nature.

Another perk of my position is I get to work with such a wide range of the community. On a Monday, I might work with a group of Kindergarten students for a “first look at a pond” lesson. Tuesday I’ll work with an AP biology class on water quality and ethical water use. Wednesday I’ll work with a wide range age group from the Philadelphia School teaching about seeds. Then on Thursday and Friday, I’ll run day off camps for 5-12 year olds and take field trips to local outdoor and educational spaces. And finally on Friday night, run a stargazing event for 100+ adults looking to learn a little bit more about our world (And other worlds). It may seem overwhelming at first to think of such a diverse group that you have to reach. But it comes in waves. I started with just one group: our afterschool program, the Monkey-Tail gang. Then as things became more comfortable, more was added to my plate.

I get to be outside every single day. Not most days, not some days, all of them. I think about some positions here and they might spend the entire day indoors. And I feel for those people. If the position evolves to a point where you are stuck inside daily, I beg you to take a step outside every day. I see little point in working in such a magical place without experiencing it daily yourself. Reset with the natural world around you.

Good luck with all of your programming. I can’t imagine the types of programming you’ll offer in 25 years, But I’ll come back and visit. Maybe even my own kids will be a part of it? Who knows?

Sincerely,
Damien Ruffner
Program Coordinator: Camps & Afterschool

Children Need Nature

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Schuylkill Center

By Gail Farmer, Director of Education

I was born in 1975, part of Generation X, probably the last generation whose parents felt comfortable sending their kids out into the neighborhood after school. “Go outside and be back by dinner,” was a common directive from my mother. Behind my house was an undeveloped hill, and “The Hill” was where my sisters and I went when my mom sent us outdoors. My childhood was also filled with Girl Scouts, dance classes, and community soccer, but my best memories and my most formative experiences come from the times my mother wanted nothing more than to get me and my sisters out of her hair for a few hours. The Hill was totally open to our interpretation and needs: it was a place where we could try to make sense of a complex world by reconstructing it on a smaller scale. On The Hill we were sometimes brave explorers and other times victims in need of rescue. The Hill was whatever we needed it to be.

A growing body of research in early childhood development is revealing the critical connection between this type of exposure to nature and the developing brain. Children who spend immersive time playing in nature tend to be less anxious and better able to focus, and to have fewer health issues and more emotional resilience, than children who don’t. Nature play allows children to choose their own adventure, based on the amount of challenge and risk they feel ready to take on at any given time. Should I walk across that log? What will happen if I balance these three sticks? I want to move this tree stump, can I carry it myself? Do I need help to move it? Experiences like these are how children build awareness and confidence in their abilities and decision making. We want our children to have lots of these experiences before they become teens and begin making decisions with more consequences.

The best nature play occurs in places that are near the home, easy for children to get to on a regular basis. Most people have access to some form of nature, the trouble is that often people don’t “see” the nature in their communities. For a child, nature can be very small – playing in the dirt sheltered by a bush or playing among the roots of a tree. Rain, snow, dirt, rocks and sticks are basic elements of nature that provide excellent opportunities for play. Creating works of art with mud, building snow forts, jumping in puddles, building with sticks and rocks – the possibilities are boundless.

Children’s attraction to nature is instinctive; nature is the primary biological context for our cognitive and physical development. Our brains have evolved to be responsive to the natural world. Technology and our culture have evolved far more rapidly than our brains. Our brains still respond with fear and disgust to spiders and snakes, despite the fact that people are statistically more likely to die from an automobile than a spider. Our brains still drive us to be attracted to homes near water, despite the fact that in the developed world we can get water in any home simply by turning on the tap.

Nature (on any scale) fires up a child’s developing brain in a way nothing else can, and the benefits last well into adulthood. Playing in autumn leaves in childhood offers a joyful play opportunity and that rich sensory experience becomes linked with the emotions of that play. When that child becomes an adult, the earthy smell of autumn leaves, the way they crinkle and crumble under your touch, the colors against the ground, these sights, smells and sounds carry with them those positive feelings from their childhood.

When I think back to my childhood, The Hill dominates my memories. In reality, I probably spent less time on The Hill than I did at soccer, Girl Scouts, and dance. It is the power of nature play, linking rich sensory experiences with high emotional stimuli, that makes my childhood experiences on The Hill loom large in my memory. Every child needs a special nature place, big or small, that meets them where they are and gives them what they need. And every adult needs to have that special nature place in their heart, connecting them with feelings of peace and joy, whenever they might need it.

This piece was first published on the blog of the Community Design Collaborative on November 11, 2015.

Dear 2040: From Judy Wicks

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Schuylkill Center

By Judy Wicks, founder of the White Dog Cafe

Dear citizens of the world in 2040,

If you are able to read this letter, I am relieved. I have been worrying about you – you the children of our children’s children – because today’s humans, your ancestors, are endangering your future by destroying the natural systems your lives will depend upon. When I watch how other species care for their young – from gorillas to penguins to whales – I see how willing they are to give their very lives to secure a safe future for the next generation. Yet we humans, at least affluent Americans, seem more concerned with having a lot of stuff in our big houses than making sure that you will have the basics for a healthy life – clean air and water, healthy forests, rich soil to grow food, abundant river and sea life, a hospitable climate. Continue reading →

Environmental Art at Nature Preschool

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Schuylkill Center

By Rebecca Dhondt, Sassafras Lead Teacher

When people think of a preschool experience, art almost always comes to mind. Children need art, not only for the development of their creativity, but as a support for growing cognitive, social, and motor abilities.

All high quality preschool programs incorporate art daily. Walking into a typical classroom, parents will see evidence of painting, gluing and sculpture. Hopefully there will be a well-developed art center with various supplies that are easily accessible to the children. Also, completed works of art will be clearly labeled and prominently displayed around the room and in the halls.

Our Nature Preschool is no different, except for this: from first inspiration to finished project art always involves nature. Continue reading →