Spring Cleaning!

May 5, 2014 by Stephanie

Glen Providence Park has had lots of T.L.C. from volunteers this Spring, with 3 park cleanups and regular Invasive Plant Removal days! We held our usual two Friends of Glen Providence Park cleanups in March and May, and the Rotary Club of Media held its Rotarians at Work Day in the park in April, along with members of Boy Scouts and Penncrest Interact! In addition, County Parks & Recreation has cleared debris on several occasions, including removing a fallen tree that was damming the stream and flooding the Shingle Mill Trail.

Friends of Glen Providence Park started out on March 15 on a crisp but beautiful morning for our annual Early Spring Cleanup – it’s a great time of year to see and access any trash that has blown off trail, before the foliage emerges to obscure it. We had a great haul – 10 adults and 2 kids removed 13 bags of trash and recyclables, some odd pieces of metal and lumber, and 3 bags of invasive bamboo!

After the cold and incredibly snowy winter, our semi-weekly Invasives Plant Removal crew started up again in April. So far this year, we have removed over 20 packed contractor bags of invasive plants from along the park’s trails! We also re-opened the trail on either side of a brush pile blocking a trail by the pond – the brush was left from the removal of the 100 year old oak tree that fell clear across the pond during Hurricane Irene in 2011. This cleared the way for Rotarians at Work Day the next day…

At Rotarians at Work Day on April 26, volunteers efficiently dispatched of the whole brush pile, completely re-opening the trail! That morning, more than 20 volunteers from the Rotary Club of Media, Penncrest Interact Club, and Minquas District Boy Scouts of America also did spring cleaning of the stage and pavilion, cleared several bags of trash that had been dumped behind a property along the edge of the park decades ago, and cleared trash along trails.

Just this weekend on May 3, Friends of Glen Providence Park participated in the 17th Annual CRC Watersheds Streams Cleanup! It was another beautiful morning, and the 14 adults and 3 kids who came out had fun as we made our way along the stream and trails. Some of the odder trash included a paddle, mattress springs, and a seemingly antique spoon. We removed 16 bags of trash and invasive garlic mustard and multi-flora rose.

Cumulatively, those are a lot of volunteer hours spent in the park – all part of a long history of volunteerism that dates back to the park’s beginnings.