Issue No. 2 focuses on Pittsburgh’s South Side Park, once the site of a coal mine, coke ovens, a freight and residential incline, brick yards, slaughterhouses, and a bronze foundry. Tree News tracks the site’s history and community efforts to tend the scraggly hillside, colloquially called “Jurassic Valley” toward a more biodiverse, edible, and resilient future.
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Contents
Essay
“A little-known city park offers a parable on exploitation, climate change, and ecological transformation” by Paper Buck and Erin Mallea
Special thanks to Kitty and Jeff of Friends of South Side Park and Alleghney GoatScape
Issue Produced by: Paper Buck & Erin Mallea
Designer: Erin Mallea
No. 2 ❧ Winter 2022
A little-known city park offers a parable on exploitation, climate change, and ecological transformation
Coal collected in South Side Park. Running along the 1040ft contour, the coal seam was mined by the Ormsby and Keeling Coal Companies. Small pieces remain scattered along the park's Keeling Coal Trail, fall 2021. Photo credit: Erin Mallea.
View of the Duquesne Heights steps on deforested Mt. Washington or “Coal Hill”. Steps follow an Indigenous trail, Pittsburgh City Photographer, March 25, 1911. Image courtesy of Historic Pittsburgh.