Philly’s urban forest is growing! This fall, Fairmount Park Conservancy and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation are planting more than 1,000 trees in Philly parks to help preserve and restore the city’s tree canopy.
The plantings will take place in Wissahickon Valley Park and Tacony Creek Park:
- Wissahickon: Nearly 500 native trees and shrubs will be planted in a 3-acre ravine at Houston Meadow where currently there is a large gap in the tree canopy. Planting this gap will help reduce the number of invasive trees, shrubs, and vines that have started to take over, and beautify the area and improve wildlife habitat and biodiversity.
- Tacony Creek Park: A 6-acre area in this watershed park will be planted with more than 550 trees to increase the park’s forest canopy, increase wildlife habitat, and help improve stormwater runoff.
In addition to the many benefits planting native trees will provide, these tree planting projects will also be a great opportunity to teach planting and stewardship techniques to PowerCorpsPHL and volunteers throughout the fall.
Want to help grow our urban forest? Join us for a volunteer tree planting in Tacony Creek Park on Friday, October 23 from 9am-12pm! Register to volunteer here.
Thank you to the TreeVitalize Watersheds Grant Program for making these tree plantings possible! TreeVitalize is a program of Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Aqua PA, and PECO.
