Grid Magazine April 2020 [#131]

APRIL 2020 / ISSUE 131 / GRIDPHILLY.COM

T O W A R D A S U S TA I N A B L E P H I L A D E L P H I A

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The Pawling Sycamore, Valley Forge.

Learn more starting on page 22.

TREES T H E M I R AC L E O F

Taking comfort in trees during troubling times

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Monthly Maker David Rozek Philadelphia, PA pandemicdesignstudio.com @pandemicdesignstudio TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF I received my formal education in design from North Carolina State University where I earned a Bachelor’s of Architecture, before launching Pandemic Design Studio in 2017. With my prior education in digital design and computer aided manufacturing, I was quickly able to utilize NextFab’s resources, which included expert staff, high tech equipment, and space. NextFab provided a venue that was absolutely integral to the launching of two new ceramic product lines in the last three years which has helped make Pandemic Design Studio the premier startup design and manufacturing enterprise in the region.

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EDI TOR ’S NOTES

by

alex mulcahy

A Changed World

managing editor Alexandra W. Jones associate editor Timothy Mulcahy copy editor David Jack Daniels art director Michael Wohlberg intern Francesca Furey writers Kirtrina Baxter Bernard Brown Francesca Furey Constance Garcia-Barrio Alexandra Jones Meredith Jones Randy LoBasso Claire Marie Porter Lois Volta photographers Rob Cardillo Parikha Mehta Rachael Warriner Albert Yee illustrators Sean Rynkewicz Lois Volta published by Red Flag Media 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.625.9850 G R I D P H I L LY. C O M

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anniversary of Earth Day. Obviously, you will not find that in this issue. I had talked my buddy Nic Esposito into resurrecting Grid Alive, but that too is indefinitely suspended. The other title we publish, Decibel Magazine, had a massive event postponed that was lining up to be a smash.

Those things seem trivial now. I’m spending a lot of time thinking about my family, who are sending group text messages at a feverish pace. Videos of my brother strumming a guitar and serenading us, or my nephew playing the “The Entertainer” on the clarinet make me smile. When I text my sister and say, “Give Sophie a hug for me,” I wince a little bit, wondering how long it will be before I can deliver one myself.

I certainly would have visited my parents this weekend to celebrate my Mom’s birthday. I would have been with my Mom at the hospital three days from now when my Dad is scheduled to have surgery. Instead she will be in a hotel, I will be at home, and my Dad will be in the hospital with no family by his side.

I hold my breath thinking about how vulnerable so many people in my life are. We all worry about the elderly people we know, but I keep seeing stories about people who are 44 and 53 and 36 who have succumbed to the virus. It seems we are all vulnerable.

If there is a bright spot in this, it’s that we might yet prioritize what we know is important, and acknowledge that our fortunes are tied together. Perhaps we will be more inclined to listen to scientists and heed their warnings. But the one lesson that the last couple of weeks have reinforced in me is that life is precious and fragile, and should never be taken for granted.

alex mulcahy Editor-in-Chief alex@gridphilly.com COV E R P HOTO BY RO B CA RDI LLO

P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

publisher Alex Mulcahy

y mom and dad walked hurriedly back to their apartment after the flood; they held onto some hope that their home had not been destroyed. When they arrived, they were unable to open the misshapen door, warped by the floodwater. They crawled through a window to get inside.

The first floor was covered in mud, a sticky and smelly kind of “flood mud” that my Mom says you can’t know unless you have walked in it. They looked at the watermark 12 feet high, falling a foot shy of the second floor, and ascended the stairs.

What they saw, my Dad says, was like an episode of The Twilight Zone: a still life of what once was. They had left in a hurry, so the bed was unmade, ashtrays were unemptied and books were opened to the page they were reading. Upstairs was their old life, downstairs, their new life.

That was 1972 in Northeastern Pennsylvania, when Hurricane Agnes turned life in Wilkes-Barre upside down, and things in the Wyoming Valley were never the same again.

We too are facing an inflection point, where the present seems surreal and the recent past feels like a dream, but this time it’s global in scope. Perhaps because of the magnitude of this event, I think back to a couple of mundane things I almost did before everything changed. I finally got a much-needed new prescription for my glasses, but, alas, I never picked out new frames. I almost got together with a good friend who I hadn’t seen in years who lives in Williamsport. First I canceled our meeting, and then two days later when we had rescheduled he called from the road, saying the traffic was bad, he was turning around to go home, and we would get together after our next deadline. It was not to be.

There were some work things I was pretty excited about that almost happened. Grid had partnered with the city to produce an events guide online and in print for the 50th

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by

lois volta

DEAR LOIS,

I am unmotivated and I don’t feel like doing anything around the house. What should I do?

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f i were to make a sweeping assumption, I would say that everyone feels like this at one point or another.

It is natural to feel overwhelmed, and being a productive, hyper-motivated person is not always the healthiest mode of operating.

I feel unmotivated right now. The house needs to be dusted and mopped, and I have no interest in making dinner. I struggle with depression, and I am extremely sensitive to negative energies. Eventually, I perk up and feel up to life, but for now, I don’t feel like doing anything. At times like these, we must remember that it is okay to feel unmotivated. It’s okay to fall apart. It takes a lot of vulnerability to admit our needs and what we might lack—that is where the real work begins.

When I feel healthy and emotionally stable, I practice good habits that keep the house under control. When I don’t, usually what happens is this: I let the house get to a point where I can’t, in good conscience, let it get any dirtier than it already is, I then become extremely hard on myself and my family, and follow the lack of interest by going on a cleaning bender. I’m not quite there yet, maybe in another week, after my menstrual cycle ends.

The last time that I truly had to pull it together was also the time when I learned 6

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that I can let those who love me take care of me. I don’t have to be as strong as I thought was necessary.

Culturally, as a woman, I have a desire to nurture, heal and make beautiful all that I see that is troubled or upsetting. I tend to extend grace to those around me but become extremely hard on myself. I am learning how to accept my patterns and be alright with my depression, shortcomings and, yes, my dirty floor. I am not Super

Mom or a domestic goddess, I am a person trying to hold it all together without cracking under the pressures and circumstances of our modern world.

When I tell myself that I can’t pick up a vacuum, write a song or pick up a pencil, I know that the laundry is waiting for me.

This can feel oppressive or can serve as a lifeline. Stick to simple, mundane tasks; the laundry is perfect for this. Don’t think too much, just move your body—go through the motions, you will get to the other side.

When I am caught up, feeling on top of the home and confident, I am ready to create, explore and push myself (metaphorically and physically) out the door.

This is a very vulnerable feeling for me, but it brings me to the question of motivation: If you don’t feel like doing anything, just take care of yourself in slow, quiet ways. The chores around the home can be a kind of gateway into a fuller, deeper expression of self if you let them. When we take the time to explore our depression and heal from past wounds, we can take steps in a more fulfilled direction. Action, participation and inspiration are found in the creation of every meal. You might not

P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

TH E VO LTA WAY

IL LUSTRATIO N BY LO I S VOLTA

be used to tasting the subtle flavors of this energy, but you will eventually embody it.

To break it down, I do a half-hearted feather-dusting every couple of days. This keeps the dust down. I give myself a break for feeling unmotivated. I don’t have to be on top of my game 100 percent of the time.

My home doesn’t fall apart when I get depressed. I follow the rules that I set up for myself and let my family take care of me.

For instance, clean-up after dinner entails clearing the table, doing the dishes, wiping all counters, putting away clean dishes, changing the table linens, vacuuming and tidying of common spaces. As a family, we do these tasks together. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete, and it is crucial to how our family functions. We also have a baseline for what is an acceptable amount of clutter and dirt. I am finding that this baseline moves with the family’s ability to be better and more efficient at cleaning, as we mold good habits and hold each other accountable for our common spaces.

When we learn routines, we can carry good form throughout our lives, even through the darkest times. Many times I feel as though my modus operandi has been learned through the lessons brought by hard times and doubt. How foolish would I be if I did not recognize this and respect my strength? I can usher in gratitude for myself and those who support me, and know that today feels a little better than yesterday.

Feelings of being unmotivated are temporary and we should be able to weigh negative feelings against positive ones.

So, do your best. One step at a time.

When we are unmotivated and down, it is important to let ourselves heal, but part of the healing process includes cleanliness, maintenance and simply doing the dishes.

Take care of yourself and embody who you are, an ever-expanding, creative being who has enough sense to put their life in order. lois volta is a home consultant, musician and founder of Volta Naturals. loisvolta.com.

Send questions to thevoltaway@gmail.com

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2/14/17 9:37 AM

bike talk

The Electric Ride Indego’s e-bikes offer Philadelphians an easy, “energy-efficient” commute

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emetrius coleman remembers vividly the first time he got on an electric bike.

“The second week of June (2019),” he says. He took the white batteryboosted bicycle from its Indego Bike Share docking station in his Strawberry Mansion neighborhood and headed to his then job at Hank Gathers Recreation Center at 25th and Diamond streets.

“From there, I rode to Ellen Phillips Sam-

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uel Memorial, across the Strawberry Mansion Bridge,” he recalls.

Coleman, 44, has lived in Strawberry Mansion his entire life, yet it was the first time he’d ridden across the area on a bicycle—and an e-bike at that.

“I cross that bridge all the time driving, but it was a different experience on the bike,” Coleman says. “I was able to take everything in; the pedal-assist made things a lot easier for distances and hills, and to go farther.”

by

randy lobasso

After that, Coleman began riding the Indego e-bikes everywhere. If he got to the docking station near his house and there were only the blue non-electric bikes available, he’d check out the app, see how close he was to an e-bike and chase it down.

“The bike was my friend after that,” Coleman says with a laugh. And he’s not the only one who feels this way.

We saw a plethora of news stories this winter about Indego e-bikes going missing and, later, being pulled from the Indego fleet to be updated with tracking features. But lost in those stories was just how popular these bikes actually are.

People like Coleman represent a new generation of riders utilizing these technological marvels, and the City of Philadelphia hopes to share them with more people in more neighborhoods over the coming years.

Following numerous other cities around the United States, Philadelphia introduced e-bikes into its fleet of rental bicycles in 2019. They were immediately popular, and at 15 cents more per minute, just a bit more expensive to rent.

During Indego’s peak riding period, between July and August, the company found roughly 22 percent of all trips were made via e-bike, even though the vehicles represented just about 11 percent of all bikes in the fleet.

The immediate popularity of the e-bikes wasn’t surprising to Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability program manager Aaron Ritz, but he says he’s very satisfied with the data.

“We saw some really good trip numbers when we piloted 10 e-bikes in fall 2018,” he says. “That was done without any surcharge ... with a very small fleet of bicycles ... so we were glad that the high usage rates during the pilot were not a fluke.”

By August last year, 41 out of the 192 cities in the U.S. with bike-share systems had begun incorporating e-bikes. Most cities have witnessed the same positive results PhilaIL LUSTRATIO N BY S EAN RY NKEWI CZ

delphia has seen.

Philadelphia is representative of the majority of cities in that it offers both electric and “acoustic” bikes in its fleet, although there’s a possibility the traditional two-wheelers are holding Indego back. In Madison, Wisconsin, bike-sharing went all-electric due to the bikes’ popularity and has since had up to four times more riders on a given day, compared to the previous non-e fleet.

While we probably won’t see an all-e fleet any time soon in Philadelphia, for Philadelphians everywhere, e-bikes are sort of a no-brainer for a host of reasons.

“I started using them almost exclusively after they came out,” says Jon Geeting, engagement editor at the nonprofit organization Philadelphia 3.0. “It’s crazy how much better they are. [You’re] telling me for a few extra cents I can basically have biking superpowers where I can go faster ... and not sweat even a little bit? Who wouldn’t choose it?”

Given Philadelphia’s aggressive motorists, e-bikes can also help level the playing field.

“E-bikes are fun, and if you aren’t a fast bike rider, an e-bike can help keep you going with the flow of traffic in city streets

like ours without having to worry that cars are trying to squeeze past you, especially when starting out from a stop,” notes Lynne Brosch, a longtime Philadelphia cyclist.

For Kensington resident and 5th Square volunteer Kara Kneidl, e-bikes brought freedom in the face of an illness that consumed her.

Diagnosed with cancer in 2019, Kneidl was often too tired to get to her appointments on her regular bicycle. She started riding Indego e-bikes and could make the trip. She describes the experience as very significant to her life.

“The first time I rode the e-bike from work to one of my appointments I cried for probably the entire 10-minute ride and then some,” she says. “It was really emotional to have a little bit of my freedom and independence back during a time when I was struggling to even walk around the block.”

With a lack of bus shelters and seating, she says: “I was really struggling to get around the city. I was too sick to walk or ride a regular bike more than a few blocks, so the e-bike gave me freedom without having to resort to rideshares or taxis.”

Ritz notes the system’s “Equity Users”

(discounted Access Pass holders and those who’ve taken the city’s Digital Skills and Bicycle Thrills classes, the latter of which includes Coleman) make up about 10 percent of all active users on a given day, and 13 percent of trips.

“We’ve also seen that the e-bikes are more likely to make trips out to the edges of our system than a classic bike,” Ritz adds. “It makes sense; when someone has a longer distance to ride, the e-bike makes a big difference.”

As was reported by numerous media outlets in February, after being re-outfitted, Indego’s e-bikes were put back on the streets, fully equipped to help anyone who wants to get around the city.

For Coleman, he sees the e-bikes as a big part of the city’s future. He’s begun introducing Indego bike sharing to his family and co-workers, and intends to bring several colleagues to skills courses organized by Indego and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

“I think there should be more e-bikes out there ...” he says. “People should have both options—but if I need an e-bike, I’m getting on one.”

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street stories & curbside characters

Street Smarts Blind Philadelphians navigate the city’s twists and turns

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t’s dark. High heels approach, staccato, from behind.

Someone grabs your arm and propels you forward.

“Let’s go!”

A kidnapping? More likely, the theft of a moment’s independence from a blind person on Philly’s streets.

“Once, a woman took my arm and led me across the wrong street,” says Lynn Heitz, 60, director of education enrichment programming at Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ASB), a nonprofit organization that provides services for persons with low vision or blindness.

“She had good intentions, but it’s a frightening experience for someone who’s blind.”

Chris Danielsen, 49, a spokesperson for the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, made another point about such encounters. “Taking my arm without my permission would be unacceptable under any other circumstances,” he says.

Heitz, ASB cane travel instructor Justin Salisbury and his student David Stassen have insights into the challenges blind people face on the street.

“I went blind in high school due to complications from a head injury,” says Salisbury, 30, who has some residual vision. “During high school and college, I was told to avoid blindness techniques like using a cane if I could get by without them.” For instance, Salisbury read large print instead of braille.

Heitz explains that only a small group of blind people see nothing at all. “I have no vision in my right eye, a small amount of peripheral vision in my left, but no depth perception,” says Heitz, who has three grown children and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.

Salisbury may have been advised to rely on his remaining sight in order to avoid the stigma blind people face.

“At one time, schools for the blind were in isolated areas,” he says, “so blind students didn’t experience an urban setting and 10 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M A P R IL 20 20

sighted people didn’t have to interact with them. It’s different now.”

Soon after going blind, Salisbury’s dreams for himself seemed to shrink.

“I was always athletic, so I still went out for track, but I didn’t push myself academically,” he says. “I took easy classes.”

Salisbury threw out those cushy choices after attending the 2008 award banquet where he received a college scholarship from the National Federation of the Blind of Connecticut.

“I met a blind civil engineer and a blind chemist with a Ph.D. that night,” he says. “It changed my life.”

In time, Salisbury had another revelation.

“I realized that some people with no vision

by

constance garcia-barrio were operating better than I was,” he says.

“They read faster with braille and walked more confidently with a cane.”

Salisbury came to employ those methods by attending a training center accredited by the National Blindness Professional Certification Board.

“Now the only time I don’t have a cane is on the treadmill,” says Salisbury, who has a master’s degree in counseling and guidance with a concentration in rehabilitation teaching for the blind from Louisiana Tech University.

With ASB, Salisbury has taught skills ranging from how to manage a home to how to ace a job interview, and he’s written on topics like empowering blind students

P HOTO G RAP HY BY AL BERT YEE

Cane travel instructor Justin Salisbury (wearing hat) teaches his student David Stassen how to navigate Philadelphia’s streets.

ners because I’m just learning to feel when my cane drops off the curb. But I’ll get it.”

Blind people need training for street travel, but it would help if sighted people had savvy in relating to them. “When in doubt about whether a blind pedestrian needs help, say ‘Hi!’ ” Salisbury says. “That opener gives blind people a chance to ask for assistance if they need it.”

Consider the role stigma may play on the street, urges Danielsen. “Most sighted people believe that blind people can’t travel independently,” he says. “To a sighted person, it may seem that I’ve stood on the corner a long time, but I’m listening to traffic patterns.

We can’t see how much time is left on the light before the traffic will flow against us, so I may want to go through a whole traffic cycle to ensure I have time to cross.”

Public transit also has ins and outs.

“I talked with lots of blind people here before I moved to Philly,” says Salisbury, who arrived here from Ho— justin nolulu in December. “I live salisbury in University City and use the El. Walking on a train platform poses no problem and flirting and dating. However, his backbecause if the cane drops off the edge, you ground emphasizes teaching cane travel. stop walking or turn.”

“At the Louisiana Tech Center for the Guide dogs give blind people anothBlind, we attended Mardi Gras not for fun er travel choice, Danielsen notes. “Some but to learn,” he says. “Navigating in crowds blind people say guide-dog travel is more is tough. If you can manage Mardi Gras, you seamless because the dog helps the person can do anything.” avoid obstacles,” Danielsen says. “It can deStreet travel, the heart of independence, tect things like low-hanging branches. On presents a challenge for blind people. “If the other hand, a dog is a living being that you’re learning to read braille and you make needs care, and the dog may not be available an error, the stakes aren’t as high as when sometimes. Maybe it might have to go to the you make a misstep at a busy intersection,” vet. So it’s good to have cane travel skills in Salisbury says. any case.”

“Cane travel’s the scariest class,” agrees Activism to help ensure full lives for Stassen, 52, born visually impaired because blind people—for example, fair wages— his mother contracted rubella during pregkeeps Salisbury moving, despite the obstanancy. “It takes several weeks to build concles. Meanwhile, successes buoy him. “One fidence indoors before we work with our of my former students, a blind nurse, traveled solo to Europe for a nursing conference canes on the street,” he says. Previously, where she was a presenter,” he says. “We Stassen relied on his residual sight when walking. “Outside, it’s still hard to find corcan do anything.”

Navigating in crowds is tough.

If you can manage Mardi Gras, you can do anything.”

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the blacker the berry

Connecting with the Black permaculture by kirtrina baxter community

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first learned of permaculture in 2006. I was living in the mountains of Upstate New York, where my daughter and I loved everything from growing food to swimming in lakes. Jumping in waterfalls was our thang, and creating rituals around our Earth-based spirituality grounded us and gave us joy. Using systems observed in ecosystems to design human-made gardens seemed like a natural addition to my Earth-centered lifestyle.

I joined a group on a trip to Davenport, New York, to hear one of the superstars of the permaculture movement speak. At that time it was not uncommon for me and my child to be the only Black people in a setting.

I was not surprised this event was the same.

From then on, my exploration proved that permaculture seemed to be a very white movement, despite its indigenous roots.

I encountered the first person of color in 12 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M A P R IL 2020

the field about two years after that event, when I met Monica Ibacache, who now runs Beyond Organic Design, a sustainability education nonprofit out of New York City.

The night we met, we stayed up late talking about the many different natural living practices that spoke to us. Gazing out of an octagonal window, we sat in the living room of a shared friend’s geodesic home in Vermont, dreaming of a future that would include many such structures and thoughtful lifestyles among diverse people.

Several years later, we found ourselves on a panel together. In 2015, Ibacache was tapped to address the issue of the lack of diversity in the movement at the first North American Permaculture Convergence. She invited Black and Brown folks for panels and workshops—myself, along with amazingly talented Black and Brown women permaculturists like Pandora Thomas and

Anandi Premlall, both known for teaching permaculture design certifications specifically for women and people of color.

The idea was to discuss the lack of diversity in the permaculture movement over the weekend, but some attendees still had mixed feelings over the integration of these social topics into the event. There was an uprising of women who wanted to stand in solidarity with Black and Brown folk, as they too saw the movement as very white and male-dominated, as well as racist and sexist. Yet others failed to recognize permaculture’s crucial role in combating white supremacy, which is realized through capitalism and contradicts permaculture’s tenets of Earth care, fair share and people care.

At this point, I was back in Philadelphia, just learning about agroecology from Black farmers throughout Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The year before, I went to

COURTESY KIRTRINA BAXTER

Finding My People

Soil Generation organizer Kirtrina Baxter (left and bottom right) is an avid grower and food justice advocate. Since moving to Philadelphia, she has found her place in the Black permaculture community with organizations like the Black Dirt Farm Collective (group shot).

a gathering called Seedkeepers of Color, where I met many powerful Black and Brown farmers. It was a warm feeling to meet other farmers who looked like me and who shared a similar connection to the land.

We shared dreams around the fire while playing drums. This and other experiences brought us closer together. Some of us eventually formed Black Dirt Farm Collective, a collaboration of Black farmers, educators and creatives encouraging agroecology and Afroecology along the East Coast through encounters and farmer brigades.

People’s agroecology, as I have encountered it, is a practice and a political formation that holds space for the ancestral-land-management practices of agrarian people, which are in right-relationship with the Earth. It also honors the cultural expression of the people working the land who share a political understanding of what the land and agriculture mean for the sovereignty of people.

As Black farmers, the legacy of George Washington Carver serves in our ancestry and lineage of agricultural knowledge in the United States, as well as Booker T. Washington and Ella Baker, who were both pioneers

and broadened opportunities for the Black community through agrarian education that included economic possibilities with the goal of community freedom.

So many of the natural farming practices I have learned somehow feel innate, like they are imprinted in me. I know I will continue to have this connection as I grow, because this knowledge has been transferred down to me through my lineage, in my DNA. I remain empowered through my knowledge and understanding that these growing practices are a part of who I am, as a descendant of indigenous agrarian people, and as a daughter of the Goddess.

As for permaculture, my feeling is that it draws from these living and ancestral sources of indigenous knowledge and codifies it as its own system of land design, without acknowledgement of its origin. To deny or devalue the depth of importance that preservation of historical cultural knowledge and expression is to a people, is unjust.

Interestingly enough, what I realized after being in Upstate New York for nine years, searching for this multicultural experience within nature, is that I was a lot clos-

er to that in Philadelphia, an urban setting.

The city hosts peoples from all over the world, and though we may not all live in the same neighborhood or be surrounded by woods, we each still have a portion of the city that feels like home. Because of this, our cultures can be passed down and our traditions honored among ourselves, even if not to others. I love it when I visit my friend from Vietnam in South Philly, and I can breathe in the aroma of the spices of her culture coming from the kitchens of families on the block. Or when I’m driving through Fifth Street and Aramingo Avenue, and I hear the bomba of Puerto Rico blaring from the speaker on the corner store.

These things show that although we may not have equal access to institutional benefits, we continue to coexist. We have access to each other, and that allows us to remain strong in who we are, which in turn will enrich our struggle for equality. the blacker the berry is a column done in collaboration with Soil Generation, a Black- and Brown-led coalition, to bring you stories about food and racial and economic justice in the Philadelphia area.

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urban naturalist

John Janick’s Good Host Plants sells flora native to the Philadelphia area. These plants provide better food and habitat for the bugs and birds of the region.

Local Natives

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ohn janick was an obsessive gardener packing every square inch outside his family’s Mount Airy twin home with native plants when I first wrote about him in Grid in July 2014.

He had filled his backyard and the area around his driveway, and was running out of space in his front yard.

I found Janick, a web developer for a nonprofit organization, through an Audubon backyard habitat certification program.

It encourages homeowners to garden with native plant species and to include other elements such as water and nesting spots to make human properties more hospitable to birds.

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Much of what Americans usually plant in their yards is exotic. A lawn of Eurasian grasses bordered by East Asian azaleas and South American begonias, all shaded

by Norway maples, might look green, but to wildlife species who are equipped to take advantage of the local plants they evolved with, these yards might as well be paved with concrete. Native plants provide more food for native bugs, which feed native birds, native frogs and everything else up the food chain.

Janick’s own obsession with making his yard a great native habitat soon had him contracting to do the same work in neighbors’ yards. Working on a larger scale, how-

ever, he found it difficult to get many of the plant species he wanted locally.

“I try to stick to straight species [rather than hybrids],” he explains, “and to get the good plants, it was nearly an hour[’s] drive.”

Janick recognized his sourcing challenge as an opportunity. In 2016, when a neighbor whose yard he had planted offered him a half-acre of unused land next to a warehouse and a cemetery in the Feltonville neighborhood of North Philadelphia, Janick

COURTESY GOOD HOST PLANTS

Mount Airy gardener makes native plants more available to by bernard brown birds, bugs and humans

set up a couple of hoop houses and launched a business: Good Host Plants.

In the first year, he bought plants wholesale as “plugs,” plants packed into the large flats they had been propagated in. Retailers usually transplant plugs into small pots and let them grow a little bit more before selling

them to home gardeners.

“I had an irrigation system that gave me problems. I live 20 minutes away, but if something broke, plants died,” says Janick. “To learn to grow plants, you have to kill plants.”

With a few retail customers, Janick mostly grew plants for his landscaping work.

When someone did buy plants from goodhostplants.com (full disclosure, I am one of those customers), he ran over to his nursery site to fetch the order, so it could be picked up at his house.

Compared to the bright, exotic annual plants that many gardeners pick up at hardware stores in the spring, native perennial plants face an aesthetic disadvantage. A Joe Pye weed, for example, might one day wow the neighbors with towering rose-pink blossoms that draw clouds of butterflies. Early on, though, it looks like a half-dead clump of stems.

“A lot of people came in for the first time.

They wanted to help the bees, help the birds,” says Janick. “I’d be trying to talk about what something in a little cork pot will look like at maturity.”

The solution was more gardening.

“When I had the time and no one was

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showing up, I took plants and got them in the ground,” he says.

Today, Good Host Plants’ demonstration beds feature every plant Janick sells, including vines growing along chain-link fences and aquatic plants in small ponds.

“Now they come in and can see what it looks like at maturity, all the insects and wildlife. The insect diversity in June and July is amazing,” Janick says.

Although gardeners tend to think about what they’ll plant in the spring, “I’m trying to get people to plant in fall,” said Janick.

“The plants look like they’re dead. But you put them in, they get that winter under their belt, and in the spring—bam!”

According to their website, the Good Host Plants nursery is closed for retail until further notice in response to the Covid-19 crisis. However, you can view a full list of their offerings on their website, goodhostplants.com, and order plants for pick-up.

There are also some options available for delivery. Due to warmer weather, many of their plants are available now. So check out the website, and if you pick up some plants, the bees and butterflies will thank you with their presence.

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AP RIL 20 20 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 1 5

MEDICINE BOX

Herb farmers offer monthly wellness remedies in cooperative CSA story by alexandra jones — photography by parikha mehta

A

s healthcare and health insurance costs have spiraled out of control in the U.S. and our world becomes more and more anxious, the market for products aimed at curing our ailments and soothing our psyches grows. According to the Global Wellness Institute, which has reported annually on the industry since 2014, the wellness market expanded 12.8 percent between 2015 and 2018, with consumers across the world increasing spending from $3.7 trillion to $4.2 trillion. Thanks to the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act of 1994, 16 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M A P R IL 2020

in which the supplement industry successfully lobbied to allow products (everything from adaptogenic matcha lattes to vitamin C tablets to weight-loss powders) to go to market without regulation from the Food and Drug Administration, manufacturers can make outlandish, unproven claims about the effectiveness of their products without consequence.

To Katelyn Melvin, founder of the cooperatively run Schuylkill Herb Exchange CSA, that makes knowing the person who grew your medicine, and providing information about how to use and what to expect

from the products she makes, all the more important.

“That’s really the crux of why I’m in this business,” she says. “I hope that people can kind of build that trust with us.”

Melvin is a clinical herbalist and owner of Tooth of the Lion Farm and Apothecary, a six-acre medicinal herb farm about 90 miles northwest of Philly, in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County.

Melvin began selling Tooth of the Lion’s products in 2017 using the CSA subscription model that farmers have been using for years. The subscription model is a great fit

I was trying to envision a more cooperative model of business. A lot of people start small farms, and you can kind of live in isolation, especially if you’re in a more rural area.” —katelyn melvin

Katelyn Melvin of the Schuylkill Herb Exchange collaborates with herbalists across the area to offer customers a unique sampling of medicinal creations.

for the apothecary farm, as dried herbs and small containers of medicines take up very little space and weight and don’t require refrigeration. After a few years, the Tooth of the Lion crew thought about what they could do to create a community—not only for their CSA members, but for the region’s herbalists and growers, too.

“I was trying to envision a more cooperative model of business,” Melvin says. “A lot

of people start small farms, and you can kind of live in isolation, especially if you’re in a more rural area.”

With this in mind, Melvin reached out to herbalists across the state to get involved in what would become the Schuylkill Herb Exchange. Each monthly subscription box would include two or three items from Tooth of the Lion’s apothecary, with a special product purchased from a guest herbalist or farmer.

Choosing a cooperative model helped share the burden of marketing, which is essential for educating and building relationships between growers and customers. In the case of medicinal herbs, making sure customers can trust your products is essential in the age of Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop, Instagram influencers and Facebook friends involved in multi-level marketing (aka pyramid) schemes trying to sell us “natural” products.

Guests have included city herbalists like Nykisha Madison of Neighborhood Food Farm as well as Kelly McCarthy and Mandy Katz, who teach an introductory herbalism course, Building Your Home Apothecary, at Bartram’s Garden (last September’s box included salves made by the whole class).

Barefoot Botanicals in Doylestown, where registered nurse and herbalist Linda Shanahan grows certified organic herbs and makes medicines, contributed syrups and hydrosols, also known as flower waters.

“There [are] so many ways people use herbal medicine, so I just wanted to make voices in the area more visible,” Melvin says. In an effort to make the subscription more accessible, the program gives members the option to contribute a small

monthly donation that will subsidize the cost of subscriptions or even the full cost of a delivery for low-income households.

Melvin tested out the new model with around 50 subscribers in Pennsylvania and surrounding states in 2019. She also wanted to acknowledge the communities of healers and consumers from non-Western cultures, whose plant medicine traditions are often marginalized or co-opted by mainstream herbalism and the wellness industry.

In the December 2019 box, for example, Melvin’s team made horehound cough drops to soothe winter colds, an anise-mint tea blend and a warming tulsi-ashwagandha elixir used for its purported stress-relieving properties. Desiree Thompson, the Reiki practitioner, ancestral energy worker and herbalist behind West Philly-based Nana Catherine’s Apothecary, contributed a spiritual bath.

“I always like to introduce plant medicine to folks as a process or method of reconnecting or understanding aspects of themselves that may have been lost due to trauma or just living in an inequitable world,” Thompson explains. Calling on Southern and Caribbean traditions, she chose a blend of herbs to offer connection and rejuvenation in the depths of the darkest season.

Her selections included chamomile, rose geranium and pokeroot—traditionally used by enslaved Africans in the American South to treat internal and external maladies—that the user boils into a decoction before adding to a hot bath.

Thompson shares her philosophy and provides a how-to for getting the most out of the replenishing ritual in the exchange’s monthly zine, a sheaf of pages with each AP RIL 20 20 G R I DP HILLY.COM 17

medicine box that includes information about the herbs, their applications and recipes and recommendations for how to use them. Melvin writes a seasonal dispatch from the farm, and guest herbalists are provided with space to share their stories and traditions with the program’s members.

It is Melvin’s hope that building direct relationships with her customers and providing in-depth information about these plants and how to use them will create the bond necessary to cut through the misinformation of the wellness industrial complex and create the possibility of closer relationships between body, mind, spirit and land.

With herbs and herbal products made fresh throughout the season, Melvin says, “you can see and smell and taste and feel the difference.”

Thompson agrees.

I always like to introduce plant medicine to folks as a process or method of reconnecting or understanding aspects of themselves that may have been lost due to trauma or just living in an inequitable world.”

—de siree thomps on

“A lot of my ... beef with the way that wellness is talked about generally is there’s a kind of attention to quickness, convenience and fixing,” she says. “I think farming ... has always been a really healthy and nature-based answer [with] slowness and thoughtfulness and sufficiency and consideration. I don’t think everybody would use those words to describe Amazon or Urban Outfitters.”

The Schuylkill Herb Exchange is now taking 2020 subscribers for its pay-as-you-go flexible subscription program. Learn more and sign up at toothofthelion.com.

18 GRID P H IL LY.CO M A P R IL 2020

CSA GUIDE P

hiladelphia is rich with regional farmers and food producers. Never has there been a time when we are able to better appreciate their value than now.

As everyone scrambles to stock their kitchens with essentials and uncertainty builds about what will be on the shelves the next time we visit the store, it is a wonderfully reassuring thing to remember that we are surrounded by so many incredibly hardworking growers doing everything in their power to put fresh food on our tables. ¶ We need our farmers badly now. Once we have weathered this storm of uncertainty, remember that there will be seasons when our farmers will need us. A CSA subscription represents a beautiful partnership between you and your local farmers. The investment you make will help get them through the slow parts of their growing season, and in return you’ll receive a bounty of fresh, local food during the harvest season. And by reducing the distance between your home and your food source, your carbon footprint reduces with every mile. Below, you will find a list of CSA-share providers in the city and beyond. *Any pickups from Farmers Market locations are temporarily suspended during the COVID-19 health crisis and are listed for future reference.

BREWERYTOWN GARDEN With totes full of mixed vegetables, fruits and greens, Brewerytown Garden members receive an accessible eight-week spring CSA. Subscribers can also choose to add a dozen eggs to their weekly pickup. Each week, the garden will send out a newsletter containing the week’s harvest, garden news and recipes.

PICKUP LOCATION: community garden at 27th and Master streets. info@brewerytowngarden.com; brewerytowngarden.com

CAROUSEL HOUSE FARM For 22 weeks from June to October, Carousel House Farm in Fairmount Park offers a

summer share with an array of vegetables and flowers grown on site. Some assorted, organic-certified sprayed vegetables offered are arugula, eggplant and sweet potatoes.

PICKUP LOCATION: 4300 Avenue of the Republic on Tuesdays between 4-7 p.m. or Thursdays between 10 a.m.-1 p.m. 215-6850160; kim.farm.philly@gmail.com CRAWFORD ORGANICS This family-run farm from Lancaster provides members with 16 weeks of summer produce.

Interested in spring vegetables? Subscribers can add on an early-start option to begin their shares four weeks early. Crawford Organics also offers fruit, yogurt, and egg shares,

too. PICKUP LOCATIONS: West Philadelphia, Fairmount, Mount Airy, Narberth and western suburbs with an option for home delivery. 717445-6880; crawfordorganics.com DOWN TO EARTH HARVEST Down to Earth Harvest gives members fully customizable options for what produce they wish to bring home each week. Over the 14-week period, subscribers can fill their virtual stand with specialities like sugar snap peas, herbs and various tomatoes, along with seasonal varieties of fruits and potatoes. PICKUP LOCATIONS: Four in suburbs are available on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

913-775-3711; downtoearthharvest.com GERMANTOWN KITCHEN GARDEN Specializing in all things green, Germantown Kitchen Farm offers 24 weeks of produce shares starting in May. Subscribers pay ahead and their total balance decreases with each visit to the farmstand. The garden offers unusual additions like gooseberries and currants, along with locally crafted kombucha and homemade sourdough.

PICKUP LOCATION: the farmstand at 215 E. Penn Street, Saturdays 9 a.m.-1 p.m. 610-505-4881; germantownkitchengarden.com

HENRY GOT CROPS CSA In collaboration with Weavers Way Co-op, this educational farm is ready to enhance your weekly meal experience. With 24 weeks of pickups starting at the end of May, subscribers can grab their unique small or large shares at the farm. Don’t worry about unfamiliar produce: Weavers Way sends out a weekly newsletter diving into each week’s share, accompanied with recipes, too.

PICKUP LOCATION: 7095 Henry Avenue, Tuesdays from 2-7 p.m., and Fridays from 2-7 p.m.

215-843-2350, henrygotcrops@weaversway.coop; weaversway.coop/henry-got-crops-csa

KIMBERTON CSA This 10-acre biodynamic, mixed-veggie farm founded the first CSA in Pennsylvania in 1987.

Since then, Kimberton has offered 26 weeks of shares consisting of organic vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers starting in May. Full shares, box shares and partial shares are available. PICKUP LOCATION: 415 West Seven Stars Road, Phoenixville, on Tuesdays and Fridays. 484-302-8535; kimbertoncsa.org

LOVE GROWS CSA Love Grows functions like a “buyer’s club.”

Become a CSA member for an $80 investment, and select any veggies you would like from either of the two Love Grows Farmstands June through November at 20 percent off. All produce is grown without the use of any synthetic inputs or GMOs. PICKUP LOCATIONS: ​Doylestown Farmers Market and Yardley Farmers Market, Saturdays.

267-614-0474; lovegrowscsa.com PENNYPACK FARM Each week over the summer, Pennypack Farm CSA subscribers peruse around a dozen different vegetables displayed in a market-style selection at the farm’s Harvest House. All produce is nonGMO and grown without synthetic chemical herbicides or pesticides. Mini, regular and large shares are offered. PICKUP LOCATION: 685 Mann Road, Horsham 215-646-3943; pennypackfarm.org PHILLY FOODWORKS Philly Foodworks is a staple in the Philadelphia farming and CSA network. They offer an abundance of options for vegetable shares, plus add-ons ranging from dairy and eggs to seafood and bakery items, your home will always be stocked. Philly Foodworks also offers convenient subscriptions, like a vegetable harvest box, a coffee subscription of local beans, and pasture-raised eggs. PICKUP LOCATIONS: available throughout Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, as well as home delivery. 215-221-6245; phillyfoodworks.com

TAPROOT FARMS Taproot Farms, located in Shoemakersville, grows certified organic produce available for spring and winter share subscriptions. Vegetable shares are offered in small, medium and large and run for 20 weeks beginning on June 5. Members have an option to add a three-pound-per-week fruit share beginning in July, as well as free range egg shares of a dozen or half dozen for the duration of your veggie subscription. Taproot partners with neighboring farms to also provide mushroom, cheese and coffee shares. As a temporary provision beginning the week of March 16, Taproot has added an online ordering system to their website with Saturday morning pickups in Chestnut Hill.

PICKUP LOCATION: multiple in Philadelphia and throughout the suburbs. 610-657-1927; farmers@ taprootfarmpa.com

LANCASTER FARM FRESH CO-OP Throughout the year, this co-op offers small, medium or large shares, with its summer subscription beginning April 27. Subscribers can experiment with various vegetables for 27 weeks, along with a cornucopia of options for add-ons like chickens, herbs, eggs, flowers, herbal medicine and others. PICKUP LOCATIONS: throughout Philadelphia, the surrounding suburbs and New Jersey. 717-656-3533; lancasterfarmfresh.com

TINICUM CSA From May to November, members of Tinicum CSA can grab their favorite veggies grown on site.

They can cook in peace knowing all produce is organic and doesn’t come in contact with synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. Choose from a big share or little share every week, or a bi-weekly big share. PICKUP LOCATION: 1073 River Road Upper Black Eddy. 215-630-2172; tinicumcsa.com

Meat & Cheese COLLECTIVE CREAMERY This women-powered artisan cheese share subscription offers handmade and traditional cheeses from May to September. The cheese share includes cow, goat and sheep milk, and was created through a collaboration between Birchrun Hills Farm and Valley Milkhouse Creamery. Three tiers of share sizes are available to be picked up biweekly or monthly. PICKUP LOCATIONS: throughout Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs; cheese@ collectivecreamery.com; collectivecreamery.com PRIMAL SUPPLY BUTCHER’S CLUB Since 2016, Primal Meats has supplied Philadelphia with pasture-raised and locally sourced meats.

Their Butcher’s Club provides subscribers with payas-you-go weekly or bi-weekly pickups of beef, pork and poultry. Small, medium and large packages are available. All animals are raised without the use of hormones or subtherapeutic antibiotics. Subscribers can add on eggs, chicken and loin steak. PICKUP LOCATIONS: throughout Philadelphia. 215-5952255; primalsupplymeats.com YELLOW SPRINGS FARM This Chester Springs farm is goat cheese paradise.

With their cheeses produced on site, subscribers receive monthly shares from April to October. Shares include two-, three- and four-variety portions.

PICKUP LOCATIONS: 1165 Yellow Springs Road, Chester Springs and the West Chester Growers Market. 610-827-2014; yellowspringsfarm.com

Flowers JIG-BEE FLOWER FARM SHARE With freshly harvested flowers grown in Kensington, members can display arranged bouquets of 20 to 25 stems of seasonal flowers in their own home.

Expect a longer vase life, as flowers are grown without pesticides. Subscribers can bring their own vase, or separate the bouquet into smaller bunches.

PICKUP LOCATIONS: South Philly, Kensington, Center City and Fairmount throughout the week.

267-777-9636; jig-bee.com LOVE’N FRESH FLOWERS BOUQUET SHARE Beautifully handcrafted bouquets from a sustainably managed flower farm? Count us in. Members receive weekly bouquets from May to September.

Love’n Fresh Flowers CSA members also receive 20 percent off workshops at the farm throughout the year. PICKUP LOCATIONS: Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill and Palmer Distilling Co in Manayunk . 215-804-9056; info@lovenfreshflowers. com; lovenfreshflowers.com AP RIL 20 20 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 1 9

COMING SOON

DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, this exhibition will feature works by contemporary artists from the Bucks County and greater Philadelphia region that are investigating the effects of global warming, climate change, pollution, and related environmental concerns on bodies of water and aquatic species.

1. Diane Burko, Novaya Zemlya II, 2016-17. Oil and mixed media on canvas. 42 x 42 inches. Courtesy of the artist. 2. Janet Filomeno, As the Sea Rises—Blue Crystals Revisited no. 7, 2018. Ink, acrylic paint on canvas. 72 x 72 inches. Courtesy of the artist, Janet Filomeno. 3. Marguerita Hagan, Frustule Flower, 2018. Ceramic. 4 1⁄4 x 7 1⁄4 x 6 1⁄4 inches. Loan courtesy of the artist, Marguerita Hagan.

Rising Tides: Contemporary Art and the Ecology of Water is generously supported by Visit Bucks County.

Media support is provided by Grid Magazine.

20 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M A P R IL 20 20

We Fuel Home & Body —

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The Energy Co-op & Weavers Way Co-op • Renewable energy for the home • Locally produced foods with low-waste and zero-waste options

Make every day EARTH Day www.weaversway.coop

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AP RIL 20 20 G R I DP HILLY.COM 21

• The Pawling Sycamore, a “witness tree,” is believed to have been alive when the Continental Army arrived at Valley Forge in 1777.

Giving

TREES On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Grid celebrates trees: their resilience, beauty and spirit, and their fortitude amidst an ever-changing climate and ecosystem

story by claire marie porter — photography by rob cardillo

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hen i reflect on the life of a tree, I can’t help but think about Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, a children’s picture book about a tree that loved a little boy so much, she gave him everything he asked for, until she had nothing left to give. ¶ Even in death, trees give us life. Trees are our heroes. ¶ They clean and condition the air, produce oxygen, and reduce stress and noise pollution. Trees also manage stormwater and sequester carbon, while providing spaces for children to play and habitats for countless species of insects, animals and fungi. ¶ And those are just their passive benefits, not to mention how much we rely on wood in our daily lives. ¶ They give and give and give.

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“No one sees trees. We see fruit, we see nuts, we see wood, we see shade. We see ornaments or pretty fall foliage. Obstacles blocking the road or wrecking the ski slope. Dark, threatening places that must be cleared. We see branches about to crush our roof. We see a cash crop. But trees—trees are invisible.”

—richard powers

“T

rees are like people,” says Scott Wade, a Longwood Gardens arborist and curator of Peirce’s Park, one of Longwood’s oldest sections, which houses a historic tree collection. He also leads the Pennsylvania Champion Tree Program, established by the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, which catalogs the biggest and oldest trees in the state. Champion trees are nominated and ranked using a point system to measure circumference, height and canopy spread.

“There are a bunch of natural threats that can take a tree down,” he says, and in Pennsylvania, there’s little protection for trees on private property.

Pennsylvania, Latin for Penn’s Woods, was once covered in forests of old-growth trees. When the timber industry took off in the 1800s, trees were almost completely wiped out across the state.

“Back then, to find a tree of any size was rare,” says Wade, “because of clear-cutting, the state was denuded by 1900.”

The only places with trees were private properties, usually people’s estates.

“You could see the horizon,” says Wade, speaking of pictures taken at the time.

“There were no trees.”

When programs like the champion tree program, which has been cataloging big trees for over 50 years, and others started bringing awareness to the importance of trees, foresters began competing to find the biggest ones, says Wade.

“Most of these primeval forests have been cut down for agriculture, and our woods now are mostly second-growth, with few big trees in them,” explains Aaron Greenberg, arboretum manager at Laurel Hill Cemetery, and new coordinator for the champion tree program.

The most recent nomination for a champion tree is a towering sycamore on the private property of a West Chester family. Others include a white oak behind the London Grove Friends Meetinghouse, and the Lansdowne Sycamore, a longstanding champion tree.

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BIG TREES HAVE UP TO 200 TIMES THE ECOLOGICAL VALUE OF SMALL ONES, SO PLANTING A SMALL TREE TO REPLACE AN OLD ONE IS NOT AN EVEN SWAP. According to Wade, many of the trees left behind are sycamores, because they aren’t really good for anything but shade.

Historically, sycamores were planted at the southwest corner of properties for shade.

“They would use the tree to shade all summer,” says Wade, “and then it would drop its leaves and let the sun through for winter.”

Many champion trees are misshapen because straight trees are preferred over crooked ones for timber.

Trees that are likely to have been around since William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1682 are called “Penn Trees.”

“These were recorded first in 1932 in honor of the 250th anniversary of Penn’s arrival, and a few are still around today,” says Greenburg. “Large trees are very important for our state heritage and our understanding of nature. These trees tell stories about the history of Pennsylvania.”

And the ecological gains of big trees are also vast, as their benefits increase with their size and age, he points out. Big trees have up to 200 times the ecological value of small ones, so planting a small tree to replace an

old one is not an even swap, says Greenburg.

“By recording them, we hope to inspire people to visit and protect these incredible resources,” he says.

Unchecked development and deferred maintenance are the two biggest threats facing big trees in Philadelphia, he believes.

“People need to see the value in our urban forest. The benefits large trees provide are tangible and quantifiable, from energy savings provided by shade to increased quality of life,” Greenburg says.

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hile trees don’t need people to survive, people do need trees.

Research has shown this empirically, which is why there’s been such a push for urban forestry in recent years. The distinction between forests and urban forestry is the human interaction component—trees and people have to learn to co-mingle and live together in a city, unlike the natural and serene environment of forests, where trees are left alone.

Without trees our Earth would lack essential functions for human survival. In

• Left: Jackie Salmon greets the Lansdowne Sycamore (center), a champion tree located in her neighborhood. Right: A champion American elm stands tall at Scott Arboretum, Swarthmore.

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terms of physical benefits, trees are incredibly efficient carbon offsets, sequestering carbon and accumulating it in the form of biomass, deadwood and soil. In 2017 alone, trees in the U.S. absorbed enough CO2 to offset more than 11 percent of America’s emissions that year. They also prevent areas of the city from becoming “heat islands” by lowering surface and air temperatures.

Planting trees, especially in urban areas, has been proven to have numerous ecological, physical and even social effects on well-being.

The psychological impacts are also huge.

In Japan, the act of taking in nature through a walk in the woods is called shinrin-yoku, which translates as “forest bathing.” It doesn’t require a forest, just a nearness to nature.

Philadelphia, “America’s Garden Capital,” with 300 years of horticulture under its belt, offers abundant ways to get near nature: there are the great big trees at Morris Arboretum and Tyler Arboretum, the horticultural feast of Laurel Hill Cemetery, the grounds and greenhouse of Fairmount Park Horticultural Center, the Woodlands sprawl of more than 1,000 trees.

here was a time not too long ago when the United States was still covered in trees.

Prior to European settlement, it’s approximated that 46 percent of the U.S. was forested. By 1907 it was reduced to 37 percent, and trees were not being planted to replace those being cut down.

Increased reforestation efforts in the 20th century by organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and Arbor Day Foundation have reversed that trend so that there are now more trees being planted than being cut down in the U.S. But according to the World Economic Forum, “man-made forests do not compensate for the damage and degradation done to ecosystems through land clearance.” And most of these forests are second-growth, meaning most old trees are long gone.

“Philadelphia’s tree canopy has decreased by 6 percent between 2008 and 2018,” says Erica Smith Fichman, Community Forestry Manager at Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and leader of the TreePhilly program.

“While pockets of the city have seen improved canopy in this time, overall we have lost trees, especially on residential land and along streets,” says Smith Fichman.

TreePhilly, a partnership between Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, Fairmount Park Conservancy and TD Bank, has given away 24,000 yard trees since 2012.

Another part of the TreePhilly mission is to help residents better understand the value of trees in their neighborhood through public education and awareness, says Maita Soukup, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation associate director of communications.

“As a city, we are on the frontline of the impacts of climate change, like flooding, extreme weather and drought. Trees play a critical role in our city’s infrastructure, and our ability to remain sustainable and resilient in the face of a changing climate,” says Smith Fichman.

The major urban forests, Pennypack, the Wissahickon, Fairmount parks, combined with yard and street trees all constitute the “tree canopy.”

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initially developed by the city to protect Philadelphia’s public water supply and preserve quality of life during the industrial revolution,” says Smith Fichman.

Trees are essential to the health of the city and well-being of its inhabitants, she says.

“Shifting attitudes about trees in our city also takes time,” says Smith Fichman, “but this hard work needs to be done, and it will ultimately lead to the change that allows our canopy to flourish into the future.”

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he fairmount park Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that evolved out of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park Commission, has been working on reforestation of Philadelphia’s parks for the past two years.

Executive director Maura McCarthy says this reforestation project is “our first foray into urban forestry.”

This past December it planted 5,000 trees and shrubs on a 30-acre parcel of land in West Fairmount Park near the Montgomery and Lansdowne creeks, in an effort to revitalize land that had been denuded by invasive, non-native species of plants and vines that lack ecological value to native animals and migratory birds.

That, combined with the abundance of white-tailed deer, and Philadelphia dumping, says McCarthy, have made the cleaning and clearing process step No. 1.

“All that earth is then upheaved,” she says. “We have to try and restore the biomass to the area.”

The area is being reforested with natives species, such as juneberries, willows, beech, ironwood and holly—all critical plants and trees that support insect and small mammal populations, as well as migratory birds.

“We’re also planting good old oaks that support more insect species than any other trees,” she says, adding that the white oaks, “the beauty queens of the forest,” draw all kinds of small critters.

Hopefully, we’ll start to see populations of the animals that are most closely associated with those native species: hummingbirds where there’s jewelweed, goldfinches where there’s sweet gum, and foxes where there’s black cherry, she says.

“Any organization looking at improving lifestyle conditions in a city is sort of grappling with the balance of open space and green space and its accessibility to the public,” McCarthy continues.

The city is recognizing the ecological util26

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“THERE’S THIS FALSE DICHOTOMY WHERE PEOPLE THINK ECOLOGICAL ISSUES ARE SEPARATE FROM HUMAN ISSUES. IT’S ALL ONE ISSUE.” —MAURA MCCARTHY, executive director

of the Fairmount Park Conservancy

ity and health benefits that come with trees, especially in dense urban conditions.

“There’s this false dichotomy where people think ecological issues are separate from human issues,” she says. “It’s all one issue.”

The Fairmount program is focused on “the person side of the equation,” says McCarthy, because people are both the biggest threat and biggest promise when it comes to the life of the forests.

“When you’re doing environmental restoration work,” says McCarthy, “you’re actually doing public service work and public health work.”

“Helping Philadelphians re-see our forest is a really important job,” she says.

R

ichard powers writes in his novel The Overstory, which addresses mankind’s destruction of forests: “This is not our world with trees in it. It’s a world of trees, where humans have just arrived.”

The scientific consensus is that trees have been around for about 370 million years. So in tree terms, homosapiens, at just 200,000 years old, are a new and invasive house

guest. Yet we have historically seen trees only for what they can do for us, often regarding them with a vague romance, especially the big ones.

Karen Flick, the landscape manager at Awbury Arboretum, says we need to change our perspective, and realize that “we are in a forest.”

“There is nature all around us,” she says. But, the tendency is to not really see or care about trees until we miss them, she adds.

And we’re only recently understanding the empirical evidence about the impact that trees have on people.

“The benefit that trees have on people, on our emotional, physical health, is just huge,” she says.

A 2015 study from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona found that the more greenery children are exposed to, the better their attention skills and memory development.

The “biophilia hypothesis,” proposed by Yale ecology professor and evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson, suggests that humans have an innate desire for nature,

• The white oak behind the London Grove Friends Meetinghouse was likely standing when William Penn arrived at his future namesake.

care for their trees, and making tree care accessible to the average person. But most importantly, her work focuses on teaching people to see trees.

Trees are like people in that they need community, she says. They’ll even reach out to each other under the ground through their roots, exchanging chemicals and nutrients, sometimes connecting to each other.

A tree in a community is going to be much healthier than a tree in isolation. It will grow to its greatest potential, she says.

“A tree will struggle by itself,” Flick explains. “Everything is a part of the trees’ community—the air quality, soil, wildlife and the people.”

“I like to encourage people to pick a tree and visit it regularly and see how much more you start to see,” she says.

Flick is partial to oak trees.

“They have an old soul to them,” she says. “Even when they’re young, they have an old soul.”

U and that loss of it would have significant detrimental effects on our mental health.

A 2019 study by University of Wollongong showed that adults in neighborhoods that enjoyed a 30 percent or more tree canopy were 31 percent less susceptible to psychological distress, and had 33 percent lower odds of rating their general health as less than “good” over a six-year period.

We are in a process of learning from past mistakes when it comes to forestry, says Flick.

Planting polycultures to strengthen trees against diseases and pests is a part of that.

“A diverse amount of trees is really important,” she says, “to avoid the pathogens that can wipe out a monoculture, [but also] creating a habitat for the good guys and inviting in a greater amount of wildlife and more diversity of predators.”

We’re starting to see a lot of different varieties of trees with a push toward tree diversity, she adds. A typical Philly street canopy will have London plane trees, a sycamore hybrid, and red maples, but now we’re starting to see a different variety of maples, even some non-native, and more oaks, especially willow oaks. There’s more variety in the understory as well, she says.

Flick points out that lack of forethought with tree planting is why we see so many trees on city streets with a V-shaped cut-out to make space for the power lines. This is damaging to the tree, she says, and should be considered when planting.

The Awbury Arboretum has 60 heritage trees highlighted on the grounds, for the purpose of education. It helps out local tree tender groups, teaching people how to

nderstanding and caring for trees means thinking in future terms.

When planting a tree, we need to remember that it will likely outlive us, and even our children. It will be up against a very different climate, one that is warmer, windier and wetter.

We can’t just plant any tree, anywhere.

Urban environments are not really places where trees want to be naturally, says Jason Lubar, associate director of urban forestry at the Morris Arboretum. But he acknowledges the countless benefits of having them in the city.

“The human spirit is lifted when there are trees in the city,” he says. “They improve neighborhoods.”

There are several tree species that can handle urban situations better than others, he says, particularly floodplain trees like London planes and pin oaks, ones that have adapted to compacted soil conditions and less oxygen to their roots.

He agrees that species diversity is key, in large scales and on every street. He says that what we’ve learned from invasive pests like the spotted lanternfly, Asian longhorn beetle and hemlock woolly adelgid, and diseases like Dutch elm and chestnut blight, is AP RIL 20 20

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that planting a diversity of species enhances resiliency of our urban forests from these pests and other stressors.

“Realistically we cannot stop pests from entering North America,” he says. “Roughly every 10 years, a new potentially potent pest or disease is introduced to our environment.”

And we should anticipate more with a changing climate, he adds. We will lose some of our species locally, but may gain some new ones.

Arboreta are experimenting with southernly adapted trees in anticipation of a warmer climate. Morris Arboretum collected southern live oaks from their northern-most occurrence in their natural range and are planting them in various urban and suburban environments, to see how they fare.

The compelling current narrative in arboriculture is that trees are an investment, Lubar says.

“Unlike gray infrastructure, which degrades and depreciates,” he says, “trees appreciate and gain value with time.”

“People need to get out more into nature and get amongst the trees. Trees are an important part of green infrastructure and enhance your well-being,” he says.

R

ecently, a friend told me that fallen hemlocks create a prime ecosystem for reishi mushrooms, an immune-boosting super fungus.

The Atlantic published an article about the “undead” tree stump and how it finds life underground by connecting its roots with other trees. German forester Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries From a Secret World, has shown evidence that trees have alliances, and will share sunlight and nutrients with each other, using pheromones to communicate—and really bonded ones might die in tandem with each other.

The Continental Army arrived at Valley Forge in December 1777 with 12,000 soldiers and wasted no time in felling hundreds of trees for firewood and other supplies, and to build huts and defense shelters.

Few trees were spared. Among those that were was a huge, crooked and bowing sycamore with limbs that reach almost to the ground. It’s located on the southwest corner of a 1700s springhouse on the

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grounds of what became Valley Forge Park.

It’s called the Pawling Sycamore, named for the former estate on which it stands. It’s 22 feet in circumference and presumed to be between 260 and 285 years old.

The Pawling Sycamore is considered a “witness tree”—an expression used to describe trees that were present at key events in American history, often traumatic events. Witness trees have been known to grow new layers of bark to hide bullets buried in their trunks, adapting to their wounds, and healing their scars over time. During our current global pandemic, they, like the Giving Tree, are a constant reminder that there is life within death.

McCarthy encourages every Philadelphian to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day by connecting with whatever green space is right next to them.

During this time of fear and uncertainty, we’re going to have to do without much contact or social gatherings.

“But the parks are there without mediation—the trees are safe,” she says.

“Find your nearest tree,” she says. “Hug it. Take care of it. Our parks can be a real place of respite.”

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STORM KING

A dazzling community space and stormwater management site serves, and protects, Manayunk story by meredith jones — photography by rachael warriner

T

ucked behind the bustle of Main Street in Manayunk, just beyond the towpath and canal sits an island performing arts and recreation center. The design is modern and dynamic, a beautiful clean space for the community to come together.

While most are struck by the impressive architecture and sculpted gardens surrounding it, the most noteworthy element of the island lies beneath it: a subterranean stormwater runoff tank with the ability to hold nearly 4 million gallons of water.

The impetus for the center as it exists today dates back to 2004 when the federal government issued a mandate to the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD): bring the city into compliance with the Clean Water Act by stopping the overflow of sewer drainage that 30 GRID P H IL LY.CO M A P R IL 20 20

occurs during periods of heavy rainfall. To accomplish this, PWD had to install a retention tank for the stormwater overflow big enough to hold the excess. Finding a location suited to hold a tank this large, along with the corresponding pump house to operate it, was a difficult feat of planning. In assessing available land options, they began to eye Venice Island and the crumbling structure of a city recreation center sitting atop it.

Venice Island has a long history of utility to our city. In 1857, it became home to a fabric mill producing cotton yarn and material for the thriving carpet weaving industry in Kensington. This was just one of many mills in Manayunk. The canal became a vital artery of shipping, not only for the array of fabrics milled throughout the hills of Manayunk, but also coal mined in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

As these industries shifted overseas, the mill on Venice Island shut down and fell into a state of near abandonment. In the 1960s, the city constructed a recreation center, basketball courts, hockey facilities and a pool. The facilities were well used in their time, but as community usage declined, so did day-to-day maintenance. By the early 2000s, the space had taken on an air of desolation, frequently graffitied and littered with the evidence of unsanctioned after-hours activities. After over 40 years of use, it seemed possible that the structure would be better replaced than repaired. In 2004, PWD needed a place for a massive tank, the community wanted a new rec center, and the talks began.

Over a period of eight years, conversations between the PWD, Parks & Recreation, Manayunk Development Corporation and community members took shape into concrete plans. The imperative became clear not only to provide a site for overflow tanks, but to create a space that would fundamentally function to address the issues of the floodprone area. Planners excavated and planted the overflow tank beneath the island, the only visible evidence of which is the pump station that includes a tower of windows designed to maximize natural light and reduce energy usage. The top is equipped with a green roof.

The storage tanks beneath it are roughly the size of 180 SEPTA buses and retain surplus until the sewer system can catch up on the influx of stormwater. Once it has, all of that water is pumped back into the sewer system for treatment.

Looking at the architecture of the grounds,

Located off Main Street in Manayunk, Venice Island serves as both a recreational community gathering space and a stormwater management site.

(Left) Noah Herman sits in the island’s performing arts center.

it is clear that water has played a pivotal role in the planning. Rainwater is directed in an intricate, graceful path that ultimately diverts into rain gardens surrounding the theater, parking lots and pathways below. The undulating lines and curves of these rainwater channels deliberately invoke the movement of water in their design. Mural Arts Philadelphia brought their artistic vision to the project, and artist Eurhi Jones completed an installation entitled “Waterways” that stretched across Manayunk for roughly 10 blocks, paying tribute to the water-dwelling wildlife in the area, with the intent of creating a pathway of images for residents to follow to the island.

The installations throughout Manayunk were temporary, but her work, featuring vinyl images of flowing water and shad, permanently adorns the terraced rain garden.

One of the things that makes Venice Island such a remarkable place is the comprehensive thoughtfulness of the design. Large sections of green roof on both the pump house and community center aid water consumption on the island by filling cisterns and channeling runoff into the garden trenches throughout.

In the planning process, landscape architects retained as many existing trees as possible and integrated existing boulders into elements of design in the gardens. They carved and carefully situated chunks of the bedrock removed to make way for the underground storage tank.

The environmental innovation of the island’s design has garnered recognition from the community. In 2015, it received the Groundbreaker Award from the Delaware Valley Green Building Council for its

excellence and leadership in the green building community and industry. Venice Island was also named a 2015 “Best of Philly” winner for Best Urban Space Transformation, as well as Environmental Project of the Year

by The Construction Management Association of America’s Mid-Atlantic Chapter.

Noah Herman, Community Partnerships and Arts Curator, beams with pride as he shows off the facility: “What makes this location so unique is its true function as a multiple-use site. You have an underground wastewater storage basin, pumping station, and, at eye level, basketball and volleyball courts, an outdoor amphitheater, children’s spray park, and an indoor 250-seat performing arts center, with abundant public parking.”

On a recent visit, Herman showed me the many island amenities, including the zen garden, populated with boulders salvaged from the original site, now chiseled with visual nods to the river. He pointed out the splash pads and misters above the stormwater garden, designed to further celebrate water in the landscape design.

Herman found his way to Venice Island through a love of theater. He happened to connect with the city’s human resources department just at the moment when they were hiring for the newly-created position he now holds. Before Herman, all of the programming for the theater and outdoor events was handled by Parks & Recreation staff. “Up until now, we have been run by our rec leaders. We have two rec

What makes this location so unique is its true function as a multiple-use site.”

— noah herman, Community Partnerships and Arts Curator

leaders just like every other rec center in the city. They have been the stage managers, technical directors, sound designers and production managers, and they have been fantastic, but they juggle all of this [while] doing everything else required just to keep the doors open and maintain the grounds.”

“I hope to make this a viable regional theater with expanded innovative programming,” adds Herman. He has plans for a Shakespeare by The Schuylkill summertime series and a play about watershed issues that will “celebrate the beautiful outdoor space and tie in to the multipurpose nature of the facility, giving a platform to the integrated purpose of sustainability shared with the theater.”

“I mean, how many community theater and stormwater management centers do you see?”

AP RIL 20 20 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 31

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Saunders Woods Preserve, Gladwyne, PA | 25 acres Photo by Ted Vanderlaan AP RIL 20 20 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 33

A NDRE W A B B OT T A LON A BRA MSON CH A RLES A DZ EMA CA RINA A HR EN G REGORY ALOI A VICTORIA AQU I LON E CH RIS A RG ERA KI S

Dear readers: Like many other small businesses, Grid has been adversely and dramatically affected by the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus. We will continue to post COVID-19 related resources online at gridphilly.com, and to devote the pages of our print publication to sustainability, which has never felt more relevant. I’d like to thank all of our subscribers for supporting us, and I’d like to invite anyone who has considered subscribing—$2.99, $4.99 or $9.99 a month—to do so. Thank you.

—alex mulcahy, publisher

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Investing in sustainable energy A Penn student designs her degree around the industries that power change VIRTUAL CAFÉ Join the MES program director from 12-1 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for an online chat about your interests and goals.

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“Electricity catalyzes economic growth,” says Hayley McCurdy (Master of Environmental Studies ’20—expected). “That’s what allows you to have lights on for your kids to study at night or allows you to put a fridge in your store.” Now in her second year of Penn’s Master of Environmental Studies program, Hayley has designed a curriculum tailored to her interests in energy, economic development, and environmental stewardship: her individualized concentration in energy management has provided her the experience, expertise, and connections she needs to pursue a career in impact investment. “The MES program has been really flexible and supportive of students taking their experience into their own hands and figuring out how to optimize their time here,” says Hayley.

At Penn, Hayley has the opportunity to take classes across the University and connect to students from a wide range of disciplines. “I love hearing from different students about how they are thinking about their goals in life and how they plan to tackle climate change,” she says. “Climate change respects no boundaries, so it’s important to understand how it is going to affect every student when they enter their professional fields.”

To learn more about how Hayley’s individualized curriculum helped her develop her interests into opportunities, visit:

www.upenn.edu/grid

36 GRID P H IL LY.CO M A P R IL 2020