Originally Published by the Friends of the Wissahickon in their Fall 2020 Newsletter
Up at the Tree House, we had a unique summer. We all know the pandemic shut down programming, but the effect of the shutdown was something we never expected: negativity early on in the form of litter, vandalism, and theft felt overwhelming. Then, the most devastating news came that camp was canceled. This would be the first time in 13 years that I didn’t teach camp and only the second time that the Tree House cancelled camp in its history. (The first time was due to previous budget cuts.) I struggled to see the bright side while my teammates and other nature colleagues were experiencing all the same frustrations. How could I survive a whole summer without “my kids”?! But time moved on, as it does, and so did I.
Each of us at the Tree House experienced a summer in the Andorra Meadow that we never had before. It began with our new Philadelphia Orchard Project Food Forest (like an orchard, but with more “snackable” plants). Weeding, sheet mulching, mowing, planting, and hand watering trees took up most of June. The excitement of our orchard dreams began to open our eyes to a future of possibilities and the fun of a less structured summer.
My big adventure was beekeeping. Our long-time beekeeper retired two years ago, but a feral honeybee colony moved into an empty hive. For the health of the bees and the orchard, they needed to be checked on. I have studied, observed, and even taught others about honeybees and their hives, but I never had the courage to be the caretaker of a colony. With the encouragement of beekeeping friends, and a visit from local beekeeper James Romanchek, the hive was opened and inspected, and we discovered that all the beauty and mystery inside the hive was healthy and sweet. There are now two hives in the orchard. The other is managed by Kate Brown of Northwestern Stables. In the spring, native beehives will be added to encourage a diverse bee population to pollinate the Food Forest.
Trish Fries’s (WEC Environmental Education Specialist) weekly adventures with two of her grandchildren were at the top of her list of things to do. Without camp, the ability to use time off in the summer was a new option, and what better place to bring the kids for nature learning than the Wissahickon. They geocached, hiked, skipped stones, climbed rocks, swatted lantern flies, and simply enjoyed recreating in the park as visitors.
Verland Wayns (WEC Grounds and Facilities Maintenance Worker) worked extra hard this summer cleaning up after people and the storms. While removing litter was not a high point of his summer, chainsawing trees was exciting. Joining Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and Friends of the Wissahickon tree crews throughout the Wissahickon, Verland practiced his chain-saw skills and learned a plethora of new ones. But his favorite project this summer was planting his first tree in our new Food Forest.
Together, we grew stronger as a team and enjoyed the time we had to experience our own, new Wissahickon. As environmental educators, we often teach on the platform of children needing unstructured nature play. In fact, we modeled a whole program series around it called Kids Explore. This summer, we discovered that we (all adults, actually) also needed unstructured time in nature. Each morning we made fluid plans for the day, but while we worked, we also had the time to observe things we would usually be too busy to see, such as
The fox that would stop by the bird feeders as Verland filled them.
The eight-point buck that strolled through the Food Forest, seemingly checking out the real estate. (He will be disappointed when the deer fencing goes up.)
The milk snake living in an empty beehive, only to be replaced by a garter snake a few weeks later.
Plants we have never before noticed blooming.
All the fledglings learning to fly.
Lots of eastern box turtles in the meadow.
Our first red salamander sighting.
While we are working on creating new programming and restructuring some favorites, we hope everyone takes the opportunity to spend time in nature this fall—and simply be.
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