Shaler Area students to learn how native plants benefit pollinators, people at Girty's Woods

Shaler Area High School students will be going back to the woods in the coming new school year.

Five years ago, Shaler Area students were part of the Allegheny Land Trust’s effort to protect Girty’s Woods, a 155-acre tract of undeveloped land in Reserve overlooking Millvale, two of the communities that make up their school district.

Through a sustainability class and club, the high school’s students have remained active in studying, preserving and improving the land. With the help of a state grant, that will continue this fall and next spring, with students studying the plant life there and taking steps to boost native species over invasive ones.

Doing that, those involved say, will have many benefits, including protecting the bees and other pollinators on the property and the people who live downstream and are at risk of flooding.

The state Department of Environmental Protection awarded Allegheny Land Trust a $5,000 grant for “Girty’s Bees and Beyond: Habitat Planning for Pollinators and Watersheds.” It was part of about $1.2 million in environmental education grants to 68 projects promoting stewardship across the state.

The land trust also received about $16,800 for its “Aquatic Academy: Becoming Water Wise on our Waterways,” to host four workshops for teachers.

“These projects help connect people to the ways we can protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, and many of them encourage learning at any age whether you’re a kid or an adult,” said Jessica Shirley, the DEP’s acting secretary. “Every grant we are awarding supports educational opportunities and will further improve people’s connections to their environment.”

The land trust finalized its purchase of Girty’s Woods in March 2021. The cost was $600,000, according to Allegheny County real estate records.

Students in Abbey Nilson’s science class at Shaler Area High School were part of the community effort. In addition to helping raise money through a GoFundMe campaign, they grew trees from seed to replace those cut down in past logging.

“It’s lovely,” Nilson said of Girty’s Woods. “You can access it from Millvale or Reserve. There’s trails and students have since the initial protection gone back to help steward the land. They’ve planted trees multiple times and studied the species that are there. They’ve gotten to know the land.

“We’re excited to continue this journey with this grant and working with the Allegheny Land Trust.”

Students are expected to take field trips to Girty’s Woods in the fall and spring, Nilson said. In the fall, they primarily will conduct an inventory of the plant species there, determine whether they are native or invasive and decide what types of plants are needed. They will return in the spring to plant flowers, trees and shrubs.

The grant will help pay for costs associated with the trips, such as transportation, plants, tools and supplies, Nilson said.

The land trust hopes to find more money to expand on the effort so it can be done every school year, said Julie Travaglini, its senior director of education and curriculum.

“There’s always more restoration and stewardship to do,” Travaglini said.

Christina Joy Neumann, a local master beekeeeper, has had bee hives on the Girty’s Woods property since 2022 and will work with the students, Travaglini said.

Neumann, a 1995 Shaler Area graduate, also is an architect and director of CoNectar in Millvale, where she is working on launching a cafe on Grant Avenue.

In addition to building trails, Shaler Area students already have been planting beneficial perennial plants in Girty’s Woods, but it’s a bit early to tell whether they are benefiting the bees because it will take a while for them to develop and flower, Neumann said.

For the upcoming project, Neumann said she will help students study the existing vegetation and make decisions about which plants are beneficial for pollinators and which are invasive and should be controlled and replaced with native plants.

In addition to learning about native species and how they can help pollinators, Nilson said students also will learn about the role they play in managing stormwater.

“If you have native species in the area, they’re going to absorb more water. They’re going to be better at soaking in the water,” she said. “Girty’s Run is prone to flooding. Whatever we can do to help stormwater soak into the ground is really important for our region and our area.”