Volunteers are Key to Watershed Improvement!

Water Connects Us: Streamkeeper News

Restoring our Creeks

Construction on parking lot islands at

Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel

Last fall, KI worked with TTF and a contractor to install a subsurface stormwater feature to manage the building's 1.25 acre roof. You can read more about this project here.

This fall, retrofit work has begun on the over two acres of parking lot, to reduce polluted runoff volume and velocity, as well as to alleviate heat impact of parking areas like this. Retrofits include 3 rain gardens, several swales and parking lot islands that will be planted with native understory trees and shrubs. A total of 11,000 square feet of asphalt will be removed. The approximately 5,500 square feet of projects will manage over 3.25 acres of stormwater.

View of the headwaters of Shoemaker Run at the Abington Club

In August, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded TTF two Delaware River Restoration Fund grants of over $329,000! The grants will support restoration at two sites:

Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel Additional funding to manage stormwater from the approximately 3.39 acres of impervious surface on the 4.5 acre property.

The Abington Club

Funding to remove obstructions within the stream leading to erosion, as well as to remediate streambanks and reduce velocity in the stream. These efforts mitigate the impact of suburban development on this headwater stream.

Read more about this funding here.

Community Engagement

In November, we hosted a second tour as part of the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed Annual Forum.

Over 20 VIPS and partners joined us to explore restoration sites in Suburban Philadelphia. We were proud to bring this special group to Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, where we discussed the sub-surface storage project and observed the beginnings of the the parking lot retrofit.

You can read more about the Forum here.

TTF Watershed Tour

Our restoration work is important, but so are our communities! That's why we create opportunities to demonstrate to our communities and partners the impact and importance of our collaborative restoration work.

We hosted two visits this Fall. In October, we welcomed community members to several of our restoration sites to show what improving the health of our watershed means in action.

We answered questions about project function as well as how projects are conceived, funded, and implemented. Community members toured the Conklin Pool, Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Sisters of St. Basil and Manor College, and lastly Alverthorpe Park restoration sites. Attendees saw a variety of restoration methods, such as sub-surface storage, rain gardens, wetland restoration and bio swales.

Photos from this tour can be seen here.

Municipal Leadership

The Municipal Task Force met virtually in October, to learn more about ongoing monitoring efforts across the watershed, as well as new and existing restoration efforts. These meetings provide the opportunity for us to hear from our municipal and private partners about their needs and answer any questions they may have, as well as engaging potential partners.

A recording of this meeting is available here.

Creek Nature Series

This year we continued our Creek Nature Series in Cheltenham. This free program was led by environmental educator Judith Gratz and sponsored by TTF and Cheltenham Township.

Attendees explored a variety of nature and watershed topics through walks and activities along Tookany Creek Parkway. Five Saturday sessions were hosted monthly from April through November, attended by a total of 26 residents.

We're looking for your thoughts about programs in Cheltenham in a survey here!

Citizen Science in Action

Another Chloride Blitz!

On a Saturday in late October, we hosted our second chloride blitz of the year.

What is a Chloride Blitz?

It's a sampling event during which volunteers collect water samples from sites across the watershed on the same day, around the same time, to get a snapshot of chloride levels at one time. These sampling events seek to gauge chloride levels in the stream during baseflow conditions outside of the winter season when the most salt is applied to roads.

Ten volunteers sampled a total of 31 sites across many Tookany Creek tributaries and the mainstem. Volunteers collected water samples from each site. The samples were then were analyzed for chlorides using chloride test strips, and conductivity was measured using a calibrated conductivity probe.

Results of this sampling can be seen here. A comparison from both sampling events can be seen here.

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Streamkeepers: A Learning Community

This fall, we hosted two Streamkeeper trainings: the first of these was Izaak Walton League's Salt Watch training.

Streamkeepers have participated in the salt watch for the last several years. The salt watch is a national program that uses chloride test strips to gather data on chloride levels in creeks across the country throughout the year. It's free and easy to participate, and helps us better understand stream health.

If you'd like to join the hundreds of people who participate, request test strips here.

Watch the recording from the training session here.

View the results of this year's habitat surveys across a number of sites, and in relation to this year's below:

Staff Level Sites You can view staff level sites here.

Volunteer Sites You can view all volunteer sites here.

Additionally, Streamkeepers had the opportunity to learn about and brush up on habitat surveys. Streamkeepers met at the Robbins Park Environmental Education Center for a brief presentation and to practice a habitat survey in the field.

Habitat surveys are critical to stream monitoring. Volunteers numerically score a series of parameters as they visually assess a reach of stream. This survey is most often completed in teams, with volunteer partners reaching agreement consensus on each individual parameter.

The numerical scores for each parameter are then added up to provide a total score for the habitat of the stream that can fall within the range of poor to optimal.

Parameters assessed include: the type of stream, stream alteration, water levels and the amount of available in-stream habitat such as varying rock sizes, logs and under cutting banks. These scores can then be compared over a series of years to assess changes in the stream habitat over time.

These assessments are performed each year across a number of sites by both staff and volunteers.

Interested in becoming a Streamkeeper? Learn more!

Monitoring Sites

TTF800

This spot is a long-term Streamkeeper site located along the mainstem of the Tookany Creek at the Jenkintown Train Station. The first site downstream of the confluence of Baeder Creek and the headwaters of the Tookany Creek, this reach is channelized, with some deeper water, and a number of fish species. The shifting nature of sediment depositions along this stream section is a very noticeable site feature.