You read that correctly — 2024 will be our final year as an organization. After thirteen busy, immersive, rewarding years of volunteer work, the Board of the Friends of Glen Providence Park is retiring. As we move into other chapters in our lives, we no longer have the hours each week required for the behind-the-scenes work to run the organization with all the care and attention it deserves. We plan to close Friends of Glen Providence Park as an organization later this year, after we take time to celebrate this beautiful county park and the work we have done to preserve and enhance it.

It is with a mixture of sadness, pride, and gratitude that we do this. Sadness to bring these wonderful, hard-working years to a close,  pride in the renewed attention and appreciation we have brought to Glen Providence Park in the local community and in Delaware County, and gratitude for all of our volunteers, allies, and supporters… without YOU we would have accomplished nothing. 

We invite you to join us as we celebrate our history with a final round of seasonal events, including park stewardship, a nature walk, a concert, and our year-round Friday morning Conservation Crew, all detailed at the end of this newsletter. 

Looking Back…

Our efforts started in July 2011 in response to the threat from the proposed replacement of a high-hazard dam and vehicular road at Third Street, which would have destroyed 1.1 serene and wooded acres of the park, including wetlands and 76 mature trees. We advocated extensively both to minimize harm to the glen’s woods, wetlands, plants, and wildlife, and for a community conversation about the proposed project — a conversation which repeatedly endorsed dam removal and a pedestrian/bicycle-only bridge.

Our activities quickly expanded to nature walks, volunteer days, Citizen Science projects, historical research, native tree plantings, summer concerts, and much more, with free and family-­friendly monthly events for over a decade!

Perhaps most importantly, we worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the ecological and historical importance of this hidden gem, singing its praises from the rooftops to elected officials, state regulatory agencies, and area residents. We engaged community volunteers, Scouts troops, naturalists, sister organizations, and the County in working with us to preserve and enhance the historic and natural resource of Delaware County’s oldest park — which was founded in 1935 as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum. It is with the help of innumerable individuals like you that we were able to make a difference! 

This is just skimming the surface – we encourage you to look through our 10th Anniversary Report, with concise bulleted summaries and photographs capturing the essence of the park, its history, and our first decade of work in it! (sample page at end of email)

… Looking Ahead 

It is our intention to thoughtfully transfer programming and stewardship of the park to appropriate parties. We plan to preserve the extensive historical and ecological information about Glen Providence Park we have gathered so it can be accessed  and referenced in the future.

We hope the hundreds of native trees and shrubs we planted continue to provide food and habitat for birds, caterpillars, and pollinators. It is also our hope that in 50 and 100 years, some of those trees have grown to majestic heights. 

We believe that Glen Providence Park is a treasure worth protecting — for wildlife habitat, plant diversity, and water quality — and for the enjoyment and respite it provides us today and for future generations. Our children and grandchildren deserve to enjoy “the beauty, the quietness, and the nameless charm” of this valley that T. Chalkley Palmer wrote about in 1889.
 

We hope the community continues to value
and take care of Glen Providence Park
in the decades and centuries to come!
 

Please reply to this email with any questions, to share your favorite memories of the park, or to volunteer!

Winter: 

At the CRC Streams Cleanup in March, we demonstrated the cumulative impact our dedicated volunteers have made through the years. At our early cleanups, we tended to get over 10 bags of trash, with a wide variety of large items from tires to barrels to baseball bats. Our 24 volunteers found nothing like that this year, and we collected just 4 bags of trash!

Spring: Join us on Saturday, May 11, for a Spring Flora & Fauna Walk with Samantha Nestory! That’s 10:00-11:30am, rain or shine. Registration is required, with a limit of 20 people – just reply to this email to register! 

Summer: Celebrate with us at our final concert on Saturday, September 14! It will be our last call to “Bring a blanket or chair, and relax on the lawn by the historical stage for a late afternoon concert…” We’re planning a festive affair – we hope you can join us!

Fall: At our final National Public Lands Day on Saturday, October 5, we’ll continue our care and maintenance of the hundreds(!) of trees and shrubs we have planted over the past 13 years, and free from deer fencing those plants that have grown large enough.

YEAR-ROUND: On Friday mornings, our fabulous Conservation Crew removes invasive plants and works on other projects to support native plants and wildlife in the park. Just reply to this email to join us!  

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• Next Saturday, April 20, Media Borough’s Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) and Media Recreation Board (Media Rec) are holding an Earth Day Cleanup. Click here for the flyer with more information!
• On Saturday, May 18, there will be a Pollinator Fest to kick off the Media Garden Tour. This is an amazing collaboration of the EAC, Media Rec, Transition Town Greater Media, Media Bee City, and the Green Wagon Project. Stay tuned for more information!