Allegheny Land Trust has been working toward permanently conserving more land in two areas in the county, Dead Man’s Hollow in Elizabeth Township and the Panhandle Greenway in South Fayette and Collier.
The purchase of a 10-acre parcel will expand the first conservation area the trust worked on in Elizabeth Township, located directly along the Greater Allegheny Passage. The second area has been chosen to “balance rapid development in the western part of our county,” according to trust Senior Director of Marketing and Community Engagement Lindsay Dill. That project involves buying 30 acres that would expand Settlers Cabin Park and 42 acres that would buffer the Panhandle Trail. The trust has already completed two conservation projects there.
The trust is working to create awareness of both and raise funds by the end of the year.
Allegheny Land Trust is a nationally accredited land conservation nonprofit that has been “helping local people save local land” in the Pittsburgh region since 1993, according to its website. “It continues to protect thousands of acres of green space in dozens of municipalities to preserve our region’s unique natural beauty, provide expanded outdoor recreational opportunities, protect and improve water and air quality, sustain biodiversity, and enhance the overall quality of life in the region.”
Dill said community input will factor into each project, and management plans will be developed for both, a requirement of its national accreditation body, the Land Trust Accreditation Commission.
The overall goal with the Elizabeth Township project, Dill said, is to expand trust land there, create a connection with the Boston Ballfield Park, and buffer the Youghiogheny River and GAP Trail. Right now the area has 450 acres of green space and a trail system that is 6 miles long, according to the trust website.
In 2014 the trust developed a management plan for its conservation efforts in Dead Man’s Hollow, one that took care to review community forged trails and took into account the steep slopes that lead to the Youghiogheny River.
Dill said the trust closed some of those trails that caused erosion. It also preserved the ruins of a 19th-century quarry and an early 20th-century pipe factory, acknowledging the region’s history as an industrial center.
A link to a WQED video on the area is on the trust’s website. More information on those companies is available there, too.
“The community wanted to use the space as it had, some wanting wildflowers to preserve the area and some wanting to use the space for hiking, birding and biking,” Dill said. The trust worked with state departments to create a wild plant sanctuary after removing invasive species.
Dead Man’s Hollow has been popular with residents for years to begin with, she added, and once the trust completed its conservation work it became much more popular. It is 1 mile from the GAP trail parking lot in Boston, making the area accessible.
The trust has been working on acquiring the land needed, including an encroachment plan with neighbors. December is the closing deadline for the project.
Dill said it needs $80,000 for the work, and it has some approvals for grants from municipalities, private foundations and corporate sponsorship. Of that total the trust also has a drive to raise $35,000 in matching funds from the community. According to its website, it has raised nearly $30,000 of that total.
Once the land is acquired and the trust owns it, staff will create that management plan.
“We will make sure there are no dump sites; we might host tree planting space — like willows along waterways to prevent erosion — and support native habitats that are there,” she said. Initial assessments have been done, and the trust may leave some mountain bike jump trails there the community built. That depends on assessments that assure no safety issues exist.
In 2024 the trust protected two parcels of land as part of its yearslong landscape-scale Panhandle Greenway Conservation Project, according to its website. The 30 acres of green space in Collier the trust is acquiring is adjacent to the park, and the trust will have deed restrictions on the property so that it remains conservation land only, Dill said.
Allegheny County has committed $50,000 toward the project, and the trust has applications pending for the remainder of the needed $840,000. Dill said the Richard King Mellon Foundation is on board for pieces of the landscape scale aspect of it, and the trust is meeting with other foundations. The trust is awaiting state funding, and most often those come in December. It is looking for $40,000 from the community, too.
The county Parks Department will own the land once the trust conserves it, Dill said. “We love doing these partnerships,” she added, noting that it will require less management for the county and conserve green space at the same time.
The Panhandle Trail portion has as its goal “to create an ecological, recreational and place-making greenway unlike any in the region.” The trust aims to bridge Settlers Cabin Park, Pittsburgh Botanical Garden, Collier Township Park, South Fayette’s Preservation Park, other public and privately conserved lands, and the Panhandle and Montour trails “for the benefit of current and future generations,” according to its website.
The estimated cost of the project is $635,000, Dill said, which includes a $30,000 community fund drive. Like the Settlers Cabin Park effort, the trust is also seeking state funding assistance and foundation grants.
If necessary, Dill said, the closing on the property could be extended to March.
The trust will most likely engage stakeholders to find out how residents there are using the land. A quick initial review Dill took with a colleague of the property found some community forged trails there and invasive species. A closer review will check for dump sites, although none seem to be evident.
The effort is important because residents know more about the land, and how they and their neighbors use it. Some trails could be kept, as long as they align with a conservation plan. Again, an internal management plan will be developed once the trust closes on the property.
This effort is “about the linking of all the green spaces,” Dill said, “in an area of the county that is seeing rampant development. The greenway is not like a Frick Park-level land connected to other green spaces. We’ll work on each of them on an individual basis.”
The trust website notes that many phases are yet to come in as part of the “ongoing effort to conserve woodlands in the rapidly developing and flood-vulnerable Robinson Run Watershed and along the scenic corridor of the popular Panhandle Trail.”
Dill said the trust has no set answer as to how many phases it will take, and it could be a 10- or 20-year effort to finish it. It has an internal map that indicates what lands meet the trust criteria in its biodiversity and water health efforts as part of its conservation work there.
The Allegheny Land Trust is accepting donations for these and other projects on its website. The link is available here.
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.