Our Focus: On the Lake & Working With Its Stewards

Our buds in the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy have done a pretty good job at remediation in the Panther Hollow watershed, tackling projects in the Hollow to the fringes of Bartlett Street and the Golf Course. And it's paid off; anyone that visits the lake can see the improved flow of both Phipps and Panther Hollow Runs.

They have a long range plan, first laid out in 2000. It has several phases, and the final step is lake work. They are 100% committed to that blueprint - first the watershed, then the lake. That's why we formed. The FOPHL want to provide a second front in the campaign, one that focuses on the lake itself as well as its feeder system.

PHL hydrant buried by erosion

We've had a couple of nice chats with the Conservancy folk, and they're OK with us tackling some lake issues. We're looking forward to the task of coming up with a two prong approach, and some formal organizing of FOPHL is already being formulated, a tedious and painful process for rookie activists. But in the meanwhile, we do have a couple of irons in the fire.

Part of the Conservancy work list is to fix up what is today's major feeder into PHL, Phipps Run, as part of the Lily Pond rehab. We poked a little into that, and lot of the heavy work and planning is in the hands of the City's Public Works engineers, who have designs to not only rejuvenate the pond but also the headwaters of Phipps Run that begin above the Westinghouse Memorial in the ravine that drops from the Golf Course. That's scheduled to begin in the late summer.

We've been in touch with Councilman Corey O'Connor, who represents the Park both by district and as Chair of the City Recreation Committee, and he's on board with us.

Next, we've had a couple of brief exchanges with the Department of Public Works. Director Mike Gable is aware that PHL needs some work done, and says that the big jobs are waiting on heavy equipment access, which will piggyback on some planned Alcosan work. That's great news, even if the specifics are a bit up in the air.

Flotsam in PHL

Gary Sciulli is the Schenley Park foreman now, and that's more good news. In the past year, he's repaired the wooden steps leading to the lake, cleared the lake's diversion dam, cleaned out the overflow gutters and removed trees that dropped across the Hollow Trail, all decent sized jobs for a crew that's still two men short of being filled.

His guys have also done a good job of keeping the streets and sidewalks cleared during a brutally icy winter, going so far as to use a street brush on the trails to get them ready for the spring thaw, a thoughtful touch. That's a commitment that's been lacking in the past, when City involvement was little more than picking up the garbage and trimming, and we're looking forward to having DPW as an active partner going forward.

And there are no shortage of projects that we've discussed internally. There are some big jobs on the list - cleaning out & dredging the lake, controlling the runoff from the Upper Trail ravine, and working with the Phipp's Sustainability Center to rehab the cleared area on the ravine behind their area, to long-term items like improving access and imagining a new boathouse.

Sustainability Center's denuded ravine

There are lots of short term, completely doable projects, too - improving the grounds through greenery and amenities like picnic tables and benches, restocking the lake, some trail & approach work and just keeping up with the little cleanup and maintenance issues that every public grounds faces. We have a smorgasbord of potential service projects.

To that end, we've already staged a couple of small lake cleanups. Also, FOPHL has enlisted the talents of the Pitt Ecology Club, one of several local eco groups we're looking to partner with. They're already brimming with some innovative projects for PHL, and with their return to school in the fall, we're planning to whittle down the idea list hand-in-hand to prepare a presentation to green up (and spruce up) PHL.

In the discussion stage is outreach to the high schools, universities and non-profits. So we've been busy; there are a lot of pots to stir. At least now the folks involved with the grand scheme are aware that there is an open-eyed advocacy group that's willing to roll up its sleeves and get dirty with them to achieve everyone's goal of lake restoration.

The pace has been frustratingly slow, yet we have only been in existence since August and progress is being made. The players and their roles have been identified and the projects are forming. So hang in there with us; the lake is finally on the agenda again.