Friends of Pastorius Park (FoPP) will plant the initial seeds of its largest restoration project in history on Saturday, Oct. 18.

Volunteers are invited to help the organization plant 40 understory trees (a layer beneath the main tree canopy) in the northeastern woodland section of Pastorius Park from 9 a.m. to noon. The event marks an important milestone of the Paul W. Meyer Northeast Woods Restoration Project, a multi-year effort by Friends of Pastorius Park to transform the area into a bio-diverse oasis filled with more than 100 native species.

Saturday’s event will include volunteers from the Wissahickon Garden Club and Rotary Club of Chestnut Hill, said Tracy Gardner, the president of Friends of Pastorius Park.

“A lot of work has gone into this, and I think that the park community as a whole is very excited about all the changes in the improvements that have been made in the park,” she said.

On Saturday, the organization will plant native understory trees like redbud, flowering dogwood, serviceberry, witch hazel, and sourwood, Friends of Pastorius Park board member Stephanie McNabb said.

The Paul W. Meyer Northeast Woods Restoration Project will revitalize nearly two acres of unimproved land bordering Shawnee Street and West Hartwell Lane, and Friends of Pastorius Park hopes to finish it in 2026. The project aims to restore woodland ecology in the area, improve water quality in the pond, and enhance visitor experience.

“It’s so much more than [a makeover]. It’s really about habitat restoration,” McNabb said.

Landscape designer Bob Gray and architect Rob Fleming developed the project plan in collaboration with city and local officials, according to Friends of Pastorius Park. The organization will install canopy trees, evergreen trees, shrubs and a combination of perennial wildflowers, ferns, grasses, and sedges in the area, protecting it against invasive species overgrowth and deterioration of native plants and wildlife.

The project honors the late Paul W. Meyer, former F. Otto Haas executive director of the Morris Arboretum & Gardens and longtime Chestnut Hill resident, who helped start the park’s 100-year restoration plan. Meyer helped raised the alarm about the decline in legacy trees in the space.

“It seems like every year we lose another one of them, or a portion of one of them. So there was certainly a sense of urgency when we started working with Paul to get younger plants in and to have a plan,” Gardner said.

The plan is to create new pedestrian pathways and install four seasons of interest plants, meaning they’ll provide year-round beauty and support for pollinators and other wildlife, Gray said.

Currently, the existing path system erodes during substantial rains because of its alignment down the slope, bringing sediment into the pond and Cresheim Creek. They will improve that slope with native plantings to strengthen the soil, and reduce soil erosion and stormwater runoff, as well as filter the stormwater during heavy storms.

“We’re rerouting the trail and things of that nature, but the plants will do the lion’s share of the work here in cleaning the water and so forth,” he said.

The project is designed to withstand the increasingly variable and extreme weather patterns caused by human-induced climate change, Gray said. The native plants are drought resistant and will serve as a natural defense to heavy rainstorms. There also will be a wide variety of trees to address the warming climate.

“We expanded our palette a bit to reflect the fact we’re in a dynamic environment now as far as temperatures are concerned,” Gray said.

The scope of the improvements is tentative because the project is still in the fundraising phase, McNabb said. Friends of Pastorius Park has raised at least $100,000 and is asking for public donations.

It has applied for a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Watershed Restoration and Protection Program, and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection Growing Greener Plus Grant, which would raise the budget to a high estimate of $380,000. The group will find out about applications at the end of this year or early next year.

McNabb and her husband, James McNabb (the vice president of FoPP), live around the corner from the park and see it as an extension of their living environment. James is a woodworker and shares an interest in ecology.

“It’s just kind of a part of who we are,” Stephanie McNabb said. “So to have this incredible tree collection and plant collection right across the street from us, not only as a place that we can just hang out as our backyard, but also to learn and to care for this living legacy in nature is really special.”

The Oct. 18 installation is largely funded by grants from the Philadelphia Committee of the Garden Club of America and the Peg Dilks Award.

Everyone is welcome to participate, but Friends of Pastorius Park warns that the work will be more strenuous than the organization’s usual cleanup events and will involve digging holes, planting large trees, and spreading mulch to protect the trees in the winter, according to its website.

Abby Weiss is an environmental reporter for the Local and a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at Abby@chestnuthilllocal.com.