Watershed Partnerships Completed Projects Native Plants
Invasive Plants Ecological Concepts Related Links

The Fairmount Park Commission, through its Environment, Stewardship & Education Division, undertakes a broad range of environmental restoration activities throughout the park system. These activities occur primarily on the 5,600 acres of natural lands in the system's seven largest watershed and estuary parks. These are (from north to south): Poquessing Creek, Pennypack, Tacony Creek, Wissahickon Valley, Fairmount (East/West), Cobbs Creek and Franklin Delano Roosevelt parks.

The 5,600 acres of woods, streams, lakes, wetlands and meadows represent just under 60% of system's 9,200 total acres. An amazing statistic for the 5th largest city in the United States!

• Controlling and removing exotic invasive plants and replacing them with species native to Philadelphia County.


• Increasing the density and diversity of native plants in riparian zones, forests and other areas.


• Converting mown lawn to meadows where the lawn is not currently used for active recreation.


• Managing meadows, including periodic mowing to control tree growth.


• Constructing new and restoring/expanding existing wetlands.


• Removing or modifying existing dams.


• Restoring eroded/degraded stream channels and stabilizing streambanks using bioengineering techniques.


• Repairing and stabilizing erosion gullies on forested slopes.


• Constructing berms, diversions, grassed waterways, infiltration trenches and filter strips to control stormflow from impervious services and mown areas.


• Controlling access to reduce trash dumping and damage by vehicles.

To better understand the health of our environmental resources, from 1998-2001 the park, the Patrick Center for Environmental Research at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP), other environmental organizations and interested community members and organizations worked together to develop natural land restoration master plans for the system's major watershed and estuary parks.

• Goals and guiding principles for restoring the park's natural areas.


• Historical information on plants and animals of the Fairmount Park system from taxonomic collections, published literature and other sources.


• Vegetation types and disturbance from aerial photography and floristic and ground surveys.


• Surveys of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, aquatic macroinvertabrates, mollusks and several groups of terrestrial insects.


• Physical and biological conditions of all streams.


• Data from various sources using a Geographic Information System (GIS) linked to databases on the flora and fauna of the parks and proposed restoration sites.
• Identification of sites needing restoration and recommended restoration activities.

During the Plan's development, the park held over 20 public meetings to interact with stakeholders and provide a support base for restoration. At these meetings, the project team described a park's environmental health and reviewed lists of recommended restoration sites and next actions. The meetings included question and answer sessions that enabled attendees to learn more about their park's ecosystems and to give feedback to the project team.

To further involve community members, park staff initiated "community mapping" in which residents in neighborhoods adjacent to the parks helped the project team better understand their park's current and historical uses. Community mapping began with walks through each park. Participants noted how the park was affected by such things as trash, graffiti and invasive vegetation. Positive uses such as picnicking, sledding and fishing were also recorded. Specific results were given to the ANSP and helped in selecting potential restoration sites and activities. A general overview of park uses, as determined by the mapping exercises, was shared with community members at the public meetings.

The inventory, assessment and community mapping resulted in the Fairmount Park Natural Lands Restoration Master Plan, completed in 2001. The three volume Master Plan contains recommended restoration activities for 452 high-priority sites in the seven watershed and estuary parks. The Natural Lands Restoration Master Plan is available at the Free Library of Philadelphia main branch on Logan Square in the Government Records section under Cities: P53 1844: R313. A copy is also available for public viewing at the offices of the Fairmount Park Commission. Contact 215-683-0213.

The park is committed to implementing the Master Plan recommendations through the use of park staff, contractors and volunteers. The work is on-going and represents one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States.