Keystone Recreation, Park & Conservation Fund

  • Home
  • Legacy of
    Success
  • Find Keystone
    Projects
  • Success
    Stories
  • How It
    Works
    • Enabling Act and Referendum
    • Allocation
    • Revenue Source
    • Applying for Grants
  • Resources
    • Fact Sheets
    • Reports & Surveys
    • 20th Anniversary Honorees

An Island of Green

June 4, 2014

NLT_photo1The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education is an oasis of forests and fields in densely developed Philadelphia. Thanks to the Keystone Fund, a conservation easement permanently protects it for enjoyment by future generations.

Founded in 1965, the Schuylkill Center is one of the first urban environmental education centers in the country. Two sisters, who envisioned an “island of green” where city dwellers could connect to nature, gifted 11 acres of farmland and woodland to make their vision a reality.  In the following decades, the Center expanded it’s green footprint, acquiring a total of 340 acres.

In the past decades, two million people have visited the center or benefited from its programming. They have walked its three miles of public trails, raised food in its community gardens, picnicked, attended classes, and more.

The Center is a pioneer in connecting children to the outdoors. It offers public programs for all ages, engages schools in diverse nature education, and runs a popular summer camp. In the fall of 2013, the Center opened the Schuylkill Center Nature Preschool, Pennsylvania’s first nature-based preschool, immersing toddlers in nature and the outdoors.

Open space is rare in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia where the Center sits. Over the years, the Center’s valuable land began to attract developers. If sold, it could have provided much-needed funds for the non-profit organization. The Schuylkill Center Board of Directors faced difficult decisions about the future of the land.

But in the end, they chose conservation. In 2011, a $750,000 Keystone Fund grant was used to purchase a conservation easement on 325 acres of the property; the conservation easement, acquired by Natural Lands Trust, ensures the land will forever be protected and remain a place of learning and inspiration for the people of the city.

Project Type: Conservation | Region: Southeast

Project Overview

Keystone Investment: $750,000
Local Funds Leveraged: $40 million
Total Project Cost: $40.9 million (includes the land value that the Center gave up in permanently protecting the land with a conservation easement)
Project Leader: Natural Lands Trust
Key Local Partners: Schuylkill Center for Education
County: Philadelphia
Fun Fact: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education is the largest privately owned parcel in the city of Philadelphia and contains diverse habitats including woodlands, meadows, ponds, and wetlands. It boasts nesting populations of rare bird species like the Blue-winged Warbler, and trees believed to be more than 250 years old.

You are here: Home / Success Stories / An Island of Green

Download Version:


PDF Version

Learn More:

  • Conservation
  • Recreation
  • State Parks & Forests
  • Libraries
  • Historic Preservation
  • More Information
  • Get Updates

KeystoneFund.org is administered by WeConservePA.
For information on the Environmental Stewardship Fund, click here.

This site was developed by WeConservePA in partnership with the Pennsylvania Recreation
and Park Society
and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation (Environmental Stewardship Fund).

Copyright © 2021 · Keystone on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in