New Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy plan focuses on access, wellness and community

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy believes every Pittsburgher deserves clean, safe and beautiful parks — and not just the big ones like Frick or Schenley, says Parks Conservancy CEO Catherine Qureshi.

“I raised my children on the South Side and, of course, I would take them to Frick Park and Schenley Park and they loved it, but they loved Ormsby Park the best, and it’s just a small, little acre or so park,” she says. “You love the parks that are walkable and that you feel like are part of who you are.”

Qureshi hammered home the community value of Pittsburgh’s 170 parks while discussing the nonprofit’s new five-year plan.

“ We’re growing together as a community of park users,” Qureshi says. “We want to learn what our communities want, what inspires them, and wed that all together.”

The strategic plan, which was publicized on Monday, March 31, is part road map, part action plan for how the conservancy will shape parks through 2030. It rests on four priorities:

• Expanding access to clean, safe and welcoming parks for all Pittsburghers.
• Addressing environmental challenges through resilience and conservation projects.
• Growing opportunities for environmental education and wellness programs in Pittsburgh’s parks.
• Strengthening resources and aligning organizational capacity to enhance the Parks Conservancy’s overall impact.

Remaining at the organization’s core is its belief in the physical and emotional benefits that come with being in nature.

Recent years have brought the concerted growth of forest bathing and other nature-based therapy programs which, Qureshi says, can come in the form of simple yet meaningful experiences like feeling the dirt under your feet, seeing trees throughout different seasons, smelling the flora and hearing the fauna.

“Remember, [during the pandemic] five years ago there was no movie theater, going out to dinner or getting on a plane to go on vacation,” Qureshi says. “We were all really limited as a society what we could do, and people just came to the parks in droves. 

“I think so many people who started that or made that more a part of their routine have continued it. Because you do feel better. You can put aside the cares of the day for a period of time and just be at peace and one with yourself and the parks.”

The conservancy’s plan takes Pittsburgh’s ecological challenges into account — combating invasive species, planting native ones and designing landscapes to allow the runoff of stormwater. Beyond that, the nonprofit is going all in on engaging diverse communities to give more Pittsburghers naturally therapeutic experiences. 

Come next month, a sensory classroom and nature trail will open up at the Frick Environmental Center following a development process guided by 80 different disability groups.

The trail is the first of its kind in the city and first capital project under the new plan’s framework.

“It’s a third of a mile of trails now that are wheelchair and walker accessible, and more than that, that will have rest spots along the way and areas that you can engage with nature in a disability-sensitive way,” Qureshi says.

Also available on the trail is a free lending library, which will offer track chairs — wheelchairs with thicker, all-terrain tires — and digital binoculars that display an image on a tablet screen for trail patrons who may have limited mobility.

“We learned so much about what matters, what’s important and how we can build on this,” Qureshi says. “ But we’re always going to learn what is next in terms of access for people and learn from the community that uses it and from academic best practices.”

All park projects rely on community engagement, but engagement processes are often different, according to Qureshi.

For Homewood’s Baxter Park — which is about to begin its formal design process and is expected to break ground next year — the conservancy presented multiple plans to local residents at community events over an 18-month period.

“We got to a point where we had three separate models — same park, same amenities — … but you could actually touch and say ‘I think these trees should be here,’ and move them in the diorama, which was really neat,” Qureshi says.

“The hope there, and the expectation, is when it’s all built, people will say, ‘I remember that I put that little tree there!’ That’s kind of special.”

To Qureshi, the process is a win-win, because it gives communities input in parks that will persist for generations and it teaches conservancy staff what local communities really want in and from those spaces.

“We never want to just parachute in and do some big project,” she says. “We want to learn from the community.”

Read the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy’s new plan in its entirety on the organization’s website. To learn about or provide feedback on your local parks, Qureshi recommends reaching out through the website or attending one of their events.