LAGC Meeting – August 25, 2020
Please see end of notes for information about our next meetings and officer and chair needs.
On a warm August evening evening, members gathered at Tree Pittsburgh’s Heritage Nursery.
Joe Stavish, the Manager of Community Education provided us with background information and conducted us on a tour of their nursery.
Tree Pittsburgh was established in 2006, starting out as Friends of Pittsburgh Urban Forest. They started out working with the City of Pittsburgh and have expanded to working with Allegheny County in tree planting and replanting projects. There are approximately 40,000 street trees that are taken care of. If the tree should come down or otherwise die, it is replaced by an urban tolerant tree from their stock. In the County, they are working to help establish hillside and mass plantings where there is little to no tree canopy. They work with other like-minded organizations to determine what trees need to be planted, and where.
The current location of Tree Pittsburgh is on the former Tippins Steel Mill, where the overflow buildings and floating marina once stood. It is considered a brown field, due to the contaminated soil from the prior steel mill industry buildings. They are working to restore native trees to their site, a long narrow 5 mile stretch of land. When they first got the site, they used goats to eat all the invasives, then started planting trees on the hillside along the river. As the tree canopy increases, available sunlight to invasives decreases, thereby reducing their growth. Volunteers also work to cut back invasives as they appear. Invasives can also change the soil chemistry, so by removing them, soil is brought back to its native state.
They have 9 giant rain barrels which will hold up to 6,000 gallons of rainwater, coming off of the sloped roof. The entire roof is comprised of solar panels, resulting in a net 0 energy consumption organization.
Approximately 14,000 trees are currently growing, made up of 60 – 70 different species. The urban tolerant trees come from growers in the state. All other trees that are grown by Tree Pittsburgh start from seed, using a shredded pine bark/peat moss/slow release fertilizer mixture. The seed comes from volunteers or members of the public. Joe will provide Marlowe with a seed collection guide, to make sure you’re collecting the right seed for them, if interested. The goal is to maintain genetic diversity. Seeds are started in the hoop house and live there for approximately 1 year. Once the seedling emerges, and it is time to transplant or up-pot them, the roots are pruned. This is done each time the tree is up-potted, so that when it is planted in the ground, the tree will thrive. From the hoop house it is moved to a temporary hoop house, sealed with plastic. When it is time, they are then moved into outdoor growing rooms to acclimate to being outside. In the winter, trees are buried in bark mulch to insulate the pots. They get the mulch from companies that prune trees, looking to dispose of the shreddings. Once a tree reaches 5 years of age, it needs to go in the ground, so all of their trees in pots are 5 years or younger. A smaller tree suffers less transplant shock and has a greater ability to survive.
The entrance to Tree Pittsburgh’s offices had a large stand of Comptonia – Sweet Fern on one side, which is a ground cover shrub and fragrant in the springtime. Very unusual looking shrub, no members were familiar with it. On the other side of the entrance was a large stand of Aromatic Sumac, also a low growing shrub. Both of these shrubs are deer resistant, a plus for us gardeners.
A native or heritage tree is one that is 100 years or older. It is very important, as with any other plantings to plant the right tree in the right place. It’s all about location.
There are a number of ways that the public can get trees from Tree Pittsburgh. They have a tree giveaway, which is sponsored by a foundation. They target communities that need trees, those with little to no tree canopy. They are a vendor at May Market as well as the Landscape Symposium in the spring. They hold their own sales also. They do have a plant availability list, but require a minimum order of 10 trees. If there are enough members interested, this is something that could be looked into.
Tree Pittsburgh also conducts education and advocacy programs throughout Allegheny County. A tree Tenders certification course is offered a few times each year, for those members who are interested in furthering their tree expertise.
Reminder that we are looking for a member to assume responsibility for programming. You can partner up with one or more members to make it a little easier. Please contact Colleen to get more information if you are interested. Holding office or chairing a committee is a great way to get involved.
The church will not be available to us for the rest of the year. Some ideas were suggested for September and October meetings. Once confirmed an e-mail will be sent out to all members, notifying them of meeting details. It is possible that they will be on a Tuesday, other than the 4th Tuesday of the month, so pay special attention to the date, when you get the email, to determine whether or not you’ll be able to attend.
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