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SFS Annual Meeting

FIELD TRIPS AND TOURS

The list below are all of the trips that are currently offered. All trips are subject to a minimum number of attendees signing up for each. Final offerings will be announced after Early Registration closes. If your selection is canceled, you will be refunded the amount paid.

Saturday, June 1, 2024

Philly Murals Walking Tour

Self-Paced Tour: available any time during daylight hours
5:30 AM - 8:30 PM

Organizer: Megan Fork (mfork@wcupa.edu)

Registration Cost: $0.00
Participants will be responsible for potential transportation costs.

Philadelphia is home to an abundance of great public art, including dozens of murals. Choose this option if you would like to be connected to other SFS participants who are also interested in touring Philly’s public art. You may choose to participate in a self-guided tour, using the map published by the non-profit organization Philly Mural Arts found here. Philly Mural Arts can also arrange formal guided tours, whether by bike, segway, trolley, on foot, etc.

Information on costs for professionally-guided tours available at https://www.muralarts.org/tours/

Birding Tour at the Discovery Center (Strawberry Mansion Preserve)

7:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Organizers: Keith Russell (keith.russell@audubon.org)

Registration Cost: $0.00
Transportation and binoculars provided.

Participants will engage in a guided birding tour led by Audubon Mid-Atlantic at The Discovery Center, a facility for research and science-based conservation projects and educational programs. The Discovery Center is located on the banks of the Schuylkill River and includes a man-made reservoir, serving as a major migratory stopover on the Atlantic Flyway for over 100 species of birds and as a premier destination for bird watching throughout the region. Binoculars will be available. Learn more at: https://www.discoveryphila.org/about-us-1

Visit to Bartram's Garden

Self-Paced Tour: available any time during opening hours
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Organizer: Megan Fork (mfork@wcupa.edu)

Registration Costs: $0.00
Participants will be responsible for arranging and paying their own transportation ($5.00 round trip via public transit).

Bartram's Garden, in southwest Philadelphia along the banks of the Schuylkill River, is the nation's oldest surviving botanic garden. Choose this option if you would like to be connected to other SFS participants who are also interested in visiting Bartram's Garden together. The 50 acre property includes tidal wetlands, a community farm rooted in the African Diaspora, a botanic garden that features native plants highlighted in John Bartram's ("the father of American botany") 18th century records, and much more. Read more about Bartram's Garden at https://www.bartramsgarden.org/ Participants can take the #36 trolley from City Hall to Bartram's Garden (~35 minutes, $2.50 each way).

People who sign up for this field trip will be connected via email to curate their own groups and experiences whether on Saturday or throughout the week.

Visit to Stroud Water Research Center

8:30 AM - 5:30 PM

Organizers: Scott Ensign (ensign@stroudcenter.org) and Dave Arscott (darscott@stroudcenter.org)

Registration Cost: $60.00
Lunch and transportation provided.

More than a field station, Stroud Water Research Center was founded in 1967 and is intertwined in the history–and future–of freshwater science. From the River Continuum Concept, nutrient spiraling in rivers and streams, and on through some of the earliest work in riparian buffers, a visit to the Stroud Center is a walk through our shared history as freshwater scientists. This trip will include round trip bus transportation to the Stroud Center in scenic Chester County, PA. Meet our team and tour our LEED Platinum certified research facility. We will walk through the longest running riparian buffer experiment known, designated an Experimental Ecological Reserve by NSF in 1981. We’ll have a relaxed lunch together with esteemed emeritus researchers, some of whom were involved in the River Continuum Concept: Drs. Robin Vannote, Bernard Sweeney, Denis Newbold, Tom Bott, and Lou Kaplan.

Visit to Great Marsh Institute

8:30 AM - 2:30 PM

Organizer: Megan Fork (mfork@wcupa.edu)

Registration Cost: $50.00
Lunch and transportation provided.

The Great Marsh is the largest contiguous marsh complex in southeastern Pennsylvania, and comprises a variety of freshwater habitats including forested swamps, marshes, sedge meadows, fens, ponds, springs, and deepwater marshes and is designated as an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society. The Great Marsh is currently managed privately by the non-profit organization the Great Marsh Institute (https://greatmarshinstitute.org/), which supports scientific research on the property. Field trip participants will tour the property by ORV to see a variety of habitats, discussing the history of the area and current research and monitoring efforts in the marsh.

Hidden Gem Canoe Field Trip: Discover the Brandywine River

9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Organizer: Tara Muenz (Stroud Center; tmuenz@stroundcenter.org)

Registration cost: $80.00
Fee includes transportation to/from site, canoe, paddle, PFD, dry bag, lunch, and snacks.

The Brandywine River canoe program is a paddle in the present moment, featuring peaceful sounds of the wild, connections to water quality, and time with a hidden gem of the larger Delaware River watershed. We’ll paddle five miles from Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania to Smith Bridge at First State National Historical Park in Delaware. Along the way, you’ll enjoy the following:

  • Canoe 101 introduction: no prior experience is necessary! This is an easy stretch of river for first-time paddlers and yet still exciting if you’ve paddled 100’s of miles.
  • One shore stop –for lunch and exploring the river
  • Historical and cultural presentations with a possible short tour of the Brandywine River Museum.
  • Water-related giveaways!
What more could you ask for? Jump on in and join the Stroud Center on this adventure!

Tour the Collections at the Academy of Natural Sciences: Track A

Track A: Patrick Center, museum exhibits, Diatom herbarium collection, and Botany collection.
9:45 AM - 1:00 PM

Organizers: Tanya Dapkey (thd45@drexel.edu) and Mariena Hurley (mkh96@drexel.edu)

Registration Cost: $0.00
Field trip + optional lunch you can select below.

Participants will get guided tours of museum exhibits and behind-the-scenes tours of the ANS collections. Tours will be in groups of 12-15 people and will spend 20-30 minutes touring each collection with its director. Each participant will get a tote bag with the ANS logo as well as a wrist band allowing them to visit the museum at another time. There will also be the option to participate in a networking lunch following the tour (register separately).

Tour the Collections at the Academy of Natural Sciences: Track B

Track B: Patrick Center, museum exhibits, Malacology collection, and Ichthyology collection.
9:45 AM - 1:00 PM

Organizers: Tanya Dapkey (thd45@drexel.edu) and Mariena Hurley (mkh96@drexel.edu)

Registration Cost: $0.00
Field trip + optional lunch you can select below.

Participants will get guided tours of museum exhibits and behind-the-scenes tours of the ANS collections. Tours will be in groups of 12-15 people and will spend 20-30 minutes touring each collection with its director. Each participant will get a tote bag with the ANS logo as well as a wrist band allowing them to visit the museum at another time. There will also be the option to participate in a networking lunch following the tour (register separately).

Networking lunch: Add-on to Academy of Natural Sciences Tour

12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Organizers: Tanya Dapkey (thd45@drexel.edu) and Mariena Hurley (mkh96@drexel.edu)

Registration Cost: $25.00

After the tours, join us for a networking lunch* ($25 per person) from 12:30 to 2:00 pm at the Academy. The lunch will feature the Academy’s Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) program, which recently celebrated its 40th year. WINS is a free after-school and summer science enrichment program at the Academy of Natural Sciences serving young women from underrepresented communities and households facing financial limitations within the Philadelphia School District. Lunch attendees will hear from a WINS representative and have an opportunity to meet WINS alumnae and attend a poster session.

*Lunch is contingent upon the purchase of a minimum number of tickets. If the minimum number is not met, ticket costs will be reimbursed.

Mussel Hatchery at Fairmount Water Works

1:15 PM - 5:00 PM

Organizer: Megan Fork (mfork@wcupa.edu)

Registration Cost: $10.00*
*The $10 fee will be donated to Fairmount Water Works
If participants choose to take the bus, they will need to pay their own bus fare.

The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (https://fairmountwaterworks.org/), on the banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, was the city’s first water pumping station in the early 1800s and served the city for almost 100 years. Since then, the space has housed an aquarium, swimming pool, and now a mussel hatchery and education center. While many of the installations were damaged by the historic flooding from Hurricane Ida in 2021, the mussel hatchery (https://fairmountwaterworks.org/visit/freshwater-mussel-hatchery/) will be open during 2024 SFS. Participants will tour the mussel hatchery, learn about the facility’s history, and have the option to tour the green stormwater infrastructure on the grounds. Participants can get to the Fairmount Water Works on foot (~ 30 minutes; 1.3 miles) or public transit (~ 20 minutes via the #32 bus and $2.50 each way).