MLK Day volunteers clean up ‘the land that time forgot’ in Roxborough and Manayunk
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<p>Cleanup at Germany Hill in Manayunk involved picking up trash and beer cans left along a trail. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Two Ivy Ridge Green volunteers call it a day near the Ottinger Track. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>A sign states the in-progress work on the Ottinger Track along the Schuylkill River Banks in Roxborough. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Trash and debris is collected along Ottinger Track by Volunteers partcipating in Ivy Ridge Green's Martin Luther King Day clean up. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Tools at rest Monday during Ivy Ridge Green's Martin Luther King Day Cleanup. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Kerrie Courtman, a volunteer and student form St. Joe's University, helps clear up growth along The Schuylkill River Bike Trail. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Hannah Dionne and a four legged helper take a break along the Schuylkill River Bike Trail Monday. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Tom Landsmann explains how the Schuylkill River Bike Trail was recently widened and the importance of keeping vines and other invasive plants at bay. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Rich Giordano, who is Vice President of the Upper Roxborough Civic Association, trims back vines along the Schuylkill River Bike Trail. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Volunteers move to a new section of the Schuylkill River bike trail to clear invaisve growth during Ivy Ridge Green's MLK Day of service. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Glen Brixey, a volunteer and student from the University of Pennsylvania, removes a tire and picks up trash at Germany Hill Monday. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Marlene Schleifer trims branches at Germany Hill in Manayunk during Ivy Ridge Green's Martin Luther King Day cleanups. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Matt Moxey of Ivy Ridge Green uses a saw to get rid of brush from around an abandoned car at Germany Hill Monday, he hoped to try and remove the car. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Mary Schmitt clears vines and invasive plants at Germany Hill in Manayunk during Ivy Ridge Green's Martin Luther King Day cleanups. (Brad Larrison/For NewsWorks)</p>
Youth members of Moriah Baptist Church shuffled through dead leaves on Monday morning. Clearing away branches and pushing aside roots, they scavenged hundreds of broken bottle pieces from a small ridge in the Ottinger Tract: an isolated portion of Fairmount Park in Shawmont.
To Mimi Volker, a 16-year resident of the neighborhood, Shawmont itself feels pretty secluded. Reflecting on her historic Schuylkill riverfront community, Volker smiled. “It’s kind of the land that time forgot,” she said.
Volker was one of several locals who worked with students to restore habitats as part of a cold Martin Luther King, Jr. day of service. Ivy Ridge Green, a local landscaping collective, hosted the volunteers for a conservation project at three locations: the Ottinger Tract and the Schuylkill Heritage Bike Trail in Roxborough, and Germany Hill in Manayunk. At the sites, students – including those from St. Joe’s University and Penn Charter – planted trees, cut invasive vines, and picked up trash.
In the Shawmont section of Roxborough, vans and station wagons dropped off young adults at the intersection of Nixon Street and the Schuylkill Heritage Bike Trail. After directing drivers, Maggie Effinger told young workers to grab a soft pretzel and sign a volunteer waiver before they separated into smaller groups and headed to cleanup areas.
Effinger heads the Roxborough, Manayunk, and Wissahickon chapter of Tree Tenders, a tree planting and care program funded by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. According to Effinger, Pennsylvania’s tree canopy has diminished by 70 percent over the past 20 years because of factors like disease and development.
In its three and a half years of operation, the Roxborough, Manayunk and Wissachickon branch of Tree Tenders has planted more than 400 trees. Effinger and site leader Tom Landsman helped students understand tree care as they instructed them to take lopper tools and reviewed the differences between branches and invasive vines.
Down the road at Ottinger Tract, Mimi Volker showed one volunteer how to cut invasive growths at their base, and how to identify “fuzzy” substances on vines as poison ivy.
Kay Sykora, Director of the Schuylkill Project, and other local residents worked alongside 11 young members of Moriah Baptist Church to plant saplings at either end of the park and to pick up trash.
Sykora said the cleanup began as a neighborhood initiative to preserve the land. Gathering bottle fragments, she acknowledged the large and detailed scope of the conservation project, which has been underway for over a year. Still, she is encouraged by the energy that so many people have for “greening and restoration work.” Next to her, the Moriah Baptist youth group, ranging in age from 15 to 27, laughed and talked as they filled heavy brown bags with flattened, faded beer cans, rags, and empty food containers.
Youth leader Eric Jean-Simon says that the Ottinger Tract cleanup is the first environmental service project completed by his group, which hopes to start volunteer work at least once a month.
“We want to do as much as we can,” said Jean-Simone, “to try to help the community as a whole.”
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