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Walk The Trails of Wonder That You Can Create in Your Own Backyard - Visit EPA’s 2003 Philadelphia Flower Show Exhibit

Release Date: 2/25/2003
Contact Information: Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543

Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543

PHILADELPHIA – Take a break from the snow and winter weather to walk the Trails of Wonder, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s educational exhibit at the 2003 Philadelphia Flower Show from March 2 - 9 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

This year's exhibit, Veredas de Maravillas, or Trails of Wonder, showcases an area along a nature trail filled with native plants and a camping lean-to. The display is complete with a waterfall and wetlands areas, giving visitors a sense of stepping off an Appalachian trail as they cross the bridge over a mountain stream.

“EPA’s flower show exhibit affords EPA the opportunity to encourage beneficial landscaping by showing simple ways that citizens can protect the environment in their own back yards and in their communities,” said Donald S. Welsh, mid-Atlantic regional administrator.

This year's exhibit encourages habitat preservation, with native plants, to help maintain genetic diversity. The site will look like many places in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

There are many take-home messages for everyone’s backyard. Using native plants preserves the local botanical gene pool, requires less fertilizers and pesticides, conserves water, maintains ecological balance, and avoids the possibility of introducing a non-native plant that might become invasive.

Several publications on environmental gardening will be available at the exhibit for visitors to take home. For additional information on the region’s green gardening website: https://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/garden/index.htm is available year round.