With around 4,000 illegally dumped tires now removed, Tacony Creek Park is preparing to unveil a new 50-acre nature preserve at Friends Hospital in April, writes Frank Kummer for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

After the tires were discovered just over a year ago, volunteers, city workers, and United by Blue, a Philadelphia-based sustainable clothing company, worked together to clean up the site. The city also created the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership to prevent similar large-scale dumping from hopefully ever happening again.

According to officials, the cleanup has been successful, and the park is now being actively safeguarded by neighbors who pursue tire dumpers and document their vehicles.

Usage of Tacony Creek Park has approximately doubled since the cleanup campaign started last April. Managed by Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, the 300-acre site winds through a densely populated area and contains woods and meadows that support over 100 species of birds and other wildlife.

On April 11, a 49-acre preserve next to the park will open at Friends Hospital.

“It’s one of Philadelphia’s hidden ecological gems,” said TTF executive director Justin DiBerardinis.

Read more about Tacony Creek Park’s soon-to-be-opened nature preserve and its overall efforts to quell illegal dumping in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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