🌎 Philly put Earth Day on the map | Outdoorsy Newsletter

Happy Earth Week, outdoorsy folks!

Flowers in bloom, birds chirping, the sun is shining... (well, some of the time. You know what they say about April showers.) It feels so good to see the trees come back to life all around us.

I know you’re just as pumped as I am to get back outside and soak up the splendor of Mother Nature. This newsletter officially returns on June 7, but I wanted to get in touch with you a little ahead of schedule in the spirit of Earth Week. This is just a taste of all the fun we’ll get up to later.

Every year, people across the globe celebrate Earth Day (April 22) to honor the planet we call home, and to call attention to the critical care and protection of its delicate ecosystems in the face of environmental challenges and threats. But did you know Philadelphia helped put Earth Day on the map? And bonus bragging rights: the city hosted the biggest Earth Day event on that date!

Keep scrolling to get a quintessential history lesson on the city’s instrumental role in this green-conscious observation, catch up on a couple of fresh spring guides, news and events you can’t miss, and take a canoe ride with the illustrious Jason Nark.

📮 In the meantime, let me know what you’ve been doing outdoors so far this season. Do you have any seasonal traditions or annual events you love to attend? Tell me about your experience by emailing me back. (Don’t forget some photos!)

— Paola Pérez

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Philadelphia’s very first Earth Day celebration was a roaring success. It drew nearly 25,000 to 30,000 human beings to a six-hour festival in Fairmount Park with one common goal: thrust the cause for the environment into public consciousness. So how did this huge demonstration come together?

It starts with U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat who first shared his vision for a national event focused on the environment in September 1969. That inspired a couple of young men studying city planning at UPenn to put together something called Earth Day for the spring of 1970.

A man named Thacher Longstreth was president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce at the time. He met with the men with a passion for clean air to discuss their idea. Longstreth was motivated by their interest in peacefully amplifying their cause, and ultimately decided to help them turn that vision into reality.

In his own words: “I had read Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring,’ and it got to me — the idea of not hearing birds in the morning... They assured me they had constructive ideas and wanted no confrontations. I flipped.”

Enthusiasm spread throughout the city and the organizers decided that Philadelphia would have an Earth Week, not merely an Earth Day.

That was over 50 years ago in Philly, but there’s more the story. Enjoy former Daily News reporter Tom Cooney’s 1990 report looking back on the first official celebration of Mother Earth.

🏖️ Picture a bi-level waterpark on the western bank of the Schuylkill River with a large public pool, beach, and a restaurant. Sounds wild, but it just might really happen.

🤔 Philly residents have noticed one major but quietly introduced change in the permit reservation system used for city parks: It’s been moved offline.

🌷 Nothing says spring quite like tulips. Check out where to see some of the Philadelphia region’s best.

🌳 Attorneys for Philadelphia and the Fairmount Park Conservancy agreed to hold off on plans to cut down 48 heritage trees in the park.

🚧 The grass at Rittenhouse Square will be dug up and restored over the next four years.

🗺️ Check out the updated guide to spring events in America’s Garden Capital, and pick up a brand new passport to track your progress through the region’s public gardens.

🥾 Greater Philadelphia is home to one of the largest trail networks in the country, and this Saturday is Celebrate Trails Day, an annual celebration of America’s exceptional trails.

🪁 Take part in Love Your Park Week from May 11-19 to help prepare Philadelphia’s parks for the busy spring and summer ahead!

☀️ Don’t miss our roundup of 24 festivals, markets, and events you should go to this season in Philly.

🎤 Now I’m passing the microphone to Jason Nark, who reports on rural parts of Pennsylvania and the outdoors far from city life. You’ll always find his work here.

The Delaware River bends slightly before it runs into Titusville and reveals Rick Van Noy’s past: the white church steeple, boyhood boulders he swam between with friends, and the little schoolhouse where he’d sit and stare at the water outside the window.

Life pulled Van Noy away from the Mercer County waterfront, and he moved to Colorado, Washington, and Ohio for school and work. For the last 20 years, he’s taught American literature at Radford University. In 2021, after a stroke and separation, Van Noy returned to his roots with his Wenonah canoe and his dog, Sully. Together they paddled some 200 miles south, from Hancock, N.Y. to Trenton, a journey chronicled in his new book, Borne by the River.

“This was always sort of home,” Van Noy said by the river in New Jersey on a recent weekday. “I always thought I would come back.”

Rivers, Van Noy writes in his book, have always inspired authors, from the “Epic of Gilgamesh” to Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It. They’re full of change, ever-moving, and evolving. “Rivers carry people and goods but also meaning. And this one means something to me,” Van Noy wrote. — Jason Nark

Hop in with Jason for more on the Delaware’s layered history and how it flows into Van Noy’s life.

Oh to be a turtle basking in the sun in a lake...

You’re probably making plans for your next expedition, or maybe you’re already taking on adventures. Through this newsletter, we’re going to do all of it together — with confidence.

📮 Before you go, I’m curious about what you want to see more of in Outdoorsy. What kind of stories do you want us to write? What did we not cover last season that you want us to look into now? Whether you don’t know where to start or are more experienced, we want to hear from you. Let us know your thoughts by giving us your feedback through this form.

Can’t wait get outdoors with you again. See you soon.