A late summer bloom is arriving in Carnegie Park as work on the new Pitcher Park Rain Garden reaches its final stages.
Thanks to a $2,500 Community Impact Grant from Duquesne Light, the Carnegie Borough Shade Tree Commission is able to move forward with the long-awaited rain garden, creating a nearly 100-foot-long, 6-foot-wide border next to the Pitcher Park Memorial Skatepark.
“The objective of this rain garden is to assist in absorbing excess water runoff while protecting the integrity of the skate park,” said Shade Tree Commission member Bob Podurigel.
After noticing issues with stormwater drainage next to the park, Carnegie Borough administrator Deneen Underwood applied for and received a $1,200 grant through the Pennsylvania American Water Company. But, unfortunately, the funding was not enough to complete the project.
According to Underwood, the lack of needed funds and the pandemic stalled the project. Last year, to keep the work alive, the Shade Tree Commission created a virtual classroom to teach local elementary students about the vital ecological services and systems at play in rain gardens.
“I think it’s really exciting to see an urban organization that is utilizing a knowledge of ecosystem services,” said Jean H. Keene, environmental education specialist at Keystone State Park.
Underwood said the new rain garden will serve as both a green solution to the drainage problem and an educational spot for Carnegie Elementary students who are scheduled to visit the garden as a way to learn about their community’s ecosystem.
“The kids will get to see green infrastructure at work,” Underwood said.
In addition to learning about the mechanics of the rain garden, students will have the opportunity to learn about a cause close to Keene’s heart: the importance of Pennsylvania native plants, animals – and above all — pollinators.
According to Keene, pollinators stretch far beyond the stereotypical honeybee. In Pennsylvania alone, they include a number of bee and wasp species, beetles, ants and the monarch butterfly, Keene’s personal favorite.
Underwood said the new rain garden features a slew of native plant species sure to attract local pollinators. As of July 18, 88 native plants had been added to the rain garden including Joe-Pye, Maryland senna, swamp milkweed, purple coneflower and lance leaf coreopsis.
Keene and Underwood both noted that these plants are some of the monarch’s favorite foods and shelter.
However, “It’s not just about the monarchs,” Keene said.
Monarchs are what Keene described as an “umbrella species.” In protecting them and their natural habitats, a wide variety of other plant, animal and insect species inadvertently benefit.
Monarchs and the plants needed to sustain them “provide habitats to a multitude of other pollinators,” supporting the ecosystem more fully, according to Keene.
Once monarchs, other pollinators and birds find their way to gardens and fields ripe with native plants, Keene described it as a spectacle — with potentially dozens of species working in conjunction for survival.
“A native plant garden is one of the biggest ways to help,” Keene said.
Just two days after the second planting at the rain garden, Underwood said she began to notice some highly anticipated visitors.
“Within a few days, the pollinators started to arrive,” Underwood said with excitement.
She spotted a number of bees and butterflies hovering throughout the garden, an early sign that the rain garden would be a success.
”It’s good to see there is a push to provide natural habitats,” Keene said.
In the coming months, the Shade Tree Commission plans to plant native trees in the garden as well as finish installing needed charcoal and weed retainers.
But for Underwood, this rain garden is just the beginning of good work being done in the greater Pittsburgh region. The Pitcher Park Rain Garden is just one of 22 projects who received funding through Duquesne Light’s Community Impact Grants, leaving Underwood excited for the future of the area.
“That’s 22 separate projects that can happen because of Duquesne Light,” Underwood said.
Colleen Hammond is a Tribune-Review intern through the Pittsburgh Media Partnership.
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Duquesne Light grant helps complete Pitcher Park Rain Garden in Carnegie - TribLIVE
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