Natural Lands Management and Stewardship Plan for Harriet Wetherill Park in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania

The Plymouth Township Parks and Recreation Department recently created Harriet Wetherill Park, a 66 ½ acre park encompassing agricultural lands, wooded areas, streams, fields, and a farmstead. Caring for the natural areas of the park presents a new challenge to the township; the other parks maintained by the parks and recreation department are designed for active recreation. The purpose of Harriet Wetherill Park is passive recreation and nature education. To help them achieve their goals for the park, Plymouth Township contracted with Land Concepts Group, LLC in 2011 to develop a conservation and management plan for Harriet Wetherill Park. The Morris Arboretum Urban Forestry Consultants (MA-UFC) were brought on by Land Concepts to write the natural lands management and stewardship portion of the plan. This plan builds on work already undertaken by the Natural Lands Trust (NLT) at the park; it also follows the format for a stewardship plan recommended in NLT’s Stewardship Handbook (Steckel and others 2008). The challenges for the natural areas of the park are the limited diversity of vegetation due to both deer browse and the prevalence of invasive plant species on site; the fragmentation of the wooded areas; and the lack of a riparian buffer zone in parts of the park. Erosion is also a concern in several areas. This stewardship plan outlines the steps to take to meet these challenges, prioritizes management activities, and provides a management calendar for the park. A stewardship manual will be provided to Plymouth Township Parks and Recreation in May 2013.