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Grants to fund restoration efforts at park in Ambler

Thu Oct 29, 2009 / Watershed Land Collaborative

Thursday, October 29, 2009

By Thomas Celona

Ambler has received two grants that will pay for efforts to restore the natural habitat of its borough park.

And community volunteers will take the first steps toward revitalizing the park on Saturday.

The borough received a one-year $15,975 grant from TreeVitalize and a three-year $59,650 grant from Merck & Co. Inc. The grant money will be used to fund efforts to widen the riparian buffer that exists along the banks of Rose Valley Creek in the park.

A riparian buffer is an area of vegetation near a stream that helps protect the water from nearby land usage.

The buffer, which is currently 5 feet, will be widened to 10 feet. Increasing the buffer will help to "improve water quality by filtering pollution out before it reaches the creek, improve flood management by slowing down runoff and improve wildlife habitat," according to a prepared statement.

Doubling the size of the riparian buffer will have a major benefit for stormwater management, according to Susan Curry, chairwoman of both the Ambler Environmental Advisory Committee and Ambler Tree Tenders.

"It slows down rain water and stormwater runoff," she said. "The trees absorb some of that water and transpire it out into the air. The slowing down of this stormwater runoff helps prevent erosion along the banks."

At its July 7 committee meeting, Ambler council voted to apply for the TreeVitalize grant, which will be matched by $2,700 from the borough and by several other donations from individuals.

By receiving the grant from Merck, the park becomes one of six environmental projects funded by the company in compliance with a fine issued by the Department of Environmental Protection.

"Merck allowed for a spill of toxic (material) to happen in the Wissahickon Creek about three years ago, and because of that, they were fined by the DEP," Curry said.

As a result of the June 2006 discharge of pollutants into the creek, Merck must now fund six supplementary environmental projects in the area, according to Curry.

The work will take more than a year to complete. On Saturday, the Ambler Environmental Advisory Council and Ambler Tree Tenders will organize a volunteer effort to remove certain plants to clear space for future tree planting.

Volunteers from various community organizations will remove invasive plants, shrubs, trees and vines, which compete with native species for natural elements and can prevent natural species from surviving.

"Native species provide a great deal more food and habitat for birds and other wild creatures than the invasive species, so they are preferred," Curry said.

The volunteers will focus their efforts on the 3.5 acres downstream of the creek, using saws and clippers to remove vegetation.

Large trees will be removed during the winter by the borough's public works department and other tree professionals. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association has tagged native trees in the park to ensure they are not removed, Curry said.

Once the area has been cleared, planting to widen the riparian barrier is scheduled to begin in the spring.

Another community volunteer day is scheduled for April 10, 2010, when volunteers will plant 300 native trees and shrubs.

The planting portion of the effort is projected to be completed in October 2010 with the planting of another 200 trees, Curry said.

The park was established in 1937 and is near the intersection of Hendricks Street and Edgewood Drive.