Community Canopy Project

05/22/2026

05/18/2026

Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) is perhaps the most abundant invasive shrub in the Philadelphia area. This morning, we teamed up with Fort Washington State Park volunteers to clear them out of a wooded area that will be planted later this fall!

We also removed other invasive shrubs like Border Privet (Ligustrum obtusifolium) and Dahurian Buckthorn (Rhamnus davurica). Thanks to all who joined us!

Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

05/17/2026

We planted 14 native trees at Valley Green Park in Whitemarsh Township this morning! Thanks to all who joined us for this delayed Arbor Day celebration event - a requirement to retain the township's Tree City designation. We've now planted 50 total native trees here since 2021!

Our plantings were concentrated mainly on the low end of the park where water collects. We're hoping these trees will help soak up rainwater for decades to come! Because our planting site was on soils derived from limestone bedrock, we used species that are tolerant of higher soil pH:
- 4x Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis)
- 3x Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
- 3x American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)
- 1x Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus)
- 1x American Linden (Tilia americana)
- 1x Princeton Elm (Ulmus americana 'Princeton')
- 1x Chinkapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii)

Whitemarsh Parks

05/11/2026

A rain garden full of native plants will now begin to soak up stormwater next to the Conshohocken Borough municipal building! Thanks so much to all who joined for a collaborative event with Friends of Conshohocken Parks and the Conshohocken Environmental Advisory Council.

We planted over 20 native shrubs and several hundred herbaceous wildflowers and grasses to fill the space. The water-loving plants, including most of the shrubs, went at the bottom of the rain garden, where water will pool and sink into the soil during large rain events. Species that prefer drier soils went up higher on the slopes and on top.

We covered most of this area in late March with cardboard and mulch to suppress and eliminate the grass and weeds. Plugs were planted about 1.5' on center and will ideally grow to fill in the gaps over the next year.

100 of these plants were generously provided by Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve through their Plant Grants! This program enlists a broader audience to help advance their mission: “Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve increases the knowledge and use of native plants by serving as an educational resource and destination that inspires conservation action". Thank you, Bowman's Hill!

Thank you also to the Conshy Public Services team for providing mulch and helping to water after things were planted!

Shrubs planted:
- 7x Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillata)
- 5x Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum)
- 3x Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa)
- 2x P***y Willow (Salix discolor)
- 2x Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)
- 2x Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
- 1x Steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa)

Herbaceous plants (moist / wet):
- Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea)
- Helen's Flower (Helenium autumnale)
- Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
- Hollow Joe Pye W**d (Eutrochium fistulosum)

Herbaceous plants (average / dry):
- Clustered Mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum)
- Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
- Broomsedge (Anatherum virginicum)
- Rough Goldenrod 'Fireworks' (Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks')
- Little Bluestem 'Standing Ovation' (Schizachyrium scoparium 'Standing Ovation')
- Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)
- New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)
- Lyre-leaf sage (Salvia lyrata)
- Coastal Plain Joe-Pye W**d (Eutrochium dubium)

05/11/2026

Our first ever event in the Borough of Bridgeport was a success, thanks to the over 30 volunteers who joined us from Seagis Property Group, Wells Fargo, and from the local community! We planted 14 native trees throughout Bridgeport Memorial Park, which will add some younger trees to an aging canopy.

The northeast section of the park features a small remnant oak woodland that contains mature Chestnut Oak (Quercus montana), Black Oak (Q. velutina), and White Oak (Q. alba), with Azure Bluet (Houstonia caerulea), Deertongue grass (Dichanthelium clandestinum), and P***ytoes (Antennaria spp) in the understory.

Therefore, our planting list consisted mostly of species that would have been found in this rocky ridgetop forest - we planted 3 White Oaks, 2 Chestnut Oaks, 2 Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica), 1 Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), and a Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata). We also planted 2 Willow Oaks (Quercus phellos) along Grove Street, which will take the place of two declining Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum), and an Eastern Red-Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and a Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) atop the hill near the basketball courts.

Thanks to all who joined us to help, including Bridgeport borough Public Works team, members of Borough Council, Bridgeport residents, and many others.

05/06/2026

Join us this Saturday!

Join us this Saturday for our Rain Garden Planting Event 🌱
�🕘 9:30 AM – 1 PM📍 Borough Hall

Bring sunscreen, a hat, gloves, and a shovel if you have one.

Sign up via the link in our story or bio, or copy and paste it into your browser!

https://www.givepulse.com/event/844108-conshohocken-borough-rain-garden-installation

04/25/2026

Yesterday, we spent Arbor Day planting 17 native trees at Historic Hope Lodge with volunteers and with an awesome team from Concord Hospitality based in Conshy! Last winter, this wooded area was impressively cleared of invasive trees and shrubs by our friend and dedicated Hope Lodge volunteer, Phil Williams.

These woods are located on the Ledger formation, which is primarily composed of dolostone and limestone that weather to yield a higher soil pH. Therefore, we chose species that are more tolerant of alkaline soils to fill in the gaps left by invasive species removal:
- 3x bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
- 3x hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) - found in existing woods
- 3x American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) - found in existing woods
- 3x eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)
- 2x sugar maple (Acer saccharum) - found in existing woods

One Malus 'Prairifire' was planted within the formal garden area to replace a crabapple that was previously removed.

CCP board member and volunteer, Tam Paulits, brought an additional northern red oak (Quercus rubra) and red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) that were planted on site!

Thanks so much to all who joined us and helped make this event a success!

04/20/2026

Last week, we worked with an amazing group of students and teachers from The Pathway School in West Norriton to plant two Eastern Redbud (Cercis candensis) trees on their campus!

As part of their earth day celebrations, students helped to dig the holes, loosen the root balls, find the root flares, plant, mulch, fence, and water the two new trees. Well done, students!

Thanks to your generous donations and support of Community Canopy Project, we are able to fund projects like these - providing all of the materials, plants, and expertise to ensure that these trees will have a lasting impact on students and on the campus aesthetics. Thank you for your continued support!

04/20/2026

So great to work with the great students and teachers at The Pathway School!

04/15/2026

Our restoration efforts are making a real impact! 🌸

In early March, we teamed up with Journeywork and Wissahickon Restoration Volunteers to pull invasive groundcover vines from the "old growth" woods at Harriet Wetherill Park in Plymouth Meeting. We focused on this area because it's home to the only patch of bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) that we know of on public land in Plymouth Meeting! We've held an event here each winter since 2023 to focus on this effort.

Andrew Conboy (CCP) recently returned to the target area to count the number of bloodroot stems and to admire their beautiful but short-lived flowers. He counted 210 total bloodroot stems, and 47 of them were currently flowering or producing seeds!

In areas where volunteers have removed English ivy and Japanese honeysuckle, Andrew noticed that bloodroot clumps were more dense, contained larger leaves, and produced more flowers! In areas where we have yet to focus our efforts (photo 5), bloodroot clumps had fewer stems, fewer flowers, and smaller leaves. In addition, he found new bloodroot plants growing beyond the observed patch size from last year.

Our efforts are clearly helping this patch thrive! Thanks again to those who joined us over the last 4 winters here.

04/14/2026

This past weekend, we worked with the Barley Sheaf community, a local HOA in East Norriton Township, to begin converting a third of an acre of mowed grass back to woodland!

This small retention basin is within 300ft on Stony Creek, and the native trees and shrubs that volunteers planted today will help improve water quality and wildlife habitat, reduce flooding, and reduce the mowing that the HOA will have to do!

Thanks to all who joined us! We planted 63 native trees and shrubs over the course of these two events. Here's our full planting list:
- 4x Asimina triloba
- 4x Ulmus americana (thanks to Matt who donated these trees via USFS breeding resistant varieities!)
- 4x Celtis occidentalis
- 4x Cercis candensis
- 4x Liriodendron tulipifera
- 3x Quercus bicolor
- 3x Acer saccharinum
- 3x Gleditsia triacanthos
- 3x Carpinus caroliniana
- 3x Tilia americana
- 3x Aronia melanocarpa
- 3 Cornus amomum
- 2x Platanus occidentalis
- 2x Nyssa sylvatica
- 2x Sambucus canadensis
- 2x Lindera benzoin
- 2x Viburnum lentago
- 2x Ostrya virginiana
- 2x Corylus americana
- 2x Quercus macrocarpa
- 1x Salix nigra
- 1x Betula nigra
- 1x Amelanchier laevis
- 1x Crataegus marshallii
- 1x Diospyros virginiana
- 1x Juglans nigra