A New York-based conservation group is funding projects to preserve green space in the Pittsburgh area, as part of an effort to protect the Appalachian corridor.
Open Space Institute said the region is critical for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, preventing threats from flooding and extreme weather, and ensuring space for wildlife migration.
Allegheny Land Trust is using its $40,000 grant to help purchase and maintain land near Settlers Cabin Park. The City of Pittsburgh is getting $25,000 for city greenways.
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The awards are part of $4 million in grants OSI gave out in the first round of its seven-year Appalachian Landscapes Project.
Nick Richardson, OSI’s senior vice president for capital strategies, said conservation investments have generally focused on the Western United States, where huge areas of land can be protected at once.
The Eastern U.S. presents a few more challenges, because land parcels tend to be smaller and face more pressure from development, driving up costs.
“ There are 165 million Americans that live within a few hours’ drive of the Appalachians and recreate there, rely on the Appalachian region for clean water, for flood mitigation, for wood products, and for all these incredible resources that exist within the region,” Richardson said.
Connecting protected land throughout the Appalachians, he said, can create a more resilient landscape for the people who live nearby as well as the plants and animals that depend on it.
Richardson said Allegheny County sits at an interesting junction between the northern and southern Appalachian ranges.
“Pittsburgh is this really important hinge point between these two distinct components of the Appalachians,” Richardson said. “And it does mean from that connectivity perspective, having these integrated pathways that move through the greater Pittsburgh area is essential for species to be able to move and migrate over time.”
If migration gets cut off by fragmented green spaces, Richardson said, plants and animals risk getting stuck in areas where they can’t adapt to climate pressures.
For people who live nearby, the conservation projects can create tangible benefits.
“ It’s much more practical and immediate,” Richardson said of the climate benefits. “It’s [for example] ‘our town floods every year and we have to put up sandbags and concrete barriers to maintain the one point of access that goes through our town.’ And if we protect this land and manage the forest in a different way, that’s less likely to happen.”
Conservation can also mean better access to recreation opportunities such as hiking, biking, and bird-watching.
Allegheny Land Trust marketing director Lindsay Dill said the group’s Panhandle Greenway Conservation Project aims to protect land around Settlers Cabin Park, the Pittsburgh Botanical Garden, Collier Township Park and South Fayette Preservation Park.
Dill said this project takes a more proactive approach for the land trust than past efforts that sought to conserve “the best of what’s left.”
“It looks like that area is very green, but unless those lands are conserved, it isn’t a guarantee that it’ll remain that way,” Dill said.
New housing developments are already pushing up against the borders of the preserved land.
Dill said preserving open space and woods will help protect the Robinson Run watershed, as well as provide habitat to migrating birds, and enhance public access to trails that meet the Panhandle Trail.
“ It’s one of the first times where we’re really looking at the whole landscape scale and saying: this region, this part of the county has something special, and if we conserve it now, we can create a community, and we can protect the community that we all want to live in and benefit from,” Dill said.
