URBAN ECOLOGY BLOG

We love connecting students to nature. Spending time in nature has a host of benefits, and it leads to life-long change and growth. Sometimes it also leads directly into action.

With our Steward Christian Kelly from The USchool we saw this happen on Feb. 25th, when Chri...

Your average Naturalist has a close relationship to their books. Now, I’m not saying it needs to work that way or works that way for everyone; I’m sure that people have been paying close attention to the natural world long before books, and that there’s a lot of folks...

Earlier this month LandHealth Institute moved into shared office space with Neighborhood Bike Works. Why would an organization dedicated to connecting people with Nature move in with an organization dedicated to strengthening community through providing equitable acces...

At LandHealth Institute, we have a special interest in neglected urban land. Neglected land in a city isn’t just an eyesore or a place that attracts crime and illegal dumping. It can be those things- but, if it’s taken care of, it can also become a place of possibility...

At LandHealth Institute, our mission is to restore connections between nature and people. 

You are already connected with nature in so many ways. You breath air full of oxygen exhaled by plants, drink water that has cycled through the rivers and the oceans countless tim...

Imagine a vacant lot in Philadelphia. There’s probably some grasses, some weeds, some trash. Maybe there’s a tree. Maybe there’s illegal dumping. If the neighbors are lucky, it’s mowed and taken care of- if they’re unlucky, it’s a mess.

How big is the lot you’ve imagine...

LandHealth Institute hosts an urban native plant nursery right next to parkside avenue. In addition to growing native plants for both sale and our own projects, we use this greenhouse for a variety of educational programming.

One program of which we’re particularly prou...

Our last post mentioned the plight of the Monarch butterfly, and how Philadelphia, as an urban area, is uniquely positioned to help ameliorate this plight. Well, this spring one of our Philadelphia Water Stewards, Christian Kelly of the USchool, decided to take action...

Even though most people can’t identify any butterflies, I’d be willing to bet that of those who can identify a butterfly, most of them can identify a Monarch. It’s orange and black, it’s large, it flies slowly and out in the open, and it often occurs in large numbers....

LandHealth’s Philadelphia Watershed Steward (PWS) program and Urban Promise from Camden’s RiverGuides ran a program exchange. Students visited each other’s locations and shared what they had learned.

PWS, a program for high school students LHI runs with support from PWD...