The summer edition of the Friends of Heinz newsletter has a story about the beginnings of the refuge, ‘How the Refuge Was Won’. It highlights how the DVOC has been involved in conservation in the area.
“Chapter one of the story which began in 1952 took place for approximately the next 20 years, primarily in the City of Philadelphia. Members of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, led by Alston Jenkins, formed an organization called the “Tinicum Committee” (later known as the “Philadelphia Conservationists”) and devised a plan by which they hoped they could save the Philadelphia portion of Tinicum’s marshes.”
Read more about it in their PDF