Join experts from Villanova & the Lower Merion Community
to study & document Oakwell’s biodiversity @ the first-ever BIOBLITZ! This educational community event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome, Sunday, April 16, 2023, 1 pm - 3 pm.
Please register here If you have expertise in species identification and are willing to serve as an expert/group leader, register here
Logistics info to follow, prior to the event. For more information about Oakwell’s ecology & history, visit growoakwell.com
Wear appropriate footwear, bring binoculars, & get ready to explore!
WHAT'S AT STAKE?
OAKWELL BEFORE CONSTRUCTION
OAKWELL BEFORE CONSTRUCTION
OAKWELL BEFORE CONSTRUCTION
The above picture is what 13.4 acres of Oakwell looks like today. Home to 700 mature trees-some in excess of 100 years old. Home to hundreds of species of birds and other animals, and is the site of numerous historical structures.
Help us Preserve Oakwell.
OAKWELL AFTER CONSTRUCTION
OAKWELL BEFORE CONSTRUCTION
OAKWELL BEFORE CONSTRUCTION
If the Lower Merion School District proceeds with its plans, all of those trees, animals, and structures would disappear in favor of auxiliary athletic fields to be used by the students at Black Rock Middle School. Help us Save Oakwell
THE HISTORY OF OAKWELL
To find out more about the rich and impressive history of Oakwell Visit GROWOAKWELL.COM here you will also be able read letters from experts in their field regarding Oakwell and read stories from local media and news outlets.
GET YOUR SAVE/PRESERVE OAKWELL LAWN SIGNS
GET YOUR SAVE/PRESERVE OAKWELL LAWN SIGNS
If you would like to purchase a $9 SAVE OAKWELL or PRESERVE OAKWELL lawn sign, Please Email us at preserveoakwell@gmail.com
Help Us To Protect Oakwell
Lower Merion High School Senior Noa Fohrer Tells the LM School Board That They Are Out Of Touch With What Students Really Want, and That Destroying Oakwell Is Definitely Not On Their List Of Things To do.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please speak out at Lower Merion School Board Meetings
https://www.lmsd.org/board/meeting-schedule
clickn the specific meeting for details
Please write to Lower Merion School Board Directors communitycomments@lmsd.org
Please write to your Lower Merion Township Commissioner
http://www.lookup.lowermerion.org/forms/whocomm.html
Please write to Lower Merion Zoning Board Zoning Officer Scott Houchins. shouchins@lowermerion.org
Need help with these contacts? We're happy to assist
PLEASE VISIT OUR SISTER SITE AT GROWOAKWELL.COM
Our Children Deserve More
Some say that those of us who oppose the School Board plan to destroy hundreds of trees for ball fields are pitting the children against the trees. Nothing could be further from the truth. Of course our children are more important than the trees. Our children are also more important than school district programs.
Yes, we do understand the importance of school sports. But the greatest threat our children face is the prospect of environmental catastrophe. Environmental degradation will have a more profound impact on our children and their generation than any school program.
The School Board has prioritized its programs before our kids’ futures. They have endorsed a plan for sports fields, and then, having acknowledged that it is an environmentally bad plan, expect compromises be made to support those plans. The School Board has it backwards.
For the benefit of our kids’ future, we first need to commit to avoiding further environmental destruction, and then, given the constraints imposed, devise the best programs possible. Our children’s planet, and therefore our children, come first, not the programs. Our children deserve better from us. Twenty years from now we want to tell them with pride we acknowledged the problem and were were part of the solution, and contributed to saving their finite, priceless natural world.
Trees And People Have An Interdependent Relationship
“When children play in natural spaces, they’re far more likely to invent their own games than in more structured settings – a key factor in becoming self-directed and inventive adults later in life”
~Richard Louv
"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people."
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Trees are sanctuaries.”
~Herman Hesse