1

Emerald View Park: Creating a Gem

When members of the Mount Washington Community Development Corporation birthed the idea to create

Pittsburgh’s newest Regional Park in the forgotten green space that embraces the three Pittsburgh

neighborhoods of Mt. Washington, Duquesne Heights, and Allentown, it seemed farfetched to say the least.

The project took on the seemingly insurmountable task of joining three existing parks with steep slopes that

had been heavily mined, denuded and dumped upon for more than a century, creating a border of no-man’s

land that, save for a few creative souls, was far outside of the collective imagination as parkland. In an era

when new parks are increasingly being developed in unexpected places, this article describes how, with the

City of Pittsburgh’s blessing and support, Emerald View Park is beginning to shine as a prime example of what

can happen when community development, environmental restoration, and outdoor recreation meet.

An aerial view of Mount Washington today

shows some pre-existing parkland and what

appears to be lush, forested landscape

wrapping all the way around the Mount

Washington land mass. From this bird’s eye

view it is easy to see what the people of

Mount Washington imagined – a 280 acre

park that connects existing parkland with extensive natural areas. In combination with the over 1 million

visitors that already come to Mount Washington every year to enjoy that spectacular view of downtown, the

implications for economic development, environmental conservation, outdoor recreation and health are

significant.

2

A Brief History of Land Use

However, the park’s steep topography, coupled with the history of land use in Mount Washington creates

extensive challenges. Once a lushly forested mountain, Mount Washington gave birth to the country’s

bituminous coal industry in 1754. Local history includes stories of George Washington’s men digging coal

directly from the hillsides, and much later depression era “thieving” of coal from neighbors’ yards. By 1830,

the City of Pittsburgh was consuming up to 400 tons of coal per day, and through mining operations, timber

removal, and early settlement, Mount Washington’s hillsides became scarred and almost completely denuded.

Estimates suggest that undermining in what is now the Park ranges from 50% to 90% and that approximately

75% of parkland is at 25% grade or greater. The park’s topography coupled with its mining history means that

the Park suffers from slide prone

slopes and problems like acid mine

drainage.

New modes of transportation to the

Mount combined with periods of

boom and bust have meant significant

changes for the way the hillsides have

been used. Early settlers to Mount

Washington had to walk up the slopes

along social trails, including the “Indian Trail” that crossed the face of the Mount, in order to reach the crest of

Mount Washington, 367 feet above the Monongahela River. But as the land mass became increasingly

popular as a place to live in the mid-1800s and later, a mile-long set of wooden stairs were constructed along

this ancient Native American trail. Eventually, as more people settled, alternate forms of transportation up

3

Mount Washington were created, including funiculars, trolleys and roadways. With this large variety of

transportation choices, people slowly, but steadily, stopped walking across the hillsides. While Pittsburgh

thrived, population numbers remained high, exceeding 40,000 in Mount Washington in the 1960s. But

following the massive mill closings and layoffs of the 1980s, people began leaving Pittsburgh in large numbers,

and today, there are less than 14,000 people living in the neighborhoods surrounding the Park. This drastic

drop in population means the woods around Mount Washington contain numerous abandoned roads and

house foundations that dip into the forests. In addition, because the slopes were now rarely used in any way,

save for the occasional hunter, and, because these slopes had been so degraded by previous land use,

Pittsburghers began seeing these hillsides as wasteland. And as the slopes’ usefulness for transportation was

forgotten, they found another use for them – as unofficial garbage dumps. Now, where once there was

nothing but trees, shrubs and wildlife, there are acres of discarded tires, cars, refrigerators, bowling balls,

carpets, and shopping carts.

For generations some people in Mount Washington fought this overriding trend, trying to repair the damage

of all of this early land use. The Carnegie Library owns a photo from 1915 of a group of women in their hoop

skirts planting a barren hillside in Mount Washington. Subsequent reforestation attempts, from the 1950s and

later, included the planting of Norway Maple and Tree of Heaven because they were known to grow in

Pittsburgh’s then-polluted soil and air. So, over time, forests re-grew on the slopes of Mount Washington.

However, these woodlands, like many urban woodlands, are of low ecological value – packed with invasive

plants, and species poor. While this is troubling for forest management, these forests are also a testament to

the human ability to make a difference and re- green areas that have been significantly degraded by people,

and a reminder that one generation’s best practice often causes the next generation to scratch their heads in

puzzlement.

4

Building a Park on “Wasteland”

Ironically, it is this density of trees that further complicates the process of restoring this degraded land and

turning it into a regional park – by physically obscuring the problems, impeding access to the sites, and by

creating a sense of alienation and separation between the community and the space that will become park.

As a result, in order to create Emerald View Park, the Mount Washington Community Development

Corporation, working as co-stewards with the City of Pittsburgh, has had to contend with both how to

physically turn this degraded land into a Park and the social question of how to enable the community to see

the value in this land. The conundrum, by necessity, requires a multi-pronged approach – a three legged stool

that supports Park development through community engagement, trail construction, and habitat restoration.

Community Engagement

Woven into our engagement plan is a somewhat scrappy, “do-it-yourself ethos” that we have intentionally

developed. It is more than just an economic need that is driving this ethos – although it doesn’t hurt to be

“scrappy” when budgets are tight. But because the land is difficult to access and people have become

alienated from the space, and because the vision for the park is constantly being clarified in an ongoing

community conversation, this self-help ethos is an essential part of building this park – both in creating park

space and in the way we build a passion for the Park. Engagement underlies everything that we do, including

how we are getting the work done. We have an advisory board made up of Pittsburgh residents that informs

management decisions and events, we train and hire community members to construct trails and manage the

woodlands, and like everyone here, we rely significantly on volunteer labor. This is intentional because it

enables the people of Pittsburgh, through their own sweat equity, to once again assume ownership over and

passion for the space.

5

While we have enabled in excess of 6,000

hours of volunteer time towards the Park over

the last three years, one novel example of the

way we have been able to engage a broader

constituency is through our Knit and Crochet

Trail Markers. Pittsburgh City Ordinances

exclude painting trail blazes on park trees; so

without adequate funding for trail wayfinding

signs, we struggled for ways to demarcate Emerald View Park trails. That is, until we developed an innovative

volunteer engagement project that encouraged people, from the comfort of their own homes or at publicly

advertised events, to knit us “tree scarves” to adorn trees along the Park’s trails. Each tree scarf is knit from

biodegradable material to dimensions of 10”x12”to 14”. Since kicking off this opportunity in 2010, we have

received roughly 100 knit trail markers from people throughout Southwest Pennsylvania. The Knit and

Crochet Trail Markers project has provided us with some great publicity, while simultaneously encouraging

people from all backgrounds to engage in Emerald View Park’s development.

Master Trail Plan

Another one of our main initiatives

is the Park’s Master Trail Plan which

will enable us to construct 20 miles

of primary and secondary trails.

Mostly woodland trails of 3 to 4

6

feet wide with some necessary sidewalk connections, the 10-mile primary loop will bring hikers and mountain

bikers throughout the entire Park loop and the 10 miles of secondary trails will connect users to different park

neighborhoods and to many of Pittsburgh’s regional trails. The trails bring health, social and economic

benefits for the community and the region. Importantly, and returning to the concept of engagement, they

enable people to experience these forgotten lands as valuable and beautiful parkland, experiencing the

transition from wasteland into park. Apropos of this discussion, they also are crucial for our restoration

efforts, enabling us, our crews, and our volunteers to overcome the challenge of turning a degraded urban

forest into a park by giving us the ability to reach, and then restore, most of the Park’s previously inaccessible

woodlands.

Even within the story of trail construction, we are building the

park through engagement, training and hiring at-risk adults

who would otherwise have no jobs or job prospects. Through

a collaborative with other non-profits, we train them in green

job skills, with specific attention to trail construction,

dumpsite removal, and plant restoration. The Emerald Trail

Corps is not only building miles of structurally sound and

beautiful trails on some of the most challenging terrain in

Pennsylvania, but they love what they are doing. As one of

the Emerald Trail Corps told us recently, “I love this job. I

never expected to. I’ve liked other jobs before because

they’re easy. This one I love because it’s hard, I’m good at it, and it’s creating something worthwhile.”

Because we hire from all over the City, the Emerald Trail Corps is bringing a message of renewal and

restoration to neighborhoods across the City.

7

Ecological Restoration Plan

The final leg of our three-legged stool is our

Restoration Plan, which includes work to eliminate

and remediate existing dumpsites, understand and

improve the Park’s hydrological system, and assist

in the recovery of biodiversity for the Park’s

vegetation and wildlife. Over the past five years,

working with staff, consultants and volunteers, we

have removed 200,000 pounds of garbage, planted 4,500 trees, and restored nearly six acres of prime view

shed with an innovative sustainable management method. In addition, we have begun the preparation for a

water restoration plan and a comprehensive habitat restoration plan for the remaining natural areas.

When we started working in Emerald View Park, it seemed that every time we went into the Park, we

discovered a new dumpsite. We would lead tours and have to urge people to ignore the garbage and use their

imaginations to understand what Emerald View Park could be. Following these tours, the feedback surveys

were dripping with sympathy for, and a good deal of skepticism about, the amount of work that needed to be

done. And admittedly, we often felt overwhelmed by the prospect – how could we possibly create a beautiful,

viable park out of the garbage heaps and vine-beleaguered trees that plagued us? But the thing about

dumpsites, trails, and habitat restoration is that they can be tackled in small bites – one site, or even one piece

of a site, at a time. And with every clean up, every tree planting, every shovelful of soil, the environment is in

a better place than it was before, and the “waste land” is one step closer to being a park. And over time, each

small piece adds up. Today, between the trails that have been built, the trees that have been planted, and the

8

garbage removed, we can go back and walk through with groups of people, and no longer have to push them

to imagine when. Instead, we have to struggle to remember what it used to look like scattered with tires,

bottles, bowling balls and refrigerators. And we rarely get those sympathetic and skeptical looks anymore.

Rather, our visitors return, owning a piece of the vision, and bringing their friends; all the while talking about

how it really is possible to turn steep, degraded Pittsburgh hillside into a Park, and sometimes even how they

could do this in their own neighborhoods.

Lessons Learned

Translating this into a broad lesson learned brings the

spotlight back to the social aspect of building a park in an

unexpected place. The physical piece of building a park

requires the diligence and hard work of any

development project – there needs to be an actionable

plan and it must be implemented well to build a safe,

usable, healthy, and beautiful space. But along with this

is what happens in the social space – a space where people meet and share ideas and values, where hillsides

are declared wasteland or valuable, where forests are treasured or forgotten. It is the space where collective

dreams can be built, and where the shared yearning and vision for any public space is negotiated. This space

is often neglected as we plan and fret about what a park will look like. But forgetting the cultural meaning of a

public place is done only at the peril of the longevity of that place since over the long term, this shared

yearning is what will guarantee the Park’s success, health and protection for many years to come. And while

Emerald View Park is not there yet, there are indications that, step by step, we are getting close.

9

Ilyssa Manspeizer, Ph.D. Director, Park Development & Conservation Mount Washington Community Development Corporation 301 Shiloh Street Pittsburgh, PA 15217 412 481 3220 x204 imanspeizer@mwcdc.org Ilyssa is an environmental anthropologist with over 20 years of experience in natural resource management and community-based conservation and development. She has managed programs and conducted research on conservation and community development in the United Kingdom, East and Southern Africa, and the United States, including Ethiopian elephant conservation, rural Zambian development, and urban park development. Ilyssa currently lives in Pittsburgh where she is helping to make the dream of Emerald View Park a reality.