In 1965 the Schuylkill Valley Nature Center opened its doors (even though it didn't yet have a building) for business. The business was, and still is, to provide environmental education to urban youth, though that now includes the five county area as well. And so, five years before Earth Day, and common awareness of environmental issues, America's first urban nature center began in Philadelphia. The early staff and Board of the nascent organization created programs designed to inform students about the natural world, even though realistically only remnants of that world remained. Nonetheless, the process and function of nature continued within the Center's 360 acres of abandoned farm fields and emerging woodlands and that process and function is what the educators applied to their lessons.

Over the next thirty years The Schuylkill Valley Nature Center (renamed The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in 1985) created many progressive evironmental education programs for its students, which by 1970 included local universities and adults' educational programs, and gained a national reputation for training the next generation of environmental leaders. It was the Schuylkill Center that advanced the Environmental Standards for the Philadelphia School District by creating and hosting Environmental Education Conferences, and programs such as Sunship Earth, Earth Caretakers, and the groundbreaking Regional Environmental Education Program (REEP) that worked with EPA to integrate the EPA Pollution Prevention program in grades 9-12 by creating a curriculum for the five states and District of Columbia for EPA Region III.

By 1998, with shifting definitions and the broader focus of environmental issues, The Center reevaluated its role in Environmental Education through a series of year-long conferences and workshops titled "Future Search," that brought together The Center's constituents and the region's environmental stakeholders: Governmental, Academic, and Philanthropic. As a result of that process the Board and staff at The Center recognized that environmental issues had evolved beyond its early scope and, though still centered on the process and function of nature, had become heavily weighted with energy conservation and the awareness of a need for sustainable development and processes in all we do. The outcome of "Future Search" was a 20 year Master Plan designed to guide The Center into the 21st Century and prompted The Center to take measure of its own impact on the planet and to partner with other organizations and foundations to further the creation of a sustainable Philadelphia.

As the largest privately held undeveloped land in Philadelphia, The Schuylkill Center has come to realize the importance of its impact on the city and the need to act responsibly in setting standards for managing its 360 acres and facilities. The Master Plan was created with that impact and responsibility in mind. The Master Plan takes as its starting point the desire to integrate both the landscape and hardscape into the entire curriculum of educational programs, and to enlarge that sphere of activity to the immediate neighborhood and beyond to the city and suburbs. A key corollary of this desire is to integrate ecological impact and sustainability into all of its institutional concerns: Education, Research, Outreach, and Partnerships. This commitment reinforces The Center's evolution from an organization whose mission functions in the abstract, to one that tackles the pressing environmental issues facing our communities today.

To study and manage its commitment to BMPs for ecological impact, The Center created the Department of Ecological Restoration. Its purpose is intentionally broad in scope, encompassing the immediate problems of restoring its ecosystems, as well as evaluating and upgrading the functions of its built infrastructure and hardscapes. To emphasize full organizational commitment to these tasks the Board of Trustees created a Building and Grounds Committee to work with the staff and its partners. Given the challenges of invasive species, altered hydrology and soil conditions, fragmented ecosystems, loss of native species, and climate change, the Restoration Department has implemented a strategic plan that adopts a wholistic approach to ecological restoration in order to address the degraded and compromised strata of The Center's ecosystems.

The Center's other Departments: Education, Art in the Environment, and Wildlife Rehabilitation, as well as The Center's on campus Green Woods Charter School, also work to emphasize a commitment to sustainable best management practices through an evoloving curriculum and programs designed to emphasize the core values of environmental awareness and the individual's impact on those values. And more importantly the staff in all the Departments are themselves committed to these values and endeavor to use environmental education to bring public awareness to the issues of sustainability and responsible energy consumption. To accomplish this the Deaprtments involve diverse partnerships with universities, municipal and state agencies, corporations, foundations, community organizations and many individuals who volunteer their time.

The Schuylkill Center has demonstrated its commitment to a sustainable Philadelphia through environmental education and practice in several ways:

Solar Panels: In 2005 The Center installed a 10.kw array that offsets approximately 10% of its peak power needs.

Green Roof: The 22,000 sf vegetated roof has been a destination for many municipal, commercial and non-profit groups interested in this technology. A recently installed monitoring system will also allow us to quantify the reduction of storm water runoff.

Rain Garden: The storm water that does flow off the Green Roof and the adjacent non-vegetated roof is channeled into a retention area planted with facultative species as designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's wetland codes. This ecologically functioning garden also has all-season horticulutural interest and wildlife appeal.

LEED EB: The Center has begun the process of certifying its main building as LEED Existing Building. Built during a time of abundant inexpensive fuel, the forty year old building may be difficult to certify, nonetheless The Center believes that any improvement in overall efficiency will be beneficial.

Recycle Bank: The Center is the only single-stream recycling organization in the District.

Sustainable Workshops: The Center's Education Department has held workshops in sustainable practice (most recently solar power and green roofs) for Philadelphia School District teachers to attain Act 48 credits.

Native Nursery and Plant Sale: In 2004 The Center broke ground for its native plant nursery and held its first plant sale, with companion programming on designing back yard wildlife habitat and invasive species reduction.

Art in the Environment: The Center's outdoor art program and indoor gallery has broadened the environmental awareness audience to first initiate artists to the challenges of environmentally sustainable issues who in turn create thought-provoking installations for a heretofore untapped audience.

Rain Barrel Workshops: With the Philadelphia Water Department, The Center has hosted several workshops to emphasize the need to reduce storm water flow and create back yard habitat management that favors wildlife and storm water retention.

Partnerships: The Center works with or is involved with numerous and diverse groups to promote the practice and concepts of sustainability in and around Philadelphia. Its staff and Board members sit on various committees and Boards associated with the themes of sustainability. A few of our partners are: Aark Wildlife CenterAmerican Chestnut Foundation-Pennsylvania ChapterArcadia UniversityAssociation of Conservation EducatorsAnimals for LifeBoy Scouts of AmericaCecilian Center for Earth, Arts, and SpiritCenter in the Park Senior Environment CorpsDelaware Riverkeeper NetworkDepartment of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of ForestryEast Falls Tree TendersEnvironmental Alliance for Senior Involvement (E.A.S.I.)Fairmount Park CommissionFairmount Water WorksFriends of Allegheny WildernessFriends of Gorgas ParkFriends of the WissahickonGirl Scouts of the USAGreater Philadelphia CaresGreen Woods Charter SchoolManayunk Tree TendersMercer County Wildlife CenterMt. Airy Tree TendersNational Fish and Wildlife FoundationNorth Penn Senior Environment CorpsOutward Bound-Philadelphia CenterPartnership for the Delaware Estuary, Inc.Pennsylvania EnvirothonPennsylvania Audubon SocietyPennsylvania Department of Environmental ProtectionPennsylvania Fish & Boat CommissionPennsylvania Game CommissionPennsylvania Horticultural SocietyPhiladelphia Water DepartmentPhiladelphia UniversityRoxborough Green Space ProjectSchuylkill Center Community CouncilSchool District of PhiladelphiaSchuylkill Action NetworkSchuylkill River Heritage AreaThe Association of Nature Center AdministratorsTyler School of ArtUnited States Department of AgricultureUnited States Environmental Protection AgencyUnited States Fish and Wildlife ServiceW. B. Saul High SchoolWissahickon Tree TendersWissahickon Valley Watershed Association