We are very pleased to annouce that 64 people showed up at our March Trail Maintenance Day in the Wissahickon Valley Park, sponsored by FOW. We completed numerous projects along the Yellow Trail between Wises Mill Rd and Janette St on the Roxborough side of the park. 

We logged a massive 291.5 volunteer hours, which is the most since we stared these volunteer days!!! We had 17 Temple students show up and contribute a huge amount of work. We want to offer our special thanks! 29 PMBA members joined forces with volunteers from other organizations like FOW and Wissahickon Wonderers as well as many concerned and dedicated neighborhood volunteers.

Special thanks and props need to go out to the crew leaders: Tom Coyle, Paul Harris, Lou Harris, Dave Dannenberg, Heidi Grunwald, Dmitri Zorine, Dan Mercer, Kevin Groves and Jan Deruiter. These people handled the huge crowd with professionalism and made sure everyone was productive and got involved.

There are so many more people to thank that it is difficult, from Jesse Kelly for making the sign-up tent look professional and handling the crowd, to Nick Fortune for picking up the pizzas, to High Point Coffee in Mt Airy for donating coffee once again, to the FOW for loaning their tools, Kevin and equipment, including the brand new Canycom tracked/motorized dumper.

On Feb 9th, about 15 PMBA members volunteered their Saturday morning to join forces with FOW and FPC staff to make improvements in the Wissahickon Park, near Daisy Field.  Volunteers worked for about four hours picking up trash, removing invasive bamboo, and restoring eroded areas of trail--taking a break for lunch to enjoy tomato pie from T&F Market and High Point Cafe coffee!  

Here's what was accomplished: 

1. PMBA led a crew for a trail project at a section with poor grade and slope that held water and was always muddy. To make a drainage "knick" we excavated the low spot and made a french drain with lots of rocks, covered it back up with dirt and installed some large rocks as anchors to narrow the trail a bit. This section should prove to be sustainable and not be muddy any longer. 
2. Removal of at least 3000 lbs of trash including:  13 tires, a sofa, shopping carts, a 1920's era furnace, and concrete slabs!
3. About 1/4 of a huge patch of invasive bamboo was removed (FOW will return to the site for further clearing)
4. 16 crates of recyclable bottles and cans collected and removed! 
   

PMBA Members help out FOW

Thanks to those who helped out! Please check out these pictures:

Photos

 More Photos

Since the PMBA Trail Maintenance Day in Dec was so close to the Holidays, we cancelled. However, as usual, PMBA members showed up in FORCE to help out the Friends of Wissahickon with their monthly volunteer work day on Sat 12/8. 45 volunteers donated over 250 hours to a variety of projects in an area that really needed our help (Yellow Trail near Gorgas Lane) and will continue to need it.

What can be said about people who are so passionate about making the Wissahickon Valley Park a better place that they devote their free time to volunteer and do trail maintenance and improvements? Not enough, that’s for sure. You see, month in and month out, these dedicated and generous people join forces and get down and dirty and bring meaning to the human spirit.  Ok, trail work is not rocket science, but the level of creativity, teamwork and determination displayed at these volunteer days rivals those who have gone to the moon…

Thirty six people, PMBA & FOW members, joined forces and contributed 209 total hours to tackle the trail project along the White Trail off of Livezeys Lane which we cancelled back in October.

Major projects completed: