Despite pitched opposition, city begins cutting down heritage trees at FDR Park

The latest salvo in a multiyear battle over a city plan to redesign FDR Park in South Philadelphia arrived with the buzz of a chainsaw and the rumble of an excavator, as the city began cutting down large trees that have been at the heart of the fight.

The clearing of the trees, which began Friday and continued Saturday, came just a day after a Philadelphia Orphans’ Court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by opponents of the city’s redesign.

Some of those opponents said they watched in devastation and horror as trees fell to the ground on Saturday morning. Anisa George, a plaintiff in the lawsuit and a member of the activist group Save the Meadows, said she arrived at FDR Park at dawn on Saturday, looking for bird’s nests in the trees that were slated for removal.

She approached the area where workers were cutting the trees and the police were called, she said. Officers told her she needed to leave, and she told them that she would like to say goodbye to the trees, she said.

“They said I had 15 minutes to say goodbye, and otherwise I would be arrested,” George said, her voice breaking. “I was escorted out.”

Philadelphia police said they were unaware of any arrests.

“The city went through the proper channels to remove trees in FDR Park. After two court procedures significantly delayed the start of work, the recent decision of the Orphans Court to remove the stay means the city can proceed with removing the trees as planned,” said Charlotte Merrick, a spokeswoman for the Department of Parks and Recreation. She said that the timeline for the tree removal depends on the weather, and that the city couldn’t say when it would be completed.

It was not clear how many trees had been felled; Save the Meadows estimated there were only about 10 left standing by Saturday afternoon.

The city’s $250 million plan to renovate FDR Park aims to adapt it for climate change and includes installing 12 multipurpose fields, six baseball fields, 10 tennis courts, and eight basketball courts in the 348-acre park.

An onslaught of opposition has focused largely on a former golf course, nicknamed “the Meadows,” which returned to its wild, natural state during the pandemic, becoming a favorite of hikers and birders. To move forward with the renovations, the city said, it has to cut down hundreds of trees in the area, including 48 healthy so-called heritage trees, specially designated because of their ecological significance, trunk size and species. The city said it will plant more than 1,025 native trees to make up for the loss.

Cutting down heritage trees requires a zoning board exemption on certain lots, which the city received in late March. About the same time, 11 South Philly residents, including George, filed a lawsuit in Orphans’ Court asking to halt any further renovations in the park. Orphans’ Court on Thursday said it would not hear the case because it had no jurisdiction on the matter.

Samuel Stretton, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in that case, said he filed an appeal in Commonwealth Court on Friday, but the paperwork has not yet gone through.

With no legal barriers currently in the way, the city began immediately cutting down the trees.

Organizers with Save the Meadows begged supporters to come to the park on Saturday morning, posting photos on social media of displaced birds’ nests and fractured tree limbs.

“There were trees going down left and right, with surgical precision,” said Harrison Mace, 31, a South Philly resident who has organized with Save the Meadows and was at FDR Park on Saturday morning.

In addition to the loss of the longstanding green canopy, residents have expressed serious concerns over the artificial turf the city plans to install for the park’s new playing fields. They say the turf is unlikely to be free of PFAS, a class of what are known as forever chemicals that have been linked to cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility, and higher rates of asthma. The city has said that natural grass requires more downtime between games and more maintenance.

As the trees fell on Saturday, some residents turned their eyes toward the next battle.

“We don’t want plastic coming in here,” George said. “You took our trees, but we can still fight for green space that is actually green and not synthetically green.”

Staff writer Michelle Myers contributed to this article.