South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association (SSNA)
Improve the quality and connectivity of South Side Park’s deteriorating and fragmented trails.
Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
Student Conservation Association
Mount Washington Community Development Corporation (MWCDC)
Operating as the MWCDC’s Emerald Trail Corps, we were approached by the SSNA in 2014 to fix their deteriorating and fragmented trail system. The SSNA hoped to better connect community members to the trails as a way to traverse the hillside for both transportation and recreation.
During the project, we were able to rehabilitate overgrown and deteriorated trails and to create new, sustainable trails which connected the north part of the park to the southern and western ends of the park. Working closely with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the Student Conservation Association, we formed an alliance increasing our manpower for this project through dedicated labor and volunteer coordination.
Our increased crew size allowed us to remove several illegal dumpsites, clear away hundreds of invasive vines, and reroute existing trails away from chronically wet and sensitive areas to more suitable terrain. Landforce continues to work with the SSNA to expand trail access from the eastern part of South Side Park and from the neighborhood community center. We are proud of the user-friendly, natural trail experience we were able to create within a dense, urban environment.
Landforce will be working with SSNA at South Side Park again in 2016 to further expand the trail system based on their master trail plan.
