The William Penn Foundation has recently designated a sizeable grant to Temple’s Center for Sustainable Communities. Headquartered on Temple’s Ambler Campus in West Hall, the Center will primarily use the $1.235 million grant to oversee projects that will affect storm runoff in the areas of the upstream suburban Philadelphia cluster of watersheds. These include Cobbs Creek, Pennypack Creek, Poquessing Creek, Frankford Creek and Wissahickon Creek; all which drain into the Delaware River.
“We’re really the scientists behind the watershed groups, the municipalities,” said Dr. Jeffrey Featherstone, Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities. “They’re looking to us to help them answer questions about where we should build stormwater control measures, where should restore streams, where do we get the best bang for the buck?”
The green roof facility at Ambler Campus are examples of the kinds of projects being looked at by the municipalities the Center will be aiding. Places such as this can bring back vegitation to an area and even preserve wildlife.
The grant from the William Penn Foundation is a small step in a larger scale plan for the Center for Sustainable Communities to aid local municipalities and environmental associations in the cleaning up of the watersheds in this area.
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