In This Issue

“...Through sanitary and remedial action in the houses that we have; and then the building of more, strongly, beautifully, and in groups of limited extent, kept in proportion to their streams and walled round, so that there may be no festering and wretched suburb anywhere, but clean and busy streets within and the open country without, with a belt of beautiful garden and orchard round the walls, so that from any part of the city perfectly fresh air and grass and sight of far horizon might be reachable in a few minutes walk.”

That excerpt from an 1862 work by English writer and social critic John Ruskin portrays an urban environment beyond our reach in the cities of today. But Ruskin would have agreed that any effort to improve one’s community by encouraging nature with an eye toward art is a good thing for cities and the people who live in them. As an early champion of sustainable cities Ruskin would have applauded WPC’s 5,000 volunteer gardeners, who have planted, and faithfully tend, 170 community gardens in towns big and small across western Pennsylvania.

Those gardens, graced by nearly a half million flowers, are oases of greenery and birdsong within the bustle, and too often decay, of our urban landscapes. They are places that remind all who pass of the natural landscape that preceded cities and persists still, though threatened, across most of our region of three great rivers.

Yet, those gardens are even more. They are the seeds of a conservation ethic, to be passed down through the families and among the friends of our volunteers. Some of those volunteers have been gardening with us for over a decade. Their commitment is certain to spread through their example; it already has. As it spreads it fulfills another aspect of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s commitment to this region—outreach. This organization’s initiative within communities was the original seed of a volunteer mobilization that, we hope, will spark wide awareness that all real prosperity is rooted in healthy water and land.

In this issue of CONSERVE you will read about still more examples of WPC’s outreach to inspire a conservation ethic. In September, we’ll host Dr. Gary Alt of the Pennsylvania Game Commission at Wild in the Woods at Bear Run. Dr. Alt will present the message he’s spread among deer hunters in every corner of the state that deer can be too plentiful for the health of the land, and that hunters’ support for progressive deer management is good conservation.

One of our most successful outreach efforts has been the help provided to dozens of local groups and communities by WPC’s Watershed Assistance Center. In this issue we highlight the Center’s outreach to citizens in the Crooked Creek watershed in Armstrong County, who are completing a conservation plan to guide the care of their piece of western Pennsylvania.

Outreach is only part of the focus of CONSERVE this autumn. Within these pages is the story of a critical land acquisition adjoining South Park in Allegheny County and an account of the WPC-sponsored “Bioblitz” at the new Erie Bluffs State Park, acquired by WPC last December. There is also a timely appeal to continue your support for Growing Greener II, scheduled for consideration again by the Legislature this fall.

WPC is busy and engaged on many fronts. Some fronts, like land acquisition, are long-familiar facets of our mission. Others, like some of our outreach efforts, are a little newer but no less important. Be sure that WPC will continue to innovate, to teach and to help others in the cause of conservation. This place is worth it.

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