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Stewardship
The Campaign to Save Irwin Run Valley
Some of you may be familiar with the large undeveloped tract of land located near the Northeast side of North Park in Pine Township. This land surrounds Irwin Run, a stream that flows into North Park Lake through the lagoon near the intersection of Babcock Boulevard and Pearce Mill Road. You may have hiked or ridden your bike up this valley and enjoyed its natural beauty. If you have, then you probably have been amazed by how quiet it is back there, and how spending time in this valley can make you feel as if you are very far away from civilization. You may know about the abundance of wildlife in this valley. You may also understand how important Irwin Run and the wetlands in this valley are to the water quality and overall health of North Park Lake.
What most folks may not know is that just the lower section of the Irwin Run Valley is part of North Park. The County owns less than 50% of this valley. The rest of this land is privately owned, and some of it is in danger of being sold to developers. This is something that all of us who care about North Park, our local environment, and our community need to know about. We also need to know that if we can come together quickly as a community, and raise enough money, that we can protect this valuable land by supporting the efforts of the Allegheny Land Trust to purchase this property.
The Allegheny Land Trust (ALT) is an independent, nonprofit organization incorporated in 1993 to protect land of natural value in and adjacent to Allegheny County. ALT helps local people save local land that contributes to the scenic, recreational, educational and environmental wealth of our communities. ALT recognizes the Irwin Run Valley as a place worth protecting. Because of this, ALT has a sales agreement in place with a private landowner to purchase 75 acres of the Irwin Run Valley to create the Irwin Run Conservation Area. Funding has been provided by some large donors, but this transaction cannot be completed unless our community shows support for this purchase by raising part of the money that is required.
The North Area Environmental Council's Board of Directors feel so strongly that this land needs to be protected that NAEC issued a Matching Funds Challenge wherein contributions made to ALT by NAEC members and friends for the purchase of this land were matched up to $4,000 with money earned over the years by NAEC's annual Tree Seedling Sale. The challenge was successfully met.
Local residents of North Park Villa held a Derby Party which raised $21,000 for the purchase of the Irwin Run Conservation Area.