Handiwork of Penn Hills Shade Tree Commission in full bloom across municipality

Summer is the time of the year where everything seems to be in full bloom.

And it’s hard not to notice all the bright spots in Penn Hills, a five-time Tree City USA Growth Award recipient.

However, the area has not always been beautified with native plants. It wasn’t until the Penn Hills Shade Tree Commission took on the environmental challenge of planting hundreds of trees across the municipality that Penn Hills could witness a blossoming summer.

The Penn Hills Shade Tree Commission, which started in 2017, is dedicated to not only beautifying the municipality but uplifting property values and providing environmental benefits.

In its nearly eight years, the commission has completed multiple large projects, including, its most recent, the entrance garden to Penn Hills along Rodi Road in partnership with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy,

“The Penn Hills entrance garden is just such a beautiful entryway in Penn Hills. In fact, I would say it’s one of the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever seen in my life. To have this at the entrance to Penn Hills is just a wonderful thing,” said Kathy Raborn, landscape designer and chairperson of the commission.

Where these projects bloom

The garden entrance isn’t the only project that created an impact this summer.

The commission’s outreach includes the past six Arbor Day celebrations at Turner Friendship Park, McKinley Community Center, Universal Park and Duff Park.

And Allegheny River Boulevard, Milltown Road and Rodi Road had a combined total of 66 trees planted during their Street Tree plantings with TreeVitalize.

The Front Yard Tree project brought beautification to individual homes, where residents got to pick specific trees at no cost. Those trees can be found outside homes on Alcoma, McFarland, Springdale, Sycamore and Veronica drives; Maple Avenue; Shirley Street; and Idlewood and Southern roads.

Over the past nine Front Yard Tree projects, the group has planted 133 trees.

Beautification doesn’t always come easy as the PHSTC pivots its course of action regularly to get the job done.

Because of the difficulty of finding homeowners for the Front Yard Tree project, the commission last spring partnered with Tree Pittsburgh to introduce tree adoptions. Residents now can register to “adopt” 100 trees of a certain species to plant in any area.

Another challenge members faced was during their biggest undertaking yet: the Penn Hills Community Park Plum Creek project.

The creek was surrounded by nearly 2,000 feet of invasive and nonnative Japanese knotweed.

Members originally started the project in 2018. But because of poor research on their end, the method they tried first did not completely get rid of the weed. Then came the three-year-long weeding process until completion in 2021.

“We did some research and restarted the project in 2019, and we started it by using the “cut, cut, cut, spray” method, which is where we cut the Japanese knotweed down once it reached 1 foot high, and then we continued to cut it down every time it grew to 1 or 2 feet high. And then in July, we stopped cutting it. We let it grow to be about waist-high. And then we had a certified pesticide applicator come in, paid for by the Penn Hills Department of Public Works,” Raborn said.

For this project, 60 volunteers showed up to help in the first two years. These volunteers don’t usually have an environmental background, just a passion for change in their community.

They replaced the stretch of knotwood with more than 100 native trees, shrubs and wildflowers.

Volunteers are the roots

Barb Skubick, 70, was disgusted at the state of the Penn Hills Community Park when her daughter was younger and playing softball in the area.

“It was a mess. And every time somebody would say, “Somebody should do something; somebody should do something to clean this place up.’ And finally there was a group, thanks to Kathy. Instead of always asking about that somebody, you should do something, be the somebody. That’s what I was doing.”

Skubick, who has been volunteering with the PHSTC for three or four years now since retiring, said she does whatever the commission asks of her — but pulling weeds is her favorite responsibility.

Erik Breedon, 38, has been volunteering with the commission for nearly three years and then became a tree steward, a more intensive volunteer position responsible for sustaining the planted trees through mulching, pruning, weeding and overall plant maintenance.

“There’s a lot of ways that people think we can improve society, and some are more popular than others. And I think this is one that is something that a lot of people can get behind. It’s good to be part of something that you know is probably pretty well received,” Breedon said.

Fall will bring more activity.

Upcoming projects include an entrance garden for the Penn Hills Library and possibly planting 15 more trees along Rodi Road.

For details about the group, visit pennhillsstc.org or its Facebook page.