For the 121st Sustainability Salon (still on Zoom), we'll return to the forest (figuratively, at least). Last September we talked about forest preservation here in the Pittsburgh region, safeguarding trees against threats from development large and small; this time we'll hear about several local initiatives to restore our urban forest. When William Penn first visited what would become Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods"), it was 99% forested; now we have about 60% forest cover (70% privately owned, 30% public). Trees provide myriad benefits, including direct resources like food, fuel, fiber, and building materials -- and also vital carbon sequestration, stormwater infiltration and transpiration, water and air filtration, erosion control (helping to prevent landslides and perhaps even bridge collapses in some situations), wildlife habitat, and human habitat (including but not limited to shade, windbreaks, recreation, and general community enhancement).
Tree Pittsburgh, which grew out of the Pittsburgh Shade Tree Commission, has been working to increase the city's tree canopy -- and people's understanding of it -- for more than 15 years. The TreeVitalize program has planted over 25,000 street trees in Pittsburgh. The Tree Tender volunteer training program involves residents in caring for trees in our own communities. Megan Palomo, director of Tree Pittsburgh's Heritage Nursery, will talk about the need for species, gender, and age diversity, the influence of climate change on pollen production, and their work seeding our future forests.
Wildlife habitat is just one of the many vital roles of trees; they provide both food and shelter for countless critters. And as for all native plants, some animal species depend on certain plants. We're familiar with the dependence of the monarch butterfly on milkweed, but they're far from the only such species. Have you ever seen a Zebra Swallowtail butterfly? Sadly, it's not likely around here. Formerly endemic to Pittsburgh, they depend on pawpaw trees -- which were far more common before industrial development along our rivers. Prior to the last glaciation, pawpaws were spread quite effectively by megafauna, but now they need a little help! Gabrielle Marsden is on a mission -- re-establish pawpaws in our region, connected via corridors (often along waterways) from surviving populations, and thus bring back the Zebra Swallowtail. She'll share the fascinating history of this symbiosis, plans for restoration, progress so far and work yet to be done, and how you can get involved.
Humans depend on nature; humans are part of nature. Trees are vital to our well-being in all the ways mentioned above, and other more subtle ones -- but many trees are still lost to development, wildlife pressure, fire, disease, and other climate change impacts. One way to improve their chances is to accompany reforestation efforts -- tree-planting -- with creating relationships between humans and trees. One such initiative is Plant Five For Life, fostering lifelong connections among children, families, land, community, and health -- starting at birth. Founding president Christine Graziano will share the organization's work toward planting five trees for each child born in Allegheny County, which could help reverse the trend of canopy loss and improve community health -- despite supply-chain challenges, deer, and other obstacles. And with the GreenHeart Pittsburgh project, the organization has been using plantings as biofilters to mitigate health risk from mobile source pollution in vulnerable communities.
Climate/Forest News: A local collaborative forest restoration project (Hazelwood Initiative, the City of Pittsburgh, Tree Pittsburgh, Allegheny GoatScape, and Heartwood), which we heard about at September's Forest Restoration salon, was selected as a finalist for the Climate Challenge Cup at COP26 in Glasgow! That international recognition helped inspire a big Earth Day event to be held in Hazelwood, organized by folks around the city. Lifelong forest activist Matt Peters will fill us in on the plans so far, and invite you to join in.
In the meantime, a few other items of note:
• On April 7th, PennFuture will host a discussion among
environmental artists Ann Rosenthal (familiar from salons
31 and 109), Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry of
LAGI (here for salon
31),
Stacy Levy, and
Amara Geffen.
• Two different events (at least) are in the works for
Earth Day 2022 here in Pittsburgh. On Friday April 22nd, a
youth-led climate strike/rally downtown (
email Ilyas to get involved); on Saturday the 23rd, a
grassroots event in Hazelwood celebrating forests, blueberries, collaboration, community, health, and sustainability efforts around Pittsburgh (email
Matt to get involved).
• In June, activists from all across Pennsylvania will gather in Harrisburg to call our government to task on climate change, fracking and pipeline hazards, and the necessary transition to a new clean energy economy. The
Pennsylvania Climate Convergence will take place over three days -- a festival with arts, education, and tabling; a march and other actions around the city; and a day of direct action at the Capitol. Lots more information is on our
web site (in development) -- and many opportunities to help shape the event!
• Are you a
Penn State alum? If so, you have an opportunity to help move PSU toward a more progressive, climate-aware stance.
Penn State Forward aims to place three young progressive alumni on the Trustee ballot, folks who prioritize climate, equity, safety, and transparency. You can vote until February 25th to place them onto the ballot, and hopefully again in April when the election rolls around.
• Did you see the film
The Story of Plastic, or the PBS doc
Plastic Wars? (and/or join us for
Plastic Paradise at a winter film salon six years ago?) ...What if you could bring up imagery of the toxic impacts of plastic production, and commentary by the people and communities living with them, over the world? You can do all that with the interactive
Toxic Tours tool. Check it out!
•
Do you compost? Would you like to? A group of CMU students working with the City's Sustainability and Resilience division is doing user research on the composting habits of Pittsburgh residents, with the aim of better supporting them. The
survey is here, and you can email
Elan with any questions.
• We cover a lot of important topics at Sustainability Salons. If you're looking to get involved in any of them, feel free to connect with me (email with "salon" in the Subject is always a good method) and I can probably find a good match! I also often post job opportunities on the
Resources side of MarensList.
Talks and discussion will run from 4 p.m. to 7 or so on Zoom (sadly, no potluck supper these days). You're welcome to join the call for informal conversation after 3 p.m., and we aim to start the main program right around 4. If you're new to Zoom, you may find my Zoom Reference Guide helpful. If you RSVP via Eventbrite, you'll receive the Zoom registration link right away. If you're not already on my Eventbrite list, please email me (maren dot cooke at gmail dot com) with salon in the Subject line to be added -- and let me know how you heard about salons!
For the uninitiated, a Sustainability Salon is an educational forum; it's a mini-conference; it's a venue for discussion and debate about important environmental issues; it's a house party (if there weren't a pandemic) with an environmental theme. Each month we have featured speakers on various aspects of a particular topic, interspersed with stimulating conversation, lively debate, delectable potluck food and drink, and music-making through the evening (though the potluck and the music are on hiatus during the pandemic, so you're on your own for the delectables).
Past topics have included the history of American consumerism, regional air quality, preserving Pittsburgh's forests, climate modeling, approaches to pipelines, pipeline hazards, the legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the judiciary and fair elections, consumption, pandemics and air, election law and activism, air quality and environmental justice, social investment, local economies, the economics of energy, mutual aid networks, ocean health, the rise of the radical right, the back end of consumption, approaches to activism on fracking & climate, air quality, technology, and citizen science, single-use plastics, election activism, election law, whether to preserve existing nuclear power plants, advanced nuclear technologies, passenger and freight trains, consumption, plastics, and pollution, air quality, solar power, youth activism, greening business, greenwashing, the petrochemical buildout in our region, climate/nature/people, fracking, health, & action, globalization, ecological ethics, community inclusion, air quality monitoring, informal gatherings that turn out to have lots of speakers, getting STEM into Congress, keeping Pittsburgh's water public, Shell's planned petrochemical plant, visualizing air quality, the City of Pittsburgh's sustainability initiatives, fossil energy infrastructure, getting money out of politics, community solar power and the Solarize Allegheny program, the Paris climate negotiations (before, during, and after), air quality (again, with news on the autism connection), reuse (of things and substances), neighborhood-scale food systems, other forms of green community revitalization, solar power, climate change, environmental art, environmental education (Part I & Part II), community mapping projects, environmental journalism, grassroots action, Marcellus shale development and community rights, green building, air quality, health care, more solar power, trees and park stewardship, alternative energy and climate policy, regional watershed issues, fantastic film screenings and discussions (often led by filmmakers) over the winter with films on Food Systems, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation, Plastic Paradise, Rachel Carson and the Power Of One Voice, Triple Divide on fracking, You've Been Trumped and A Dangerous Game, A Fierce Green Fire, Sustainability Pioneers, films on consumption, Living Downstream, Bidder 70, YERT, Gas Rush Stories, and food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, and more food (a recurrent theme; with California running out of water, we'd better gear up to produce a lot more of our own!).
Coronavirus update: As you know, people in Pittsburgh and around the world are sequestered at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social distancing is still the rule for most Americans. That's a bit of a misnomer, though -- we need physical distancing to flatten the curve, but technology now allows for rich interactions even so! I believe that community is one of our greatest strengths, so in March as events began to be cancelled, I hosted the first virtual Sustainability Salon via Zoom teleconference -- rather than gathering our usual 50-80 people in a contained space. It went quite well (even engaging participants from hundreds of miles away), and we're looking forward to June's salon! Please be sure to RSVP (via email with "salon" in the Subject: line, or via Eventbrite) so you'll receive the sign-on information.
And if you like to make music or listen to homemade music, think back to our evening sings -- we typically ran the gamut from Irish fiddle tunes to protest songs to the Beatles, and a fun time was had by all. Folks would bring instruments, and/or pick up one of ours. Conversations would continue through the evening, as well. With a virtual event this is less likely to happen, but we can share music by turns, reminisce, chat online, and look forward to the post-COVID era!
