The Arboretum is involved in the community.  Arboretum employees don't necessarily just work at the Arboretum.  Many of our employees either work on projects off of the Arboretum grounds, or volunteer outside of the Arboretum.

Tree Vitalize
Tree Vitalize is a major new tree-planting project in the Philadelphia area whose mission is to remediate the decline of the tree canopy in residential areas of the Southeastern Pennsylvania region.  Historically, this region has had a healthy amount of tree cover, composed of street trees and landscape trees in residential neighborhoods, and wild-grown trees in parks and woodlots.  However, a recent study has shown that there has been a major decline in the tree cover in the area.  This has mostly been due to the fact that old, diseased, hazardous or dead trees are being removed, but not replaced by new ones.  (It is estimated that a net of over 5 million trees have been lost in the five-county region since 1990.)  The Morris Arboretum has received a William Penn Foundation grant to assist Tree Vitalize in its effort to re-plant the lost urban forest of the region.  The goal is to plant more than 20,000 new shade trees and 2,000 acres of forested riparian buffers in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties between 2004 and 2007.

The Thomas Mill Ravine
Recently the Arboretum's staff and local volunteer groups have been involved in conservation and restoration work in the Wissahickon Park.  Although it is part of the City of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, the Wissahickon Park is geographically separated from most of the rest of Fairmount Park.  The rugged terrain and native vegetation community types make Wissahickon Park vulnerable to stream bank degradation, as well as soil erosion along some of the more steeply-sloped trails.  Organizations such as the Friends of the Wissahickon, the Wissahickon Garden Club, and local schools have helped by donating their valuable time and efforts to restoring parts of the park, especially in the Thomas Mill Ravine section.

Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees
The Arboretum is a partner in Philadelphia's Annual Cherry Blossom Festival, a project of the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia (JASGP).   In addition to the Festival, JASGP plants 100 flowering cherry trees in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park each year.  Between 1998 and 2004, they planted 700 trees!   Many of these trees stand along either side of the Schuylkill River upstream from Center City, Philadelphia.  In 2005, another 100 flowering cherry trees are scheduled to be planted at the Belmont Plateau.  The ultimate goal is to plant a total of 1,000 trees in ten years.  The Arboretum assists JASGP in the technical aspects of planting these trees.

 

Rowers on the Schuylkill River pass a group of Japanese flowering cherry trees planted
by the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia. (photo credit: Paul Meyer)

 

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