June: Adam Fedeski

PITTSBURGH PARKS CONSERVANCY
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY FELLOW

June has been yet another exciting month. Our Walks in the Woods programs have begun. They are volunteer docent-led walks every Wednesday evening that take place in each of the four city parks: Riverview, Highland, Frick and Schenley (Go here for the schedule of walks). I prepared a packet for each of the docents, which included natural and cultural history facts, as well as things to do and the volunteer opportunities for each park. I also provided them with interesting historical photos, maps, and postcards to enhance the experience for those attending the walks. Shortly after my evaluation at the beginning of the month, my wish to become further involved in environmental education activities at the PPC was granted. Here are a few highlights from the month:

June 4- Worked with 36 members of the Americorps Literacy group on their site in Highland Park to fix deer exclosure fencing, remove 47 bags of garlic mustard, 3 tires, and plant 23 tree seedlings in open canopy areas.
June 6- Mitzvah Day with eleven members of Temple Sinai. We worked on removing invasive vines and garlic mustard in upper Frick Park.
June 11- City High Charter School Urban EcoStewards session. We worked with the students to implement erosion control techniques on the upper hillside of their site in Schenley Park. We secured jute netting in open areas, a biodegradable net that helps to keep the soil in place while attempting to grow vegetation there.
June 24- This was my favorite day of the month. In the morning, Marijke and I led a walk in Schenley Park for 8 and 9 year olds from the Carnegie Science Center Summer Camp. The walk focused on the importance of native plants and watersheds and included TWO scavenger hunts (one at the stream, one in the woods)! In the afternoon, I met up with Lori Gaido and a group of recent high school graduates who are serving internships through the Heinz Endowment Fund. I gave an informal presentation on the history of the PPC, the scope and importance of their work, and what I do at the PPC. That evening, I went to a pruning and invasive species workshop for PTAG volunteers in Frick Park. It was co-led by Matt from Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest and Erin from the PPC. I helped to coordinate schedules and set up the time and details for this event, and I even learned some things by attending it!
June 25- The final session of High School UES with City High. While all of their previous sessions focused on stewardship activities, this session was devoted to walking through the park to explore the nature that they had been working to protect this winter and spring. We also spent time brainstorming for their final projects, which will be presented at the end of the year picnic on July 9! I am very excited for their presentations. They are a fun group.
June 29- My first PPC blog was posted, recapping the spring volunteer season with pictures galore! If you have a keen eye, you can find three of the other Green Cities fellows in these pictures (one of them is close to impossible unless you know what his hair and clothes looks like!)
http://pittsburghparks.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/spring-volunteer-season-...

Community Day progress:

Miriam, Jake and I attended the Hazelwood Initiative member meeting on June 8 to present our project goals and ideas for the day to members of the community. We received a positive response and it helped to generate ideas for picking a date to host the event, as well as to hear what the community wanted to include in the day. Since then, we have worked on contacting groups in Hazelwood and honing in on what projects are feasible to complete for the day. We used the second half of our SCA meeting to visit Hazelwood and check out project locations and talk to some members of the community about the project. It looks like we are going to host it on Saturday, August 21. I am really excited about this. We will be working on contacting church and community groups this next month. I will be working to help out with outreach and recruiting volunteers for the day.