The principle mission of the Natural Lands Restoration and Environmental Education Program (NLREEP) is to undertake ecosystem restoration in seven watershed and estuary parks.  To achieve this, in 1998 the Park partnered with the Patrick Center for Environmental Research at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) to work with Park staff and interested community members and organizations to formulate restoration goals, conduct an assessment of park conditions, identify sites where restoration is needed and can be effective and develop recommended restoration activities for these sites.

The scope of the ANSP?’s work included:

• Developing goals and guiding principles for the restoring of the park's  natural areas.

• Compiling and examining historical information on plants and animals of the Fairmount Park system from taxonomic collections, published literature and other sources.

• Mapping vegetation type and disturbance from aerial photography, floristic surveys and ground surveys. 

• Conducting surveys to identify birds, reptile, amphibians, fish, aquatic macroinvertabrates, mollusks and several groups of terrestrial insects.

• Assessing the physical and biological conditions of all streams.

• Compiling data from various sources using a Geographic Information System (GIS) linked to databases on the flora and fauna of the parks and proposed restoration sites.

In addition, the Fairmount Park Commission (FPC) and the ANSP organized a series of public meetings to interact with stakeholders and to provide a base of support for restoration.  Over 20 public meetings were held throughout the park system over a three-year period.  At the meetings, the project team provided an overview of the environmental health of each park and reviewed drafts of the preliminary and final lists of recommended restoration sites and actions.  The meetings included a question and answer session that enabled attendees to learn more about their park?’s ecosystems and provide feedback to the project team.

In an effort to further involve community members in the restoration planning process, and to augment the technical information about the park system?’s natural environments, NLREEP undertook a ?‘community mapping?’ initiative in each park.  Community mapping is the process of actively engaging residents of the neighborhoods adjacent to the parks to help the project team better understand how the park is used, both currently and historically.  The purposes of community mapping were:

?· To increase the effectiveness of restoration activities within the parks.

?·  To increase the FPC staff awareness of the community?’s use of the parks.

?·  To increase the community?’s understanding of the park?’s natural areas.

?·  To better inform decision-making about which restoration activities should occur and where.

The community mapping initiatives involved interested neighbors, led by FPC staff, in walks through sections of each park.  Participants noted human impacts on the park by mapping key indicators of abuse such as trash, graffiti and invasive vegetation, as well as positive uses such as picnicking, sledding and fishing.  Specific results were provided to the ANSP to aid in the selection of potential restoration sites and activities.  A general overview of the way the park is used, as determined by the mapping exercises, was shared with community members at the public meetings.

The result of the ANSP?’s inventory and assessment work and the community mapping process was the preparation of Natural Lands Restoration Master Plan for each park.  The master plans contain a total of 452 recommended high-priority restoration sites in the seven parks.  The types of restoration activities proposed in the plans include:

?· Controlling exotic invasive plants and replanting with species native to Philadelphia County.

?·  Increasing the width of riparian and forest edge buffers.

?·  Reducing the amount of mowed area, where the areas are not currently used for active recreation.

?·  Management of meadows, including periodic mowing to control tree growth.

?·  Constructing new and restoring/expanding existing wetlands.

?·  Removing or modifying existing dams. 

?·  Reopening (?‘daylighting?’) existing covered and channelized streams.

?·  Stabilizing streambanks using bioengineering techniques.

?·  Repairing gullies and installing small check dams, brush piles and other methods to control erosion.

?·  Constructing berms and buffer strips to control storm flow off of impervious surfaces and mown areas.

?·  Reintroducing fish, butterfly and other animal species not currently represented in the parks.

?·  Controlling access to reduce trash dumping and damage by vehicles.

Park staff have worked with consultants to prepare site-specific restoration plans for some of these high priority sites.  Many projects have been completed and others continue to be implemented.  Some of these are large contractor projects such as streambank stabilization and wetland creation.  In addition, a myriad of volunteer projects, such as invasive plant control native plant installation are occurring throughout the parks year-round.  

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