City signs lease for new urban oasis

A "Discovery Center" for wildlife viewing and outdoor-education programs is planned for East Park Reservoir.

BIG BIRD CAGE: Katie Newsom Pastuszek, executive director of Outward Bound Philadelphia, at East Park Reservoir. The fence will stay, but public access will increase.
Maria Pouchnikova

An abandoned city reservoir on the edge of Strawberry Mansion, hidden by dense vegetation and guarded by a chain-link fence, has long been an important stop for birds migrating on the Atlantic flyway. But the city’s recent decision to lease the land to two environmentally friendly groups means the 37-acre wilderness soon may become an urban oasis for people, too.

The west basin of East Park Reservoir, located on a plateau a few hundred yards from 33rd Street, is the site of the pioneering joint venture between Audubon Pennsylvania and Outward Bound Philadelphia called the East Park Leadership and Conservation Center (EPLCC). The partners hope the center will be a place where young people will benefit from rigorous outdoor education and improvements can be made to attract more birds in migration. 

Under discussion for years, the project passed a crucial milestone on July 18 when the city leased the land to EPLCC for $1 a year, allowing it to move into the final phase of a $16 million fundraising project.

On the southern shore of the reservoir, the groups plan to build a 16,000-square-foot “Discovery Center” that will include wildlife-viewing areas, classrooms and space for Outward Bound parties to prepare for their expeditions. The $11 million building is slated for completion in 2016. Outdoors, the development will include hiking trails, observation decks, a canoe dock and a ropes course for Outward Bound’s physical-challenge activities. 

The center will become the city headquarters for Outward Bound, which has outgrown its current base at the Sedgley Porter House in East Fairmount Park, and will allow Audubon to improve a site that is already an important stopover point for many migrating bird species. The conservation group has had only limited access to the reservoir for many years, despite its significance.

The center will be open to the public on a limited basis, and will provide access free of charge to some of its facilities such as hiking trails. But the perimeter will still be fenced, and public activities will be separated from those of Audubon and Outward Bound, said Katie Newsom Pastuszek, executive director of Outward Bound Philadelphia.

“There will be days when the center is open for public access,” she said.

The combination of outdoor education and conservation makes a lot of sense in an urban neighborhood that lacks outdoor-education opportunities, said Newsom Pastuszek. “It’s a perfect fit,” she said.

The joint venture also offers the opportunity to create a continuity of environmental education, starting with elementary school students — Audubon wants to expand its outreach to this group — and moving on to middle and high school students who participate in Outward Bound programs, Newsom Pastuszek said. Between the two organizations, the center could offer environmental education to 10,000 young people every year.

Outward Bound will use the new center to promote its goal of developing leadership skills through challenging activities like hiking and canoeing expeditions, and will emphasize the connection between environmental and human health, officials said. 

Audubon plans to use the center for science-based conservation projects, and firsthand observation of the natural world in a location that has been off limits to the public for decades. There will be no entrance fees for wildlife viewing. 

Keith Russell, Audubon Pennsylvania’s coordinator for “Important Bird Areas” within urban regions, said that in its new life, the reservoir will allow the group to manage vegetation and water quality to attract more of the approximately 150 bird species that visit the reservoir at various times of the year. The reservoir, which ceased to be a part of the city water system in the 1950s, is well known for its wintering population of canvasback ducks, he said.

The venture is halfway to its fundraising goal after donations from the Allerton and William Penn foundations, and a capital-projects grant from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is now stepping up its fundraising for the remainder, with the aim of breaking ground at the end of 2015, Newsom Pastuszek said. She predicted that fundraising will be easier now that the city has signed the lease for the reservoir.