By Karen Melton, Southeastern Pennsylvania Group
Green space is not easy to come by in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh, a long-term home of industry and mining, so the 150-acre Churchill Valley Greenway is regarded by many as a treasure. Originally a golf course, it was bought at sheriff’s sale in 2013 by a developer and over the next several years, the vacant property began to be used as an unofficial park by the local community. It was where people went to hike, to walk their dogs, to play in the stream and enjoy the outdoors – 95,000 people live within three miles. Then EQT, a Pittsburgh-based gas producer, sent leasing letters to homeowners surrounding the property, and the fight for preservation began.
The fight against fracking was eventually won. In November of 2015, the Churchill Borough Council passed a zoning modification that banned drilling in C-2 commercial zones (the property is zoned C-2) following a hearing attended by more than 200 area residents. Our state legislature, which believes in local control right up until the gas industry is affected, has passed a law requiring municipalities to allow fracking in at least one zone, so C-1 commercial zones in Churchill still are potential future drilling sites, regardless of proximity to homes and schools.
The property was now safe from fracking, but to save it as green space it needed a new owner. Local Sierra Club member and former ExCom volunteer Renee Dolney and others knew who that owner should be – Allegheny Land Trust, a land conservation nonprofit with a mission “to conserve and care for local land for the health and well-being of current and future generations.”
Renee and others lobbied hard to convince Allegheny Land Trust to agree to add the Churchill property to their holdings, and once they did the fundraising began, which took several years and a massive effort by the community. Settlement was just completed this past summer.
According to a 2020 article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the land trust had acquired more than 2,700 forested, scenic and flood-prone acres in Allegheny County over the past 26 years, protecting them in perpetuity and, in many cases, remediating streams and land that have been damaged by acid mine drainage and other environment abuses.
Renee also applied for and received small Huplits grants from Sierra Club in 2020 and 2021. The grants are being used to install bat and bluebird boxes, a chimney swift tower, a variety of native plants to support pollinators, and educational signs about the plants and the bird houses.
The property is slowly healing itself, or as Renee puts it, “nature came marching back in,” and it is becoming a much-needed habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. As a former golf course, there are several miles of asphalt paths, so the Greenway is highly accessible.
Plantings will include about 40 species of native plants, such as Milkweeds, Ironweed, VA Bluebell and Goldenrod. The Chalfont Run /Thompson Run Watershed Association was formed to improve and protect the quality of the stream that runs through the Greenway. The association has organized two creek cleanup days with nearly two hundred people turning out to help.
In the past, no aquatic life could be found as a result of mine drainage and pesticide runoff from the golf course, but today turtles, muskrats, crayfish, macroinvertebrates as well as creek chubs and minnows can be found.
Renee says the Huplits grant program has been a perfect fit for the small all-volunteer watershed association. The grant application format is simple and does not need grant writing experience, and the reporting requirements are readily managed by volunteers. Being able to fund these improvements to the Greenway has enhanced its support for both wildlife and humans alike.
This is one in a series of articles about projects supported by Huplits wildlife grants. The annual grants are awarded and administered by the Sierra Club Allegheny Group with funding provided by the Huplits Foundation for projects involving public education, litigation, land acquisition or research directly focused on protecting PA wildlife, its habitats, and preventing cruelty to animals.
This blog was included as part of the Fall 2021 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!