In honor of Earth Day, community volunteers, elementary school students, and local government officials worked together to plant canopy trees on the sledding hill in Glen Providence Park. Thank you to The Rotary Club of Media, Media Providence Friends School students and teachers, Delaware County Council, and Delaware County Parks & Recreation for planting seven trees with Friends of Glen Providence Park this Wednesday!

This winter, Media Rotary had reached out to Media Providence Friends School (MPFS) and Friends of Glen Providence Park about collaborating on an educational tree planting in the Glen for Earth Day. On March 2, when the iconic White Oak on the park’s sledding hill fell in a Nor’easter, we knew where we would plant! This beloved tree was estimated to be well over 200 years old, and the community profoundly felt its loss. As a part of succession planning for the loss of this and future trees, we planted six canopy trees – including four oak species which are particularly beneficial to wildlife – and a Flowering Dogwood to replace one that is nearing the end of its expected life. 

The native trees help control erosion, provide food and habitat for wildlife, and beautify the park. This supplements the two trees planted for Earth Day in 2015 after another large tree had fallen by the stage. The species planted are White Oak, Black Oak, Chestnut Oak, Swamp White Oak, Black Gum, Black Birch, and Flowering Dogwood – we hope some of these saplings grow to be canopy trees that provide shade and beauty for future generations!

Volunteers from Rotary, MPFS, and Friends of the Glen worked together with Delaware County Parks & Recreation to organize the planting. Rotarians and Friends arrived early on Wednesday to prepare the site and start planting the trees. MPFS 3rd and 5th grade students helped dig the holes, plant the trees, mulch, and water – in addition to adding educational plant tags to our National Public Lands Day plantings from last fall! We were joined by Delaware County Parks & Recreation, and County Councilmen Michael Culp and Kevin Madden helped plant the final tree. 

In addition to all of the wonderful volunteers and students who helped with the plantings, we would like to extend tremendous thank you’s to:

The Rotary Club of Media originated the idea, and the Media Rotary Foundation and Gundaker Foundation funded the native trees and the deer fencing to protect them. Media Providence Friends School is creating educational tree tags for these and last year’s plantings, and its teachers regularly use the park as an outdoor classroom to educate and inspire their students. Delaware County Parks & Recreation provided the mulch, and a portalet so the students could extend their class time in the park. Delaware County Council helped plant the Chestnut Oak (in their suits!) and spoke thoughtfully about Earth Day. 

Seven Stones Cafe donated delicious coffee that fueled the early-arriving volunteers, and Pinocchio’s Restaurant donated enough pizza for the students and adults! Additional supplies were donated by AllScapes, Inc.; Honey Fix It, Inc.; and Pierce L. Shallis Landscaping & Design LLC. Last but not least, Garden Influence and Redbud Native Plant Nursery provided invaluable guidance on the best species to plant, and how to properly plant the trees.

Check out the photos of the morning below! 

Photos by Media Providence Friends School and Friends of Glen Providence Park

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!

In the summer of 1935, George and Eleanor Butler donated the land for Glen Providence Park, the first park established by Delaware County. Its final approval was reported in the October 30, 1935 Chester Times, and the long-time park guard and caretaker James R. Stokes, Jr. started work the next day on October 31, 1935 – so Halloween is Glen Providence Park’s anniversary, and this year will be its 80th!

Glen Providence Park would not have been possible without the generosity of George and Eleanor Butler and the vision of Samuel L. Smedley, the president of the Delaware County Park Board. Mr. Smedley championed regional planning and open space in Delaware County from at least 1927, when he spoke about the county’s rapidly growing population necessitating a recreational and park system and of Delaware County’s “rolling country, intercepted by beautiful streams, making ideal conditions for living and recreation.”

Samuel L. Smedley spearheaded the creation of the Delaware County Park Board in 1932, and apparently had his eye on the Butler property during a June 1935 walk reported in the Chester Times: “There is an arboretum upon the estate of George T. Butler, a natural one, the trees just grew as nature would have them. Samuel L. Smedley, one of Delaware county’s widely known botanists, in roaming through the lovely valley and over the hillside found fifty varieties of trees. Mr. Smedley is also an ornithologist and saw a number of different birds flitting around.”

Just over a month later on July 24, 1935, George and Eleanor Butler signed a deed donating the majority of the land for the park to Delaware County, with small tracts donated by The Media Swimming and Rowing Club and James J. Skelly. From the beginning, the focus was on preserving the natural beauty and habitat of the valley. The deed dated July 24, 1935 states “That the property shall be used only as a Park and Kept in as natural a condition as possible save only for the construction of paths or trails for the use of pedestrians.” Glen Providence Park was established as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum, and Eleanor Butler herself named it “because of its glen-like formation and as it is located in the heart of the Providence townships.”

There are hundreds of articles over the ensuing decades in the Chester Times recounting events and activities in Glen Providence Park, and many extoll its beauty, plants, and wildlife, as in the September 1935 announcement of the Butlers’ donation: “The tract is the beautiful glen and woodland which adjoins the Butler residence on West Front street… Owing to the great variety of natural conditions, which includes Broomall’s Run, a rapid flowing stream, many acres of heavy timber and a great variety of natural shrubs and wild flowers, this tract is particularly well suited for a bird sanctuary. Many species of birds already frequent the spot.” A November 1, 1935 write-up invites the reader to “Come with your bird glasses, your flower guides, your tree books. Bring the school children and scout groups, and let Nature teach them her ancient lessons.”

Generations of nature lovers, hikers, families, school children, and scout groups have enjoyed Glen Providence Park, which has also hosted a wonderful array of activities and events in its 80 years. That tradition of community events, and the elegance of the park’s design and structures built by the Works Progress Administration, are why Glen Providence Park was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places!

The dedication at the park’s main entrance states, “A gift of land is a gift eternal.” Thank you to George and Eleanor Butler for this wonderful gift!

Happy 80th Anniversary, Glen Providence Park!

Thank you to William Vanleer for sharing the two entrance signs photos, from a series of 12 photographs taken circa 1939 by his grandfather GJ Ulshafer, and to Clifford Butler Lewis for sharing the portrait and photograph of his grandparents, George and Eleanor Butler!

Sources – Chester Times articles researched on the Newspaper Archives of Delaware County Library:

Next 25 Years to See Million in the County, February 15, 1927
Unique Arboretum on County Estate, June 14, 1935
27 Acres Given for Park Site, September 13, 1935
Fine Water Supply for Broadmeadows, October 30, 1935
Club Leaders See New County Park, November 1, 1935
Glen Providence Nature Oddity, August 8, 1936
Glen Providence Park is One of Scenic Spots in County, October 24, 1949

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!

Fall is such a beautiful season in Glen Providence Park, and after record rainfall in summer 2013, last autumn was relatively free of extreme weather. I had less time than usual for photo walks in the park, ironically due to taking a 10-week Pennsylvania Master Naturalist course. But we continued to document the park’s plants and animals to create a record that we can refer back to for future comparison, and the walks I did take were usually rewarded with interesting sightings.

There were flurries of fall migration in late September and early October, including some additions to our Park Bird List – bringing us to 103 species by the end of November! Sightings included Magnolia Warbler, Philadelphia Vireo ( species #102), Northern Parula, and Chestnut-sided Warbler (#103!) – as always, thank you to Al Guarente of the Birding Club of Delaware County for confirming our new ID’s.

Some of the smallest discoveries are the most enchanting, including what we called a “star-bellied” fungi, an elegantly fuzzy caterpillar on a native blackberry leaf, and adorable baby Wood Frogs. These aptly named forest-dwelling frogs breed in vernal pools (ephemeral wetlands) – we saw several baby Wood Frogs last October.

That Pennsylvania Master Naturalist course helped me ID species in the park, such as the native and enigmatically-named Hog Peanut vine, Amphicarpaea bracteata. At one of the classes, Rose Tree Park Hawkwatch’s Holly Merker taught us that the Red-tailed Hawk’s “scream” is often used with video footage of Bald Eagles, because its scream is more intimidating than the eagle’s. You can frequently hear the Red-tailed Hawk in the park, as it is our most common hawk species!

Fall brings school classes that use Glen Providence Park as an outdoor classroom. In October, we encountered Penncrest High School 9th grade Environmental Science students conducting their annual pond studies in the park. In November, we helped Media Providence Friends School 5th graders install educational plant tags they had created for our National Public Lands Day plantings. The students were enthusiastic and had fun – what a wonderful service learning project!

In November we had a treat walking through the park with Clifford Butler Lewis, the grandson of park founders George and Eleanor Butler!  It was wonderful to hear his recollections from growing up here. We photographed Cliff by the (now dry) Eleanor Reed Butler waterfall, which was one of the park’s original structures, and was later renovated in 1949 in honor of Cliff’s grandmother. It was Eleanor Butler who specified that Glen Providence Park was to be preserved as a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum!

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 Fall 1.1 Acre Project photos. You can compare our 2013 autumn to other years in my photojournals for September, October and November 2011, and from Fall 2012.

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We didn’t get any substantial snowfall in Glen Providence Park this winter, but we did get several dustings and light coverings- enough for some friendly snowmen to emerge in the park, and for a few days of sledding!  And of course the woods look just magical with a coating of snow.  Add winter lighting and you have some beautiful hikes….

We headed out in the cold for our second year participating in the Christmas Bird Count in December, and our Winter Tree Identification in January.  We even ventured out in the rain for our Naturalist Walk & Talk in February, and the woods were lovely!  The intrepid Media Providence Friends School students continued to use the park as an outdoor classroom for science, service learning, and even for Mindfulness exercises!

The weather was erratic with January’s temperatures all over the map- ranging from a frigid 12 degrees to a balmy 68!  But with reptiles and amphibians in hibernation, there are birds and mammals to see.  One particularly fun bird to watch (if you can spot it despite its camouflage!) is the adorable Brown Creeper: it spirals its way up a tree eating bark insects, then virtually drops to the base of the tree to start up again.   To see what birds to expect in winter, see our winter bird sightings on eBird.

Valentine’s Day seemed like the tipping point for winter, with a beautiful coating of fresh snow rapidly melting- and we noticed buds on American Beech and Silver Maple.  After that, wildlife activity started picking up- with a number of birds singing in the park one late February morning, despite it being 26 degrees and breezy!   We saw an American Crow gathering twigs for a nest, and we had a report of a Muskrat swimming in the pond under the ice, the same week we were finding possible muskrat tracks along Broomall’s Run.

Winter is a great time to admire the structure of trees, and there are plants that are interesting year-round, like the Smooth Alder on the pond’s island with its catkins and cone-like fruit, elegant Mountain Laurel on the eastern hill, and mosses on the forest floor.  We started the 1.1 Acre Project to study and document the species in the construction area for the 3rd Street Dam- so that will be a parallel photojournal through the year!

You can scroll through our pictures below, and you can also view them with descriptions on our brand-new flickr page!  You can see more pictures in our facebook albums and in our photojournal.

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Following the example of some of our friends, throughout November we have been counting down to Thanksgiving by posting daily thanks on facebook.  It is amazing how much there is to be thankful for! Here are those daily thanks- these were in no particular order, and it is by no means a complete list!

22 Days of Thanks in Glen Providence Park

We are thankful for…

Day 1: … all that Chester Ridley Crum Watersheds Association has done for 42 years to protect, conserve and restore the watersheds throughout its 132 square mile stewardship area.

Day 2: … 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, and Penncrest High School- and homeschoolers!

Day 3: … the wonderful restaurants in Media that donated delicious refreshments for our park events and fundraiser: 320 Market Cafe, Desert Rose, Diego’s Cantina And Tequila Bar, Media Pizza & Grill, Planet Hoagie, Seven Stones Cafe, Shere-E-Punjab Indian Restaurant, & Sinfully Delicious Gourmet Pastries!

Day 4: … the Birding Club of Delaware County and its members who have helped us so much with our Park Bird List this year: by leading bird walks, birding in the park, and even identifying species from photographs we email!  Thank you, Dave Eberly, Tom Reeves, Nick Pulcinella, Nick Crocetto, and the ever-helpful Al Guarente.

Day 5:  … all of the volunteers who have spent time working in Glen Providence Park through the years– both the dozens of people who have helped at our 5 volunteer days, and the countless who volunteered in the park before us.

Day 6: … our wonderfully generous Concert Sponsors, Media Recreation Board and Blueberry Bog Vintage & Handmade, who made possible the magical performance by Philadelphia Brass in September, reviving the decades-long tradition of concerts in Glen Providence Park!

Day 7: … the Delaware County Conservation District for their Mini-Grant and help planning our 2012 Earth Day Plantings, and for their guidance planning plantings for 2013.

Day 8: … the Media Historic Archives and its volunteers who preserve so many important pieces of Media history, including historical maps, documents, newspapers, and even wonderful early photographs of Glen Providence Park.

Day 9: … Delaware County Parks & Recreation, for its many years of caretaking and managing its 11 parks with over 600 acres(!) of open space for the public… now that is a daunting job!

Day 10: … 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 long before it was a park–  40(!)-year DCIS President T. Chalkley Palmer wrote in detail about Scroggie Valley in 1889, and 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 11: … the Reformation Lutheran Church of Media, for its unsolicited generosity in donating matching funds for our Earth Day Plantings in April! This seems to just be representative of its ongoing environmental stewardship- it even received a national Energy Star award in 2010!

Day 12: … the Delaware County Library System, for its fantastic online archives of historic newspapers that enabled us to learn so much about the history of Glen Providence Park. And even more online archives are accessible with a library card.

Day 13: … our Founding Funders, whose generous support enables us to continue our work to improve the park and plan future concerts, events and activities- and for our Anonymous Donor who matched those gifts!

Day 14: … Delaware County Planning for their thoughtful work, and soliciting public opinion, 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 15: … T. Chalkley Palmer, 1860-1934, for writing in loving detail about Scroggie Valley in 1889, enabling us 123 years later to read about the landscape, flora and fauna of Glen Providence Park in the 1800’s! He also had remarkable environmental insights for his time. What a gift!

Day 16: … Samuel 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 17: … our Nature Walk guides and other experts who have generously shared their knowledge and helped us identify (non-bird) species in the park (turtles, frogs, insects, fungi, trees and more!)– including Dr. Mac Given, the PA Fish & Boat Commission, Dr. Anne Bower, John Wenderoth, the American Chestnut Foundation, Tom Reeves, Aura Lester, Dr. David Hewitt, Marcia Tate- and our knowledgeable facebook fans!

Day 18: … the array of wildlife, native plants, and fungi in the park, which with the changing seasons provide something new to discover on every walk in Glen Providence Park!

Day 19: … long-time park supervisor James Stokes, Jr. for his years of care for the park. He started work in 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 making picnic tables, preparing for concerts, planting trees & flowers, and teaching visitors about the plants & wildlife.

Day 20: … all of those who appreciate our efforts to preserve & enhance Glen Providence Park- our facebook fans, those who read our newsletter and website, and those who have attended our history & nature walks, events and concert!

Day 21: … 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 volunteer projects. And a Brownie troop meeting just this fall!

Thanksgiving Day: We are thankful for George and Eleanor Butler, who with great generosity and foresight 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 so grateful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As anyone who has been on a bird or nature walk with naturalist Tom Reeves knows, he is a wealth of interesting information about native plants and wildlife (especially birds!).  He has been a respected and incredibly generous volunteer and nature guide for decades, including 32 years with John Heinz Wildlife Refuge, 20 years with Tyler Arboretum, and over 12 years with CRC Watersheds Association!  And now we are fortunate to have  him lead a walk for us…

Nature Walk with Tom Reeves

Saturday, August 4
8:30-10:00am
Main entrance, Glen Providence Park

And just where did Tom get his start as a naturalist?  In Glen Providence Park!  When Tom attended the Highland Avenue School in Lansdowne, his fourth grade teacher Miss Drayton had bird pictures displayed around her classroom, and taught her class about birds.  When it was time to go for a bird walk, the class took a Red Arrow bus to… Glen Providence Park!  

They did not use binoculars, but Tom still remembers seeing his first American Goldfinch that day, and watching its undulating flight- he says that is the moment he became a birder!  They saw 15 to 20 bird species on that bird walk, including Northern Cardinal and American Robin.  It was almost a whole day field trip, and included a picnic lunch in the park.  It seems fitting that Glen Providence Park played a role in inspiring Tom’s life-long interest in birds and nature, as George and Eleanor Butler donated the park to be a Bird Sanctuary and Arboretum.

Join us as we welcome Tom back to the park where it all started!

Bring binoculars if you have them, hiking poles if you use them, a camera if you’d like, and your curiosity!

To add this event to your favorite calendar program (iCal, Outlook, Google, etc.), view the event listing on our calendar.

Just call it our Birding Big Month!  With the expert help of the Birding Club of Delaware County, we added 15 species to our Glen Providence Park Bird List for a total of 94 species, with 73 spotted during our 2012 Birding Big Year!  This was largely thanks to the Spring warbler migration, with new species including the beautiful Black-throated Blue Warbler; and the Scarlet Tanager, Great Crested Flycatcher and Warbling Vireo.

Right on cue on May 1, we first heard the ethereal call of the Wood Thrush, back from wintering in Central America.  Due to its unique vocal chords, it essentially sings two songs at once!  We are lucky that this species, whose population has dropped 56% since the 1960’s, actually nests in our park!  Other nesting birds included a frequently sited pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, and a pair of Song Sparrows often serenaded visitors to the pond- near our Earth Day Plantings!

Romance was not limited to the birds- while Geocaching along the Shingle Mill Trail, a (human) couple got engaged in the park!  The Geocaching log reads, “My boyfriend proposed when we found the geocache!!”  Congratulations!

The park certainly provided a lovely setting: by mid-May, the Mountain Laurel was in bloom– along the Mountain Laurel Trail, of course!  While much of it seems to be too shaded to bloom, there were plenty of its lovely flowers and intriguing buds to admire.  By the end of the month, the elegant White Water Lilies started to bloom in the pond– they should bloom through August, so we have plenty of time to enjoy them!

Friends of Glen Providence Park stayed active in the park- we helped CRC Watersheds with their 15th Annual Streams Cleanup.  We continued our tree mapping on Philly Tree Map with the addition of 33 trees around the pond.  And Media Providence Friends School fourth graders added wonderful markers to the trees we planted for Earth Day!

The month ended on a magical note when, on the last night of the month, we spotted our first fireflies of the year! 

Click on any photo below for a closer look.  You can view more photos in our past photojournals and in our Facebook Albums: including Wildlife, Scenery, and History.

Well, at least we had a little taste of winter in Glen Providence Park!   Just a few days before Valentine’s Day, we had this romantic snow… but it didn’t last long, and overall it continued to be an unseasonably warm winter.

There were increasing splashes of color with buds on some trees, and early plants such as the intriguing Skunk Cabbage starting to bloom.  By the third week in February, wildlife started emerging from hibernation, with a Groundhog and turtles spotted in the park.

Of course you can find birds in the park year-round, and we had 22 people admiring them on our fun Winter Bird Walk!  February sightings included this pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, magically accompanied by a brief snow flurry.  The Northern Flicker (in the gallery below) has lovely markings, and a distinctive loud wik-wik-wik call.    Learning bird calls definitely helps to identify birds, as they can be mighty evasive!

Pair of Pileated Woodpeckers

Not all park activity is easily photographed… February was a busy month for planning for the park’s future.  There was enthusiasm for preserving Glen Providence Park at the Delaware County Open Space Plan meeting.  Media Borough’s Citizens Advisory Committee held weekly meetings to examine possibilities for the 3rd Street Project.  We started work on two projects with Delaware County: we are investigating attaining the National Historic Register status that the park was determined eligible for in 2002, and we are planning  streamside plantings near the pond to control erosion, beautify the park, and feed wildlife.

In further citizen science efforts, we finished tree mapping the 1.1 acre construction area for the proposed 3rd Street Bridge/Dam, and we published our Park Tree List.

We ended the month with a rainy Leap Day trip to the park with an intrepid Media Providence Friends School science class… it was a bit too cold and wet to take photos!

Click on any photo below for a closer look.  You can view more photos in our Facebook Albums: including Wildlife, Scenery, and History.