Healcrest Green Project
Protecting Local Land
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NOTICE: There are debris piles as we continue trail work on-site. Please use caution, stay on the brand new trail, and avoid these piles.
In the center of Garfield sits a 1.5-acre plot of green space that’s made up of 15 adjacent parcels of land. Over the years, this green space served as a farm, a community learning and gathering space, and as an unofficial trail for nearby Garfield residents. Today, we’re working to permanently protect all of this land as community green space. As of January 1, 2022, ALT has completed the first phase of land protection. Permanent protection of the full project will depend on the success of fundraising through grants and local dollars. The project timeline is uncertain at this time, and will depend on the processing times for government access programs. Keep following this page for updates.
ALT was invited to be part of this project in 2016. In 2019, ALT began active work with individuals in the community, the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC), and the nearby Environmental Charter School (ECS) to create a collaborative vision and to permanently protect the site. The goal for the green space is to open it for public use as a place for passive recreation and enjoyment of nature, community gardening, and an active outdoor classroom for ECS. Additionally, the protection of the land will deliver a host of environmental benefits that will further enhance the neighborhood including improved air and water quality, stormwater absorption, sound buffering, urban cooling, wildlife habitat protection, and more.
There are three primary outcomes of this project:
• The acquisition of this rare 1.5 acres of urban green space for its permanent conservation as a community green space.
• The active stewardship of the land by community partners to facilitate its transformation to a safe and productive natural area by maintaining and improving its scenic beauty, natural habitat capacity, and basic user features and amenities (removal of invasive and the planting of native plants, walking paths, outdoor classroom space, gardening plots, natural play areas, etc.).
• The on-going utilization of the area for other community and environmental purposes including environmental education, gardening programs, small gatherings, and other as defined by community and partners.
Thanks to help from local individuals like you in the community, we met and exceeded our $5,600 local fundraising goal to make this project a reality. These dollars help both to close our funding gap and to demonstrate significant local support to larger state funding agencies and local foundations. Any dollars donated above our goal will be used to protect Phase 2 of the Healcrest Green project. We appreciate your support in helping protect Healcrest Green as a permanent Garfield green space. If you have questions about the project, please contact Alyson Fearon, ALT’s Senior Director of Community Conservation & Resiliency, at afearon@alleghenylandtrust.org. To stay up to date on this project, you may also contact that same email and keep an eye on this webpage.
Recent Media Coverage: The Bulletin September 2021
Phase 1 Fundraising Status
*UPDATE: Great News! As of January 1, 2022, we successfully raised our initial community fundraising target, received grant funding for half of the project from PA DCNR, and closed on phase one of the project. We will share updates for phase two of the project on this page.