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The Black Rock Sanctuary project actually started in the late 1800’s at the advent of the industrial revolution. The discovery of coal as a fuel source, coupled with industrial development, created the need to efficiently send coal, other raw materials, and finished goods between communities located along the 130-mile Schuylkill River from the coalfields of Schuylkill County to Philadelphia. To respond to this market need, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania chartered the Schuylkill Navigation Company in 1815 to build a series of dams and locks along the river to create a deep shipping channel, which is referred to as a “slack water” canal system.
The slack water system was a way to travel from one pool, retained by a dam, to the next pool as a way to get both downstream and upstream. Given the low rate of elevation fall in the river, it was easier to build dams every two to three miles to create the deep channel than it was to dig a trench and install more locks. The locks were generally constructed at dams as a way to get downstream around the dam areas while compensating for the river’s water elevation changes.
In the early 1900’s, waste from upstream coal operations contributed over 3 million tons of silt annually to the river.
By the early 1930’s so much silt had settled behind the dams and in the river that it was no longer suitable for navigation or recreation; flooding increased, and its value as a water supply was threatened. After passing a series of laws to mitigate siltation of the state’s waterways, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania undertook the “Schuylkill River Project.” Beginning in 1945, the river was dredged to remove silt from the river and place it in strategically located desilting basins. The Black Rock Basin, a 121-acre site in Phoenixville, was one of 27 desilting basins that were constructed. Along with the removal of some of the Schuylkill Navigation Company’s dams, the basin construction became a major public works project valued at over $31.75 million. The basins were constructed by relocating indigenous soil and rock located along the river’s edge to create long clay-filled berms about twenty feet high. In the case of Black Rock, an 8,000-foot long berm was built to create an 80-acre basin.
One of the major challenges inherent with this project was to create high quality wetlands on a site where the soil contained significant quantities of coal and its attendant maladies.
After the basins were completed, the river was dredged by pumping the silt slurry into them. The basins’ use for dredging was short lived, although two remain active in Schuylkill County. Active use of the Black Rock Basin for dredge spoils ended in the late 1950s. Later, sand, gravel and coal were removed for mineral recycling, leaving the site desolate and pockmarked.
Over the intervening years, a young but mixed native and non-native forest proliferated, albeit dominated by invasive species that were well adapted to the disturbed terrain. Various North American native species such as black locust, sycamore and black willow were accompanied by the exotic invasive species ailanthus and phragmites.
In 1990, the PA Bureau of Mines declared some of their basins surplus and sold the Black Rock basin to Chester County for wildlife conservation and recreation use. The County’s vision for the basin was to develop a truly different environmental and educational park. By taking advantage of it’s location along the Atlantic Coast Flyway, the County hoped to create and interpret breeding and nesting habitat for rare and endangered migrating waterfowl species. With this goal in mind, the County then sought and received funding from private, county, state and federal sources to complete design and construction. In all, five different grants were obtained.
In mid-1999, final design and construction documentation began for development of a comprehensive construction plan to address the county’s vision and goals for the site. The design team was lead by Carl R. Kelemen, RLA, FASLA, Director of Landscape Architecture for Cowan Associates. Other expertise was provided by the environmental science firm, Normandeau Associates, Inc., for environmental assessment, wetland delineation, wetland creation concepts and permitting issues, Playcare, Inc. for interactive interpretive exhibits and Archimedes for interpretive text. To complete the design goals for the project, the team worked with Robert C. Folwell of the Chester County Department of Parks and Recreation and a host of governmental agencies, including the Borough of Phoenixville, Chester County Conservation District, PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (PA DCNR), PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (PA DEP), PA Bureau of Mines, PA Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (US FWS). The Phoenix Iron Canal Trail Association provided input and comment throughout the process to tie the Black Rock Basin into the Association’s trail network.
The county encouraged the design team to stretch their imaginations in the process. Many ideas were “floated,” including some rather outlandish ideas that included an entry to the proposed “Dino World” exhibit that would require kids to be carried in to the exhibit in the clutches of a pterodactyl, or crawl through a “time tunnel” that would “transport” them back in time and a tree stump which would allow kids to crawl through roots and see the “underground life” of plants. Due to expense, some of these ideas were eliminated. Other ideas, however, were incorporated, or scaled back to address budget concerns. For example, ideas that were incorporated included a “bird nest” made of branches from cleared trees and vines, a scaled back version of the tree stump and the entrance tunnel to DinoWorld. The original station layout drawings for the trail provided the “bones” which the final design concepts used as their points of departure. The creative interactive exhibits designed by Playcare, Inc. and signage designed by Time Flys Design, were vital to the educational benefit sought by the county. The trail interactive programming developed by the county’s naturalists and education coordinators, especially Michele Wales and Glenn Nelson included ideas such as a “prey game,” a role-playing exercise in a Native American village and water testing experiments were the inspiration that challenged us all to be creative and adaptable in our approach to the project.
The Consultant/County team worked together and stretched together … a true collaboration which made the project significantly more than it would otherwise have been. We also had outside expertise from my boys, who were occasionally consulted to determine the “fun factor”. There were two prime goals to the project: to form a comprehensive network of high quality wetlands by creating new and enhancing existing wetlands to provide breeding and nesting habitat for migratory waterfowl; and, to create a highly interactive interpretive trail designed to explore and explain the complex biological interconnections and interactions between people and the environment. A major aspect of the system was to be the use and reuse of materials found within the site to create the trail and many of the interactive exhibits and activities. One of the major challenges inherent with this project was to create high quality wetlands on a site where the soil contained significant quantities of coal and its attendant maladies. Due to the complexity of site objectives, the project was broken into separate wetland construction and interpretive trail construction projects.
A myriad of twists, turns and delays occurred along the way. Agents from the US FWS visited the site and noted concerns for heavy metals and other contaminants that could be associated with the on-site coal silt. Design work was briefly stopped while a Phase I environmental audit was conducted and soil, water and fish tissue samples were taken for testing and analysis to assure that the targeted waterfowl species would not be harmed by possible contaminants. After the studies were reviewed by the US FWS it was determined that contaminants found in the project area were at or below background levels found in the surrounding area, and as a result there was little concern to endangered waterfowl species.
Wetland construction work was completed in November 2002. Wetland types built included deep-water, emergent, palustrine scrub shrub and forested wetland ecotones. Additional areas of emergent, palustrine scrub shrub and forested wetlands were enhanced. In all, over 27 acres of new wetlands were created bringing the total to over 46 acres on the site. Construction techniques included grading to return portions of the area to pre-basin elevations, creating mounds and pools to provide “temporary islands” for nesting sites, excavating to create vernal pool areas for amphibian breeding; providing and enhancing deep water areas for fish as a source of food for birds and animals, and removing invasive plant species.
Since completion of the wetland construction, birds have been observed that include some of the targeted species. Among them are: Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Killdeer, Solitary Sandpiper, and Belted Kingfisher. It is hoped that future years will see birds of prey such as osprey nesting in the area.
In the process of constructing the wetlands, over 12,000 cubic yards of coal silt were removed – enough material to cover a football field six and one half feet deep – and sold to a recycling company for use in charcoal and other products. Some of the coal silt was retained in the hope that it could be used in constructing the trail and interpretive stations. Ultimately, combinations of crushed stone, recycled plastic decking, and hot-mix asphaltic concrete were used for trail surfaces, depending on the location of the trail. Combined with the wetland creation project was the restoration of upland areas with warm season grasses such as big and little blue stem, and prairie drop seed in areas that were disturbed during the construction process. Restoration efforts in non-wetland portions of the site included creation, restoration and/or enhancement of upland forest, old-field and meadow ecotones.
The trail construction project phase was completed in the fall of 2003. Construction consisted of 4,000-foot Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant trail to host a series of specialized displays designed to interactively explain the complex interface between man and nature. After much research and testing by suppliers, manufacturers, the consultants and the county, it was determined that the retained coal silt could not be satisfactorily used for trail construction as hoped since it could not be made stable enough to be compliant with the ADA. The interactive displays were designed to teach different aspects of science and environment by manipulating elements to encourage a “learn by doing, not just reading” approach to the educational component of the project. Locations for the interpretive stations were strategically planned as a learning progression and were integral to the overall educational program goal. The educational component begins with simple concepts: the basics that nature generally provides – habitat, land and water – and become increasingly more complex with displays of geology, amphibians, plants and birds that show how these basics of nature are used. The next set of educational stations builds on this knowledge to demonstrate the affect of human impact with displays about canals, desilting activities and locks.
Finally, the trail ends with exhibits on site recovery and stewardship showcased by the project, warm season grasses, groundwater and bio-filters.
Examples of the interpretive stations include: a stream table to create landforms and add water to see how slope, land shape, water volume and other variables affect landforms, erosion potential and water quality; a watershed map to see where the viewer lives within the watershed and how they affect and are affected by neighbors; a river canal system exhibit, complete with a lock and boats to help understand the mechanics of canal locks; and, an amphibian identification display accompanied by four seasonal vernal pools to exhibit a frog’s lifecycle. There are also games for younger users: a kiosk to help them understand how animals find homes and food and how their beaks and feet are adapted to the food they eat and the environment they call home; a graphic time line to show the geology of the Sanctuary and it’s neighboring community; and, an opportunity to see a battle of the large lizards and search for dinosaur eggs in “Dino World”, which will be installed in the future.
Partially completed interpretive stations include: a bio-filter to demonstrate the difficulties of dealing with residential surface water runoff and nitrogen pollution (primarily as found in lawn fertilizers); “Plant World,” a tree 20-foot wide trunk to demonstrate the different types of plant materials found in both wetland and river edge areas; “Bird World,” a “twig bird’s nest” to accommodate 25 visitors and host exhibits showing different adaptations birds use to eat.
Future displays will be designed to provide fun-to-do learning activities that reinforce programmatic goals and objectives established for the project and will include interactive exercises that demonstrate water quality, meadow ecosystems, and butterfly gardening. The learning goals were chosen to comply with science and environment teaching units described in Pennsylvania’s junior and senior high school education curriculum guidelines.
Overall, the Black Rock project was at times a bit unruly given the shear number of approvals, reviews and funding sources involved. Ultimately, this site will be connected to the Schuylkill Valley Trail as a part of the Schuylkill Valley National and State Heritage Area. This is a project that when completed, will have dollar investments from Chester County, the US FWS North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant program, PA DEP, PA DCNR Community Conservation Grant Program, and the William Penn Foundation in excess of $2 million for design, construction, site acquisition and restoration.
Today, the park is heavily used by nearby residents, schoolchildren and even college classes for recreation and education. All in all, the brainstorming that encouraged everyone to stretch their imaginations to make this project truly unique and valuable asset to the county’s park and recreation system was one of the best experiences we had on the project.
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
November 12th, 2025
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