Radnor Township is cutting back the banks of two creeks at The Willows this fall. The plan is to replace invasive growth with native trees and shrubs. Volunteers will put 100 trees and more than 130 bushes in the ground over two days in November. The township has also called this a five-year project. That's the part to watch, because the 2026 budget pays for clearing and planting. Years two through five depend on grants the township has said it will apply for but hasn't yet received.
Township officials already know what happens when planting gets ahead of upkeep. Part of this year's money is going to a park where the township has had to come back and rescue trees it planted a few years ago.
What the Mowers Are Clearing
The work covers two stretches of water inside the 47.5-acre park at 490 Darby Paoli Road. The first is Abrahams Run, from Darby Paoli Road down to where it meets Little Darby Creek. The second is a section of Little Darby Creek between the park's exit and entrance roads. James Gibbons, chairman of the Radnor Shade Tree Commission, told the Board of Commissioners in August that the basic plan is to remove all existing vegetation along those banks and then replant.
The township asked six firms for proposals. Girod's Property Maintenance won the clearing contract. The clearing is done by mowing both sides of each stream more than once. The cut material stays where it falls, on purpose, as wildlife habitat. Anyone walking past this fall should expect rough, debris-covered banks rather than a tidy, landscaped edge.
The schedule called for a first mowing in September and a second in November, just before planting. The public record hasn't yet confirmed that the September pass happened. The Shade Tree Commission met on Sept. 30, and its minutes had not been posted as of early October.
The contract history shows how stubborn this vegetation is. The township's request for proposals specified three mowings. The motion the board approved funds two this year. Invasive growth on a creek bank doesn't go away after one cut, and the plan expects the native plants to shade it out over time. That only works if someone keeps cutting back the invasives while the new plantings grow in.
Where the 2026 Money Goes
The Board of Commissioners approved Resolution 2026-97 in August. It caps spending on this project and a companion project at Warren Filipone Memorial Park at $37,350, paid from the Commemorative Shade Tree Fund. The Willows share is about $30,000, broken down in the Shade Tree Commission's July 29 presentation:
- Invasive removal, two mowings: $15,000
- 70 trees and 130 bushes: $9,650, matching the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society grant limit
- 30 bare-root trees through PHS: $4,500
PHS is expected to pay back the $9,650 for plant material. That leaves the shade tree fund carrying about $20,000 for the Willows in 2026, and three-quarters of that is mowing. Clearing is the single largest cost this year. The plants are close to free, because volunteers install them and a grant covers most of what they cost.
The funding section ends with one line about the future: "Apply for PHS Maintenance Grants for 2027 onward." The presentation gives no dollar figure for those later years and no year-by-year task list.
The November Calendar
The township posted its call for volunteers on Sept. 30. Here is how the fall plays out, based on the plan's schedule and that notice:
- October: organize volunteers, stage the trees and shrubs on site, and line up support from Public Works.
- November, before planting: the second mowing.
- Sunday, Nov. 8: 70 container trees and 134 bushes go in along Abrahams Run and a section of Little Darby Creek.
- Saturday, Nov. 14: 30 bare-root trees.
The counts differ slightly between documents. The approved plan says at least 130 bushes, and the township's Nov. 8 notice lists 134. Signup is through the link on Radnor Township's volunteer notice. The project partners are Radnor Public Works, the Shade Tree Commission, the Parks department, and Radnor Conservancy. Volunteers may also come from Villanova and from the surrounding neighborhoods.
Warren Filipone Park Already Showed What Happens Next
The second park in Resolution 2026-97 explains why the plan stretches over five years. Gibbons told commissioners that the township planted several trees at Warren Filipone Memorial Park a few years ago, and the area is getting overgrown again. Part of this year's work is clearing around that stream so the earlier trees can keep growing.
Resident Roberta Winters supported the Willows plan at the August meeting and raised the same concern:
"My experience, however, has been that while this will look good immediately, we want to make sure that the Radnor maintenance department that maintains those fields over time continues to protect that riparian buffer because it's very easy to forget about those things five years from now."
Ricky Foster, Radnor's director of public works, agreed that upkeep is the hard part. He said the commission is "seeking grants to help with the maintenance because being able to take care of these areas after the work is done is a big ask for the public works department." He described the plan as a combined effort of township staff, neighborhood residents, and grant money to keep the banks from filling back in. Main Line Media News covered the full exchange.
A 2024 Planting Is Still Waiting on a Caretaker
The Willows already has one restoration planting that relies on continued care. The Shade Tree Commission's map of this project marks a Miyawaki Forest near the pond, where water from the pond flows back into Little Darby Creek. The township's special plantings page says this densely planted micro-forest went in during spring 2024. It was a joint effort of the Shade Tree Commission, township arborist John Rockwell Hosbach of Rockwell Associates, and volunteers. It mixes native canopy trees, understory trees, shrubs, and groundcover.
The page invites visitors to watch the plantings develop and calls for ongoing care and support. It doesn't say who handles that care or how the forest is doing two seasons in. That leaves the Willows with three planted areas close together: the 2024 micro-forest, the Abrahams Run bank, and the Little Darby Creek bank. All three need the same kind of follow-up that the township has said will come from volunteers and future grants.
What You'll See on a Walk This Fall
Most of the park is unaffected. The township lists walking and running trails, a pond with fountains, fishing, picnic areas, benches, and restrooms at The Willows. Neither the restoration presentation nor the Sept. 30 notice announces any trail closures for the work. Even so, it makes sense to expect crews along the two creek sections on mowing and planting days.
The park's trails belong to the township's southern hiking network. Trails from the Willows lead into Skunk Hollow Park, which sits between the Willows and Saw Mill Park. If the cleared banks along Abrahams Run aren't where you'd like to walk in November, that's an easy longer loop.
The mansion is a separate project on its own timeline. The nonprofit Willows Park Preserve signed a 25-year lease with the township in 2019 and is still doing repairs and structural reinforcement while hosting events. According to the Willows Park Preserve, walk-in visitors are welcome when the mansion's "OPEN" sign is out, free guided tours are available on request, and the terrace and exterior grounds are open during park hours.
The next public update on the creek banks should be the Shade Tree Commission's Sept. 30 minutes. They should show whether Girod's finished the first mowing on schedule. After that, the first real test of the five-year plan is whether the 2027 PHS maintenance grant applications go in and get funded.
Over time, a park's upkeep becomes part of what it's like to live near it. Meghan Houder and Trish Nuñez-Strid follow those details closely across Radnor Township. If you're thinking about what's changing near your own home, the Houder Nunez-Strid Team invites you to schedule a confidential market consultation.
