Category: Uncategorized

Transform Your Yard: Grass Removal, Pollinators, & Native Plants

Photo from Michelle’s website, Wild About Native Plants

Wednesday, April 24 on Zoom

7:00pm – 8:30pm EST

Free

Regenerate biodiversity and ecosystem function in your own yard! This Darby Creek Valley Association (DCVA) and Lower Merion Conservancy online event will detail ways to make small yet meaningful changes in your garden. The presenters will also share resources for making bigger changes, finding volunteer opportunities, and getting free native plant plugs from local organizations. 

Presenters include Michelle Detwiler from Wild About Native Plants and Jamie Anderson from the Lower Merion Conservancy and the Eastern Delaware County Stormwater Collaborative. A member of the Coopertown Beautification Crew will describe how they started a grassroots neighborhood initiative after transforming their own yard. 

Register

Sponsor the Lower Merion Conservancy

Sponsor the Lower Merion Conservancy Gala to help support our mission all year long. All sponsors will be invited to a private cocktail hour and tour at the Barnes Arboretum. Contact Kat Hassinger at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Diamond – $10,000

  • Center-stage recognition and exclusive marketing table at the Gala
  • Premium name placement on Gala invitation and all pre-event materials
  • Feature story in The Steward, the Conservancy’s quarterly newsletter (circulation 2,000)
  • Eight complimentary, transferable tickets to the Gala, valued at $1,400
  • Top logo placement on the Conservancy’s website with a link to your company’s website
  • Recognition in Gala press releases and advertising

Platinum – $5,000

  • Premium recognition placement on Gala invitation and all pre-event materials
  • Acknowledgment in The Steward, the Conservancy’s quarterly newsletter
  • Six complimentary transferable tickets to the Gala, valued at $1,050
  • Logo placement on the Conservancy’s website with a link to your company’s website
  • Center-stage recognition at the Gala
  • Recognition in Gala press releases and advertising

Gold – $3,000

  • Premium recognition on Gala invitation and all pre-event materials
  • Acknowledgment in The Steward, the Conservancy’s quarterly newsletter
  • Four complimentary transferable tickets to the Gala, valued at $700
  • Logo placement on the Conservancy’s website with a link to your company’s website
  • Center-stage recognition at the Gala
  • Recognition in Gala press releases and advertising

Silver – $1,000

  • Recognition on Gala invitation and pre-event materials
  • Acknowledgment in The Steward, the Conservancy’s quarterly newsletter
  • Two complimentary transferable tickets to the Gala, valued at $350
  • Logo placement on the Conservancy’s website with a link to your company’s website

Bronze – $500

  • Recognition on Gala invitation and pre-event materials
  • Acknowledgment in The Steward, the Conservancy’s quarterly newsletter
  • Logo placement on the Conservancy’s website with a link to your company’s website

2025 Sponsors

Diamond

Platinum

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Lower Merion Conservancy Gala 2024

The Home of Jim and Erika Krieg

27 Evans Lane, Haverford, PA 19041

Thursday, June 6, 2024

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

The 2024 Annual Gala is sold out.

We appreciate everyone’s support! If you would like to make a donation to the Conservancy, click the “Donate” button below.

Donate

 

2024 Sponsors

Diamond

Platinum

Gold

Silver

Bronze

The Great Schuylkill to Susquehanna Passage – From the 1600s to Today’s Rail-Trail

Thursday, March 21

7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. on Zoom

Free

Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill to Susquehanna Major Greenway, designated in 2021, was inspired by the Greenway’s Native American predecessor – the Great Minquas Trail. A 1926 plaque marks the trail where it crossed Ridley Creek in Rose Valley PA, noting that “thousands of beaver skins yearly were carried down to Dutch and Swedish settlers on the Delaware.”

A network of rail-trails that follows this passage will soon link Harrisburg to Philadelphia. Join us for a Zoom presentation by trail and preservation architect Bob Thomas. Bob has worked on developing many parts of this new greenway.

Register Here

The Pollinator Pathway and Building Essential Wildlife Habitat with Keystone Native Plants

A hummingbird visiting a Lobelia cardinalis flower. See more photos on Michelle’s website: Wild About Native Plants.

Thursday, April 11

7:00 p.m. on Zoom

Free

 
Join us for a yearly check-in about gardens of the Lower Merion and Narberth Pollinator Pathway.  Do you have successes and challenges to share?  Would you like to know how to join?  Connect with others who are making similar efforts to incorporate native plants, remove ecologically unfriendly species, minimize chemical use, and leave habitat for overwintering wildlife. Ecological garden designer Michelle Detwiler will discuss ways to use keystone native plants in your space. Learn how to incorporate these species first to maximize ecological benefits to the local food web.  
 
If you’d like to share an image of your garden in any season on the Pollinator Pathway, please email it to Michelle in advance at wildaboutnativeplants@gmail.com.
 
Register Here

One Water

Wednesday, October 25th

6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

The Barnes Arboretum at St. Joseph’s University

50 Lapsley Lane, Merion Station, PA 19066

FREE

Join us for an open dialogue and conversation about how all of the water in our world is connected. The talk will explore the components of the water cycle, the meaning of “watershed”, and the basics of water and sewage treatment.

Our speaker, Dottie Baumgarten, is an educator at Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center.  She has been working for Philadelphia Water Department since 2009 as a tour guide, in outreach, and as a speaker addressing classrooms of children, college students, and adult community members. Her talks include Watershed, Drinking Water Treatment, Sewage Treatment, and related topics.

The mission statement for Fairmount Water Works is: “We educate citizens about Philadelphia’s urban watershed – its past, present, and future – and collaborate with partners to instill an appreciation for the connections between daily life and the natural environment”.
 

Seesaws, Swings and ‘Giant Strides’: The Historic Playgrounds of Lower Merion and Narberth

The playground lecture scheduled for Tuesday, November 14 has been postponed!
 
We will be rescheduling this lecture for the spring, at which time we invite you to join our three speakers as we talk about the fascinating history of playground planning in Lower Merion and Narberth. Stay tuned! 

Together, Lower Merion and Narberth are home to more than a dozen childrens’ playgrounds. This is not happenstance! During the first few decades of the twentieth century, the township and borough, like many communities across the country, made playground planning a top priority. At this lecture, we invite you to learn about the history of our many playgrounds, the impetus for their creation, and the longstanding importance of these spaces to neighborhoods in which they are located.

Speakers include Kathleen Abplanalp (Director of Historic Preservation at the Lower Merion Conservancy), Greg Prichard (Historic Preservation Planner for Lower Merion Township), and Rob Armstrong (Park Historian).

Master Plan of Recreation – 1937
Ashbridge Park – 1941

5th Annual Mushroom Jerky-Off and Halloween Fungi Social

Sunday, October 29

3pm to 7pm

Lower Merion Conservancy Cottage in Rolling Hill Park

1301 Rose Glen Road, Gladwyne, PA 19035

FREE

Join us as we co-host the Philly Myco Club’s fall social. The event is free but we ask that you register so we can get a headcount. Read the Philly Myco Club’s event description below for more information.

For the 5th year in a row we’ll be getting together to socialize, eat, carve pumpkins, and see who makes the best maitake (or other mushroom) jerky. Everyone is invited! This year we are also doing a costume contest, mushroom themed costumes are highly encouraged. Winner will receive a Philly Myco Club (PMC) merch bundle and bragging rights.

** IF YOU ARE BRINGING A DISH to share please make a list of all the ingredients used, to be displayed on the table. We will provide index cards if you need them. If your dish contains wild mushrooms that you foraged, please make sure that you had them properly identified, and preferably retain pictures of the mushroom you cooked (on your phone, etc).

From 3:30 to 4:30 we will have a guided mushroom walk around the property. We will have a mushroom ID table so bring your recent finds for identification! We will also have PMC merch for sale.

Snacks and drinks will be provided but you are encouraged to bring something to share if you’d like. This event is free and paid for by donations to the PMC.

Meet near the Lower Merion Conservancy Cottage, off to the left as you drive into the park, away from the dog park.

Register

Saving the Ice: A Documentary Film About the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society

Tuesday, October 3

Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society

220 Holland Avenue, Ardmore, PA 19003

 

Wine and cheese reception begins at 6:00 p.m.

Film showing starts at 6:30 p.m. and runs for approximately two hours

 

You are invited to join the Lower Merion Conservancy at a screening of the film, “Saving the Ice.” This documentary, produced by the award-winning filmmaker, John Badalamenti, explores the history of the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society – a local landmark of international significance.

The Conservancy is delighted to have participated in the filming of a project that so thoughtfully considers the impact of this storied institution on the history of figure skating in America.

 
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