Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership: Tacony Creek Park Map Available in Seven Languages

On November 29, the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership announces that maps for Tacony Creek Park, Philadelphia’s 300-acre watershed park that was created in 1915 to protect Tacony Creek, are now available in seven languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Haitian Creole, Arabic, and Khmer. 

These are the languages spoken the most by residents living in the neighborhoods surrounding the park.

Tacony Creek Park features streamside and woodland habitat, a 3.2 mile paved Circuit Trail and ten neighborhood gateways in lower Northeast Philadelphia, and is the major park for almost two hundred thousand neighbors in Olney, East Oak Lane, Lawncrest, Feltonville, Frankford, and Juniata Park. 

About half of the park is home to the Juniata Golf Course. 

The park faces serious challenges including limited maintenance and amenities, yet it serves as a cherished and critical green space for the diverse surrounding communities.

The maps are available on the Tacony Creek Park website. For physical copies, call 215-744-1853 or get a map at free weekly programs and events including Walk with Me, Run with Me, and Creek Care Days. 

An interactive map of the park with its gateways is also available online. The website and map were made possible with support from the William Penn Foundation.

Working with neighbors, partners, and stakeholders, TTF aims to improve and bring lots of visitors to Tacony Creek Park through programs and events. 

The park needs lots of love and attention! Community members visit and enjoy the park on their own, with families and friends, and often through organized TTF and partner-sponsored programs and events. 

The ideas and energy shared by community members are the basis for programs, many led by community members. 

Cleanups, plantings, and improvements are made possible through the collaboration of TTF,  Tacony Creek Park Keepers – the friends group for the park – and many partners, particularly the Philadelphia Water and Parks & Recreation departments. 

The land that is now Tacony Creek Park was once used as hunting grounds by the native Lenape people. When Europeans arrived, they began to build mills and farms along the creek, clearing most of the forest. 

For more park and watershed history, visit the Watershed History webpage

[Posted: November 30, 2023]  PA Environment Digest