Join us Friday mornings in Glen Providence Park! We remove invasive shrubs and vines that strangle beneficial native plants and crowd the trails, and work on other projects to support plants and wildlife in the park. Enjoy conversation and soak in the natural beauty of the glen – while making a positive impact.

Conservation Crew

Friday mornings
(weather permitting)
9:30 – 11:30 am
Registration required:
Email us at FriendsoftheGlen [at] gmail [dot] com

Since 2013, we’ve removed over 375 bags of invasive plants – liberating native trees and shrubs that were strangled and weighted down by vines – while beautifying and keeping open the trails. Some of our other projects? We’ve painted trail blazes, measured trail distances for trail posts, carried in native trees for planting projects, cleared branches from fallen trees damming the stream, repeatedly cleared the pond intake from blockages, and removed smaller limbs from fallen trees to unblock trails until County Parks could get in with chainsaws.

Logistics:

• Please take a quick read over our Invasive Plant Removal Guidelines
• Wear work clothes – ideally long sleeves & pants – including appropriate sturdy footwear.
• Please bring gloves and pruners.
• We will provide bags and any additional tools.
• Be prepared for hills and uneven terrain.
• We send out an email to our Crew on Thursdays with that week’s project and meeting location, with the next morning’s forecast in mind. Whether you can join us once or weekly, email us at FriendsoftheGlen [at] gmail [dot] com!
• We generally work when the temperature is between 35 and 80 degrees.

Coming soon:

• We’re usually too busy to snap photos, but we’ll add a few here from some past work days!

Glen Providence Park is owned and managed by Delaware County, and we work with the permission of, and in consultation with, Delaware County Parks & Recreation and the Delaware County Conservation District, in addition to consulting other natural lands managers and resources.

We take a pragmatic approach and prioritize those invasive plants that both cause the most harm and are effective to remove. We do not do structural trail maintenance or use power tools.

Throughout November, we have been counting down to Thanksgiving by posting daily thanks on Facebook. There is some overlap with our lists from Thanksgiving in 2012 and 2014, and so much more to add – it is amazing how much there is to be grateful for! Here are those daily posts – these were in no particular order, and it is by no means a complete list!

Day 1: … long-time park supervisor James Stokes, Jr. for his years of care for the park. He started work on October 31, 1935 and continued for at least 25 years, and by all accounts really loved Glen Providence Park. He served as park guard, caretaker, supervisor, and park ranger – personally building picnic tables, preparing for concerts, planting trees & flowers, teaching visitors about the plants & wildlife, and creating the 1941 Nature Guide to Glen Providence Park!

Day 2: … the local schools that use Glen Providence Park as an outdoor classroom and for service learning, teaching their students a love of nature, science, art, and more. Thank you Media Elementary School, Springton Lake Middle School, Media Providence Friends School, Penncrest High School – and homeschoolers!

Day 3: … Delaware County Parks & Recreation, for resurfacing the historical WPA stage last summer in time for the park’s 80th anniversary celebration, for their support of our events and activities, and for their many years of caretaking and managing their 621 acres (and growing!) of open space for the public.

Day 4: … all that Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association has done since 1970 to protect, conserve, and restore the watersheds throughout its 132 square mile stewardship area! Its initiatives include annual streams cleanups, riparian reforestation, advocacy, education, and stream monitoring. We are honored to receive their Organizational Stewardship Award this year!  

Day 5: … our Nature Walk guides and monthly event leaders who volunteered their time in the past two years: the ever-helpful Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County, Gary Stolz, David Hewitt, Shannon Davidson, Marcia Tate, Stephanie Gaboriault, Kyle Loucks, George Tate, the Media-Upper Providence Free Library, Holly Hoffmann, Aura Lester, and Charles Randall.

Day 6: … Taylor Memorial Arboretum in Wallingford, for generously growing and donating native trees and shrubs each year for habitat restoration plantings by other organizations – including for our past four National Public Lands Days!

Day 7: … the Delaware County Institute of Science, an amazing organization that has been all volunteer since 1833.  It has wonderful scientific and historical collections, and is well worth a visit. Its members have been studying Glen Providence Park since before it was a park – a 1928 Chester Times article about the valley indicated that “Naturalists, from all over the country, attending the Delaware County Institute of Science, make a study of it.”  

Day 8: … EllieReed Lewis and Clifford Butler Lewis, the grandchildren of park donors George and Eleanor Butler –  for sharing their recollections from childhood in Glen Providence Park, and for celebrating the park’s 80th anniversary with us last summer!

Day 9: … our Invasive Plant Removal volunteers, who meet most Friday mornings to work in the park. In the past 4 years, they have cleared over 250 packed contractor bags of invasive plants – keeping trails clear, liberating native plants from strangling vines, improving habitat, and beautifying the park.

Day 10: … those who have made our historical research possible, including the Media Historic Archives, the Delaware County Historical Society, and the Newspaper Archives of Delaware County Library – and Delaware County, PA History for sharing our history-related facebook posts.

Day 11: … the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts for their years of involvement in Glen Providence Park going back to at least 1939 – with hikes, cookouts, award ceremonies, meetings, and community service. In the past few years, Brownie Troop #5248 and Minquas District Boy Scouts have volunteered, and Girl Scout Troop #5037 and Pack 503’s Webelos II have had meetings and outings in the park!

Day 12: … our wonderfully generous Concert Sponsors: Media Recreation Board, Media Rotary Foundation, Diego’s Cantina, Seven Stones Café, Shere-e-Punjab Indian Restaurant, Sterling Pig, and Tagine, who made it possible for us to revive the decades-long tradition of free summer concerts in Glen Providence Park.

Day 13: … Media Lions Club and McCarrin Chiropractic, for continuing Glen Providence Park’s longest-running tradition – the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt started in 1954! The Lions have worked since 1917 to fight blindness, and on many other community projects.

Day 14: … the American Chestnut Foundation, for their work to restore this once-majestic native tree, decimated by blight in the early 1900’s. Chestnuts were called the Sequoias of the east, and we know from T. Chalkley Palmer’s 1889 writings that the park’s eastern hill was once “continuously wooded with oaks and chestnuts.” We have found two surviving trees so far!

Day 15:  … all of the volunteers who have spent their free time working for Glen Providence Park through the years – our dedicated committee members, the dozens of people who have helped at our 17 volunteer days, and all those who volunteered in the park before us.

Day 16: … the Pennsylvania Amphibian & Reptile Survey (PARS), for their work to gather data for the study and conservation of our amphibians and reptiles, and for leading 3 Herpetology Walks in Glen Providence Park! We’ve documented 18 species in the park so far…

Day 17: … Samuel L. Smedley, who with great foresight and wisdom in 1927 urged regional planning for open space, and spearheaded the creation of Delaware County Parks & Recreation, which was used as a model nationally for its excellent planning. He personally helped create and plan Glen Providence Park.

Day 18: … all of those who appreciate our efforts to preserve and enhance Glen Providence Park – whether by reading our newsletter and website, attending our concerts and nature walks, or saying a kind word when they see us in the park – and of course our Facebook fans!

Day 19: … the Delaware County Conservation District for their guidance, mini-grants, donations, use of their Conservation Trailer, and support for our native plantings over the past 5 years – helping us to combat streamside erosion, restore habitat, provide food for wildlife, and  beautify the park.

Day 20: … our donors, whose generous support enables us to continue our work to improve the park and plan future concerts, plantings, events, and activities!

Day 21: … the array of wildlife, native plants, and all living things in the park, which with the changing seasons provide something new to discover on every walk in Glen Providence Park.

Day 22: … Hedgerow Theatre, for their enchanting performances at the WPA stage – enacting the park’s historical Newlywed Ghost and Witch Stories for Glen Providence’s 80th anniversary last year, and bringing Shakespeare to the park this summer!

Day 23: … T. Chalkley Palmer, 1860-1934, for writing in loving detail about Scroggie Valley in 1889, enabling us all these years later to read about the geology, landscape, flora, and fauna of Glen Providence Park as it was in the 1800′s. He also had remarkable environmental insights for his time. What a gift!

Day 24 of Thanks: We are so thankful for George and Eleanor Butler, who with great generosity and foresight in 1935 donated most of the land for Glen Providence Park as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum, to be preserved for future generations. There would be no park without them – we are incredibly grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2014-2015 Biennial Report

Friends of Glen Providence Park first met on July 14, 2011 at Seven Stones Café in Media. We organized in response to the threat to the north end of the park by the reconstruction of Broomall’s Dam, and we continue to advocate to minimize damage to the park’s wetlands, wildlife and plants. Our activities quickly expanded to nature walks, citizen science, plantings and more, and we’ve tallied some of our accomplishments from the past 5 years…

Friends of Glen Providence Park by the numbers:

• Monthly nature walks and volunteer events since September 2011, including:
  • 12 park cleanups
  • Annual planting days since 2012, with 150 native trees, shrubs, and perennials planted
• Invasive plant removal: over 250 bags cleared from along the trails
• Citizen Science: over 200 plant and wildlife species documented, including 19 reptiles & amphibians, 126 birds, and 54 trees
• Extensive historical research: compiled in 27 articles on our website, and counting!
• Concerts: After clearing the historical concert stage at our first volunteer event, we have presented 12  free community concerts since 2012 – with 3 more performances scheduled this summer
• Photography: over 900 wildlife, plant, scenery, historical, and event photographs on Facebook, and hundreds on our website – including a seasonal photojournal since August 2011
• Communications: regular outreach and education about the park on our website, and to our 750 facebook fans and 380 newsletter subscribers
• Countless volunteer hours!

We are all-volunteer nonprofit organization, and all of our events are free and family-friendly. Our mission is “to preserve and enhance the natural and historical resource of Delaware County’s oldest park, founded in 1935 as a bird sanctuary and arboretum.” Last year, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of Glen Providence Park with the grandchildren of park founders George and Eleanor Butler!

You can find out more about all of our activities by exploring the Menu, Categories, and Tags on our website – including Annual Reports full of photos documenting our activities.

A special thank you to Delaware County Parks & Recreation for their support of our activities and efforts in Glen Providence Park, and for all they do to maintain the 600+ acres of Delaware County parks.

Thank you to all who have followed us through our website, facebook, and newsletter; attended our events; joined our committees; attended Borough meetings; lent their expertise; volunteered; led our nature walks; and even donated to support our efforts.

We are happy to see so much community support for Glen Providence Park!

Stephanie Gaboriault, President
Marcia Tate, Vice President
Holly Hoffmann, Treasurer
Shannon Davidson, Secretary
Dylan Atkins, Board of Directors
Lisa Johnson, Board of Directors
Rick Sleutaris, Board of Directors

Annual Report links:

2012 Annual Report: July 2011 – December 2012
2013 Annual Report
2014-2015 Biennial Report

Also sent as a Letter to the Editor in July 2016.

We held two cleanups this spring in Glen Providence Park as part of our 2015 monthly events. First, our Early Spring Cleanup was triple-snow-dated by the long-lasting and stubborn winter (a snow storm on the first day of spring?!). On Sunday, March 22, there was still snow on the ground, so instead of clearing trash we removed invasive Japanese Honeysuckle and Multi-flora Rose, liberating native trees and shrubs near the Kirk Lane entrance.

The 18th Annual CRC Streams Cleanup was this morning on an unseasonably chilly day. A great turnout of 15 adults and 14 children removed 12 bags of trash from Broomall’s Run, the woods, and trails – along with a wooden pallet, lumber, and construction netting! It was a nice combination of first-time and frequent visitors to the park, and one of the volunteers clearing trash from the stream with her young son remarked on how fun it is – we agree! We enjoy making a visible difference in the park and our conversations with new and regular volunteers. The different perspective it takes to look for trash leads to fresh discoveries, like new patches of ephemeral Trout Lily flowers, and Black Cherry trees in bloom!

Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers, to Seven Stones Cafe for donating carafes of delicious coffee, and to CRC Watersheds for coordinating its 18th Annual Streams Cleanup, removing a cumulative 600,000 pounds of trash from the Chester, Ridley, and Crum Creek watersheds!

And thank you to George Tate for photographing our spring-cleaning adventures!

Throughout November, we have been counting down to Thanksgiving by posting daily thanks on Facebook. There is some overlap with our list from Thanksgiving 2012, and so much more to add – it is amazing how much there is to be grateful for! Here are those daily posts – these were in no particular order, and it is by no means a complete list!

27 Days of Thanks in Glen Providence Park
We are thankful for…

Day 1: … the local schools who use Glen Providence Park as an outdoor classroom, teaching their students a love of nature, science, art and more. Thank you Media Elementary School, Springton Lake Middle School, Media Providence Friends School, Penncrest High School – and homeschoolers!

Day 2: … Clifford Butler Lewis, the grandson of park donors George and Eleanor Butler – for his generosity in sharing his grandparents’ photo albums with us and donating their golf clubs to Springhaven Country Club (which they founded!), and for sharing his recollections from his childhood in Glen Providence Park.

Day 3: … Delaware County Parks & Recreation, for repairing the concert stage (damaged in July from a fallen 110-year-old tree) in time for our August concert this summer, for their support of our events and activities, and for their many years of caretaking and managing their 11 parks with over 600 acres(!) of open space for the public.

Day 4: … Taylor Memorial Arboretum in Wallingford, for generously growing and donating 75 native trees and shrubs this year for habitat restoration plantings by Friends of Heinz Refuge, CRC Watersheds, and Friends of Glen Providence Park.

Day 5: … our wonderfully generous Concert Sponsors: Media Recreation Board, Media Rotary Foundation, Diego’s Cantina, Seven Stones Café, and Shere-e-Punjab Indian Restaurant, who made it possible for us to revive the decades-long tradition of free summer concerts in Glen Providence Park!

Day 6: … Samuel L. Smedley, who with great foresight and wisdom in 1927 urged regional planning for open space, and spearheaded the creation of Delaware County Parks & Recreation, which was used as a model nationally for its excellent planning. He personally helped create and plan Glen Providence Park.

Day 7: … all that Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association has done for 44 years to protect, conserve, and restore the watersheds throughout its 132 square mile stewardship area! Its initiatives include annual streams cleanups, riparian reforestation, advocacy, education, and stream monitoring.

Day 8: … our Nature Walk guides who volunteered their time to lead our walks this year: the ever-helpful Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County, John Wenderoth, Ted Cavey, Stephanie Gaboriault, Marcia Tate, Aura Lester, Kyle Loucks, Holly Hoffmann, Chris McNichol, and Charles Randall.

Day 9: … our donors, whose generous support enables us to continue our work to improve the park and plan future concerts, events, and activities!

Day 10: … the Delaware County Conservation District for their guidance, mini-grants, donations, and support for our native plantings over the past 3 years – helping us to combat streamside erosion, restore habitat, provide food for wildlife, and  beautify the park.

Day 11: … the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts for their years of involvement in Glen Providence Park going back to at least 1939 – with hikes, cookouts, award ceremonies, meetings, and community service. In the last 2 years, Brownie Troop #5248 and Minquas District Boy Scouts have volunteered in the park!

Day 12: … the wonderful bands who have performed at our Summer Concert Series the past 3 years: Philadelphia Brass, Springfield Clarinet Quartet, the Obsoleets, Me3, Ken Delmar & the Cheers Big Band, Perseverance Jazz Band, Sonoma Sound, and ViVaCe Strings!

Day 13: … T. Chalkley Palmer, 1860-1934, for writing in loving detail about Scroggie Valley in 1889, enabling us all these years later to read about the geology, landscape, flora, and fauna of Glen Providence Park as it was in the 1800′s! He also had remarkable environmental insights for his time. What a gift!

Day 14: … our Invasive Plant Removal volunteers, who meet most weeks to work in the park. In the past 2 years, they have cleared 179 packed contractor bags (and counting!) of invasive plants – keeping trails clear, liberating native plants from strangling vines, improving habitat, and beautifying the park.

Day 15: … the Delaware County Institute of Science, an amazing organization that has been all volunteer since 1833!  Its members have been studying Glen Providence Park since long before it was a park – a 1928 Chester Times article about the valley indicated that “Naturalists, from all over the country, attending the Delaware County Institute of Science, make a study of it.”

Day 16: … Delaware County Planning for their thoughtful work on the Delaware County Open Space, Recreation & Greenway Plan, and on our neighboring Mineral Hill Area Master Plan. Glen Providence Park and future generations will be better for it!

Day 17: … Transition Town Media, for all they do to build community and resilience, from their FreeStore, to workshops, to their lovely Annual Candlelight Gratitude Banquet for local nonprofits.

Day 18: … long-time park supervisor James Stokes, Jr. for his years of care for the park. He started work on October 31, 1935 and continued for at least 25 years, and by all accounts really loved Glen Providence Park. He served as park guard, care taker, supervisor, and park ranger – personally building picnic tables, preparing for concerts, planting trees & flowers, teaching visitors about the plants & wildlife, and creating the 1941 Nature Guide to Glen Providence Park!

Day 19:  … all of the volunteers who have spent their free time working for Glen Providence Park through the years – our dedicated committee members, the dozens of people who have helped at our 11 volunteer days, and all those who volunteered in the park before us!

Day 20: … those who have made our historical research possible, including the Media Historic Archives, the Delaware County Historical Society, and the Newspaper Archives of Delaware County Library – and Delaware County, PA History for sharing our history-related facebook posts.

Day 21: … the American Chestnut Foundation, for their work to restore this majestic native tree! Chestnuts were called the Sequoias of the east, and they were once the dominant tree species in Glen Providence Park. We have found two surviving trees so far!

Day 22: … the Pennsylvania Amphibian & Reptile Survey (PARS), for their work to gather data for the study and conservation of our amphibians and reptiles! We are glad to have chosen PARS for our 2014 citizen science project.

Day 23: … Media Lions Club and McCarrin Chiropractic, for continuing Glen Providence Park’s longest-running tradition – the Great Media Easter Egg Hunt started in 1954! The Lions have worked since 1917 to fight blindness, and on many other community projects.

Day 24: … the Academy of Natural Sciences, for preserving and researching a wondrous amount of natural history, including early 1900’s microscope slides from Scroggie Run (now Broomall’s Run), and for their generosity and hospitality in showing us those slides.

Day 25: … the array of wildlife, native plants, and other living things in the park, which with the changing seasons provide something new to discover on every walk in Glen Providence Park!

Day 26: … all of those who appreciate our efforts to preserve and enhance Glen Providence Park – our Facebook fans, those who read our newsletter and website, and those who have attended our concerts and history & nature walks!

Thanksgiving Day: We are so thankful for George and Eleanor Butler, who with great generosity and foresight in 1935 donated most of the land for Glen Providence Park as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum, to be preserved for future generations.  There would be no park without them – we are incredibly grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Summer is fast approaching, it’s time to catch up with last summer’s photojournal of Glen Providence Park! It’s interesting to look back at what plants and wildlife are prevalent through the seasons and years. Here’s a sampling of what can be seen as the thermostat rises…

Last summer we had record rainfall, with the wettest July on record! It was second in total rainfall only to August 2011, which had brought us Hurricane Irene. Torrential rain in July both dislodged the pond intake, eliminating flow to the pond, and moved the boardwalk in the wetlands on the Shingle Mill Trail over several feet. We and County Parks were able to stabilize the pond intake (with repeated rock-moving!), but the boardwalk is still displaced.

All that rain had the plants growing fast – making the park especially lush, and keeping our Invasive Plant Removal crew busy! Blooms were a little late after a cool Spring – the Mountain Laurel along its eponymous trail was in bloom in the first week of June, while the native Rhododendron along the Ice House Trail bloomed later than usual, in the last week of June.

In summer, the pond is abuzz with life including damselflies, dragonflies, butterflies, and bees. Children (and adults!) love watching turtles and frogs at the pond, and fishing is a common activity. For those who look closely, there is much more to discover in the park – including fungi, which are amazingly varied and can be surprisingly elegant.

You can click on any photo below for a closer look, and scroll through them all – and you can also view them on our flickr page!  There are more pictures in our facebook albums, and in our Summer 1.1 Acre Project photos. You can compare our 2013 Summer to other years in my photojournals for June and July 2012, and my first photojournal from August 2011.  

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Jack in the Pulpit, a.k.a. Devil’s Ear

Also known as Parson-in-the-Pulpit, Lord-and-Lady, Cuckoopint, Lady-in-a-Chaise, Aronskelk, Indian Turnip, Iroquois Breadroot, Memory Root, Bog Onion, American Arum, Pepper Turnip, Dragonroot, Wake Robin, Plant-of-Peace, Cobra Lily and Cooter-Wampee.

Quite a plant of contradictory names, but those names certainly give some clues about it. Some names describe its appearance, where the spadix seems to hover within the shelter of the spathe, like…a parson in an elevated pulpit? A lady in a chaise? Other names, such as Indian and Pepper Turnip, point to its possible edibility. There is contradictory information as to whether Native Americans did cook and eat the corms or roots of the plant. But names like Dragonroot and Devil’s Ear should warn you that it is not a good choice for casual foragers. Supposedly the name Memory Root was earned because if one ate it, one would remember never to do it again! Much of the plant is toxic and has oxalate crystals that burn the skin. And lips. And mouth. And everything. Yikes! Bog onion gives you a hint about where it grows. Now I have no idea why it’s called Cooter-Wampee. Anyone?

In the fall, look for the cluster of red berries on the female plants. Interestingly, the plants can change from male to female. A Lord and Lady both! Arisaema triphyllum is also in the Arum family, like skunk cabbage. Read more about the plant here.

Garlic Mustard

Still flowering! Now here’s a plant that is invasive, sounds uninviting but is a great plant to forage. Read more about how it got here and what to do with it at Eat The Weeds. Our invasive plant removal volunteers also pull it out every Friday, along with other troublesome invasives.

False Solomon’s Seal

In the Lily family. Distinguished from true Solomon’s Seal by the flowers: the true have small whitish-green flowers that dangle below the stem, where false has a raceme of small white flowers on the end of the stem. Hence the name, Maianthemum racemosum. (It’s sometimes called by another scientific name, Smilacina racemosa — so much for the scientific names being definitive!) Anyway, those flowers, after being pollinated by a variety of small bees, flies and beetles, become small berries. They ripen into red fruits that are consumed by many types of birds. The leaves are not particularly tasty, and thus the plant has avoided being overgrazed by deer and other herbivores. Native Americans had medicinal uses for the plant. More information is available at Penn State Extension and The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, both excellent online resources.

December 2020 update: We will be updating our website to enable our Flickr galleries to again display here. Until then, you can view our May 1.1 Acre photos on Flickr.

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At the 16th Annual Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Streams Cleanup, at least 18 adults and 15 children removed 8 bags of trash and 15 bags invasives from Glen Providence Park!  There were also some odd items including a hubcap, a paint can, a five gallon bucket and a pipe.

Some volunteers walked along Broomall’s Run, stepping carefully so as not to disturb the wildlife in the stream, clearing trash that had been caught along the stream banks. We were rewarded by spotting a Pickerel Frog and salamanders, and we remarked at the numerous natural springs that feed Broomall’s Run! There were also some stunning trees in bloom.

In another project, Brownie Troop #5248 helped clean, and plant flowers at, the concert stage.  We are getting ready for our Summer Concert Series!  More volunteers cleared trash and invasive plants from the trails.

It was our second cleanup this year, and our second year helping with the CRC Streams Cleanup, which removes tons of trash each year from our local streams.  Glen Providence Park is one of 24 sites along Chester, Ridley and Crum Creeks and their tributaries where CRC volunteers cleared trash.  Many volunteers met afterwards for CRC’s picnic in Ridley Creek State Park.

It was a beautiful Spring morning, with good company, and trees and flowers in bloom. Thank you so much to the volunteers- what a productive and fun event!

You can see our pictures below, and you can also view them with descriptions on our new flickr page! 
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Many problem invasive species such as Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora), Wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) and Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) are spiny brambles and are thus nearly impossible to be eaten by hungry deer. On the other hand, invasives such as Lesser Celandine and Garlic Mustard are edible by humans! But they flower and seed so readily that even a Borough-wide feast might not even knock out these plants.

March began the display of how different trees bud out. You’ll see a sampling of some of our native trees in bud as they reach for the skies. Also, I had never noticed American Hornbeam in the 1.1 Acre before. I’ve seen it in other areas of the park, but had no idea it was right there!

You can also visit the entire Friends of Glen Providence Park’s Flickr Gallery, where you can read informative descriptions with the photographs, and even view them as a full screen slide show!

December 2020 update: We will be updating our website to enable our Flickr galleries to again display here. Until then, you can view our March 1.1 Acre photos on Flickr.

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What a productive morning for our Early Spring Cleanup in Glen Providence Park!  Thank you to the 19 volunteers (including Brownies from Troop# 5248) who came out on a cold morning last Sunday and helped us clear 9 bags of invasive plants, (at least) 3 bags of trash, and some interesting large trash: 4 tires (one whitewall!), a grate, a cart, a rusted bike, a sleeping bag(!), a toilet(!!), a rusted 55 gallon drum, and a cyclone fence!

Some of that trash was really old (and in obscure places)– that whitewall tire was probably from the 50’s or 60’s! And there was some lingering industrial debris, half-buried, from the automotive shop and other businesses that used to be where the medical offices are now, above the Mountain Laurel Trail. We planned this park clean-up event for early spring, before the foliage makes trash harder to see and access.  It proved to be a good strategy!

We also managed to clear all but the largest branches that were backing up Broomall’s Run where a large fallen Sycamore was damming the creek and frequently flooding the Shingle Mill Trail.  And we cleared off those stairs where the Shingle Mill Trail takes a u-turn.

As always, we had fun while working, and in the cold weather we especially appreciated the Seven Stones coffee and pastries. Thank you to our wonderful and tireless volunteers, with special thanks to the girls and moms from Brownie Troop #5248 who cleared invasive plants by the concert stage.

This was our first of three weekend volunteer days in 2013, in addition to regular Invasives Removal.  Come join us for the CRC Watersheds Annual Streams Cleanup on May 4!

Check out our photos from our Early Spring Cleanup, hosted on our new flickr page! 

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