Community clean water groups  gathered with teachers, students and school leaders today to celebrate the completion of stream restoration along the East Branch of the Jenkintown Creek, behind McKinley Elementary School in Elkins Park.

The ribbon cutting marks the completion of an interconnected web of clean water projects that make the school and surrounding community greener and more wildlife-rich. In addition, the stream restoration is being used as an environmental educational tool. Built largely with volunteer and community groups, the project was underwritten by the William Penn Foundation as part of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative, designed to improve water quality around the Delaware River basin.

The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF), a conservation nonprofit, is rebuilding Jenkintown Creek’s eroded banks by planting hundreds of native trees and shrubs along the banks to filter out stormwater pollutants, fertilizer, pesticides, oil, grease  from lawns and parking lots that dump into the stream and create damage.