South Philadelphia dad and Little League coach Alex Kaslowitz remembers watching the Phillies play at Veterans Stadium, one of the first to install artificial turf in 1970. Since then, as reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, six former Phillies have died from a rare form of brain cancer linked to the turf they played on. “That really hit me hard because I can literally picture these players. I can picture the stadium and the heat — you would even see it was cloudy on the very hot days,” Kaslowitz said. “And you know, the catcher’s sucking in all this air …

I am standing in the Meadows, at the southwest corner of FDR Park, in a 33-acre mud pit roughly the size of eleven city blocks. Where once stood a mature woodland, now stands a vast strip of nothing—with an unimpeded view of I-95. The pit is prickled with hundreds of almost indiscernible, twiggy saplings. I squat to inspect their plastic yellow tags, still attached from the nursery. Standing beside me is Scott Quitel, professor of ecology and founder of the LandHealth Institute. We are in the heart of the so-called “wetland restoration” project, the centerpiece of what the Fairmount Park