Landforce Crews Help Restore Trails, Remove Invasive Plants In The Hazelwood Greenway In Allegheny County

Landforce has partnered with the City of Pittsburgh’s One PGH Fund and the Hazelwood Initiative to provide some much needed stewardship to the Hazelwood Greenway. 

Crews have been working to reroute eroded sections of the existing trail, create drainage pathways to mitigate further erosion, target some invasive vegetation for management and removal, and construct a half a mile of new trail that creates a loop within the Greenway. 

In the first week of November, crews will be working with Tree Pittsburgh to plant 150 trees in a restoration area that was cleared by Allegheny Goatscape's Team Hobo, making this a truly collaborative effort.

Crew members have gotten their hands dirty every step of the way, from stumping Bush Honeysuckle and cutting vines to grading the hillside into a walkable trail and removing garbage from dumpsites. 

The gratification provided by this work helps keep morale high while reinforcing our crew members' perseverance and their focus on staying motivated to achieve their goals.

One of the best days on the site so far was when the crew connected the new trail with the old trail. The crew's sense of accomplishment and satisfaction was palpable, and is reinforced every time they see someone on the trail. 

They can see how working as a team has provided the community with a significant and important asset. 

The Landforce class of 2021 is making personal and professional progress and their work at the Hazelwood Greenway might be their proudest achievement -- at least so far.

Landforce

Landforce was established in 2015 in response to an analysis that highlighted deep inequity in employment, income and environmental conditions throughout Pittsburgh and its immediate neighbors.

Landforce is an organization built out of a collaborative effort on behalf of 6 nonprofits to address local workforce readiness and environmental stewardship needs.

Landforce will hire and train people with barriers to employment, using a rigorously designed curriculum which covers both hard and soft skills, combined with actual employment, stewarding Pittsburgh's degraded lands Courses include: Tools and Safety, First Aid/CPR, 40-hour HAZWOPER, Chain Saw, Environmental Stewardship, Tree Tender and Green Stormwater Infrastructure. 

If you need help with a green infrastructure project, visit the Hire Landforce webpage, contact Landforce by sending an email to: info@landforcepgh.org or call 412-727-6936.

For more information on the program, working as a crew member or if you need help with a project, visit the Landforce webpage.  Follow them on Facebook and Twitter.  Click Here to support their work.

[Posted: October 18, 2021]  PA Environment Digest