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Stewardship & Partnerships Team projects are designed
to stimulate wider ecognition and
appreciation of our precious resource values
and to help organize conservation actions.

 

 

Stewardship and Partnerships Team

Joe DiBello
Team Leader

200 Chestnut Street
Third Floor
Philadelphia PA
19106

(215) 597-7385


A Northeast Region Office

Marie Rust
Regional Director

  



What We Do
We provide professional services and products from our multidisciplinary team to National Park units with a primary focus on those in six States: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. We serve as federal lead in historic preservation for all the States in the Northeast. Beyond our specific park and preservation responsibilities, we join partners to create the "network of parks, preserves, open spaces, greenways and recreation areas touching all communities and accessible to all Americans" described in the 2001 National Park System Advisory Board Report Rethinking the National Park Service for the 21st Century.

Outcomes from Innovation
The Stewardship & Partnerships Team in the Philadelphia Support Office has developed successful and innovative approaches to help preserve, conserve, and manage cultural, natural resources, and recreational resources. Working with communities and park staffs, the team facilitates a wide range of planning and technical assistance projects for National Parks, historic districts and sites, natural and heritage areas, river and trail systems, and landscapes of concern to national, state, and local interests. Recently we have:

  • Included the entire watershed in developing the White Clay Creek Management plan. Our team blazed a path in looking beyond rivers’ banks and in involving communities.
  • Helped preserve our National Historic Landmarks, designated the most significant of our historic places, by nurturing the creation of a National Landmarks Stewards organization.
  • Merged historic preservation with community natural and recreation resource needs to help Arden’s communities preserve their heritage and sense of place. Arden, America’s oldest remaining Utopian community, is ideal for our teams’ application of cross-disciplinary innovation.
  • Worked with Federal land management agencies in the Mid-Atlantic to coordinate clean water and 'sprawl' initiatives under the leadership of the Regional Director of the Northeast Region of the National Park Service .

Our projects range from site-specific to large regional landscapes; from one time consultations to multi-year assistance. Team members typically serve as catalysts for problem solving, facilitating partnerships among citizens groups, local governments, and state and federal agencies.

Formal Programs Get Results
We make a difference using the formal mechanisms of the National Park Service, too. At Sunshine Park in Harrisburg children have six acres of safe and inviting playgrounds and ball fields because the National Park Service worked with the city using a Urban Park and Photo of canoeing on Trap Pond in DelawareRecreation Recovery grant. In New Jersey the abandoned Barnegat Lighthouse has become seaside county offices through our use of the Federal Surplus Property program. Our archeologists have literally uncovered artifacts that provide new insights into the lives of the founding fathers at the construction of the visitor's center at Independence NHP. Our grants to National Historic Landmarks under Save America's Treasures and Challenge Cost share programs have saved treasured places. Throughout the Northeast Land and Water Fund Conservation Fund grants to States have conserved natural spaces and provided recreational opportunities for all.

In our parks, our scientists Photo of children mimicking Jackson Pollock at his former homeprovide expertise to manage deer and purple loosestrife, replenish raparian buffers, and help keep water clean. Our planners coordinate planning of new park units and update park General Management Plans. Our preservation professionals help parks and partners make good environmental and historic preservation decisions through assistance with environmental (NEPA) and historic preservation reviews (Section 106).

How We Do It
We are a team. Stewardship and Partnerships is a professional staff of specialists in natural and cultural resource stewardship, land use analysis, community organization and public participation, environmental science and education, public policy analysis, landscape architecture, regional planning, and communication. By working together using all of these disciplines, we can offer comprehensive problem solving. Our services range from resource evaluation, to management plans; from informational publications and workshops to basic resource inventories. We are dedicated to working together to make a difference. Contact us.

 

Last Updated:
March 31, 2002

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