Mother Nature Smiles on Scott Conservancy’s Celebration

Citation from the State Legislature highlighting our achievements in the past 30 years

The Scott Conservancy didn’t own any land when we had our first organizational meeting in the late summer of 1989. All we had were a handful of people “dedicated to active pursuit of the appropriate use, preservation and development of both the natural and manmade environment.”

Thirty years later we have acquired 77 acres of land and built out more than two miles of trails.

We maintain another small patch of nature on the traffic island at Cochran and Greentree Roads.

We have an apiary that produces delicious, ultra-local honey.

We have a lot to celebrate. And that’s exactly what we did on September 14.

Right up front we want to give a big round of applause to the United States Coast Guard. They showed up a week before the event to help us get ready by mowing, trimming, clearing trails and generally sprucing up the place. The Whiskey Point and Scrubgrass trailheads haven’t looked so sharp in a long time. We were a little anxious in the days leading up to September, as the weather had included a lot of rain. But the skies remained dry on Saturday morning, and by afternoon we even had sunshine.

We kicked it off at 10 a.m. with two special guests, Representative Anita Astorino Kulik (45th District/Allegheny County) and Representative Dan Miller (42nd District/Allegheny County). Together they presented us with a citation from the State Legislature highlighting some of our achievements in the past 30 years.

It was easy to tell that something big was going on next to the Scrubgrass parking lot. We had four pop-up tents, hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill, jars of our own honey for sale, and several display boards. The boards showed how the Conservancy has progressed over the years: acquiring developing mine-drainage mitigation ponds, acquiring Kane Woods, adding an apiary, and more.

The apiary was a big attraction

We had four canine visitors for our dog walk.

Some of the children grabbed our scavenger-hunt lists to see what they could spot as they and their parents walked some of our trails. Those who reported back with their successes went home with some small jars of honey as a prize. We gave away a few balloons too.

All through the day we saw some familiar faces of members and friends, and a few faces we hadn’t seen for a while.

Our event surprised a few people who had just come to walk the trails on a nice Saturday afternoon. We hope they learned a bit about the work we do, and how we rely on members and volunteers to keep all the wheels turning.

So that put a wrap on our first 30 years. Now let’s make the next 30 even better.

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Visit Kane Woods!

Scrubgrass Run:  1459 Scrubgrass Road, 15106 • Whiskey Point:  1461 Scrubgrass Road, 15106

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