Concerned Main Liners Rally to Save Oakwell

Shawn McMurtry of Merion station, Pa., rarely thought about trees’ importance nor about climate change until a 100-years- old tree on her property was cut down.

When that tree came down and when maple and oak trees on my street started dying, my house suddenly became very hot,” said McMurtry. “people don’t understand the value of trees and they don’t understand climate change until they have been personally impacted like I was.”

McMurtry ‘s love of trees intensified after she visited Oakwell in March 2021. Oakwell is a forest area in Villanova that has over 500 trees, a large variety of birds and other wild life.

“When I saw Oakwell for the first time, it felt as though I entered a story book,” said McMurtry. “I saw a great horned owl. It did not look like it was phased by me.” McMurtry elaborated that the horned owl looked as though it were surveying the land searching for dinner. “I was captivated. I also learned that horned owls don’t migrate. They’ve been at Oakwell over a hundred years.”

She also learned that the Lower Merion School district plans to cut down 500 trees at Oakwell in order to build a middle school athletic field.

She joined the Save Oakwell group . Information about the group can be found on Facebook.

When asked why Oakwell mattered, McMurtry answered:

“You get rid of the wild life habitat, you will have displaced animals like foxes and coyotes - it is an intact ecosystem that would be destroyed. Developing that land will hurt the water shed the creek across the street (from Oakwell). All the homes would flood. Trees cool the air. start taking down trees asthma goes up. The air is cleaner where there’s more trees”.

Another noteworthy member of Save Oakwell is Dr. Richard Tolin. In 2017, Former vice President Al Gore trained him to become a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps. He is also an Ambassador for Physicians for Social Responsibility.

In a letter to the Lower Merion School District, Tolin wrote:

At one of the school board meetings last year, a member of the School Board suggested that those of us who oppose the School Board plan to destroy hundreds of trees to build ball fields were pitting our children against the trees. Nothing could be further from the truth. Of course our children are more important than the trees. They are also more important than school district programs.

The doctor elaborated:

But the greatest threat our children face is the prospect of environmental catastrophe. Climate change and environmental degradation will have a much more profound impact on our children and their generation than any program created by our School Board.

Several other articles about Oakwell will follow.