As a member of the nationally acclaimed Garden Club of America, since 1914 The Garden Club of Allegheny County has been committed to its mission of promoting knowledge of horticulture, interest in conservation and historic preservation, environmental education and civic planning and planting programs throughout Allegheny County.

PIZZAZZ is the garden club’s major fundraiser and is much more than a remarkable collection of unique boutiques from all over the country; the proceeds from PIZZAZZ are awarded as grants, over $370,000 to date, to support conservation and educational programs in every corner of the Pittsburgh community.

In 2008, for the first time, the majority of our net proceeds from Pizzazz will be awarded to the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy to support development of a master landscape plan for the redevelopment of a new Frick Park Environmental Center (FEC). This wide-reaching community focused initiative will be an environmental and visitor center of national caliber, with a focus on providing hands on educational programming for school-aged children designed to reconnect them with nature. The FEC will also support research and ecological monitoring, preservation and restoration of parks, visitor information and enjoyment, ‘green industry’ workforce development focusing on disadvantaged neighborhoods, and possibly a daycare.

Other recent grants rewarded:

Allegheny Land Trust
GCAC will fund the design, writing, interviewing, aerial photography, printing and postage for 5,000 Sycamore Island Brochures. Sycamore Island in the Allegheny River is the last remaining undeveloped island in Allegheny County. The island hosts one of the most rare plant community types on the globe, a floodplain hardwood forest. Sycamore Island creates unique opportunities for conservation, for a demonstration site for the education of invasive species removal, for improvement in water quality and for creating a model for future studies.

Botany in Action
Phipps’ Botany in Action builds a greener world through botanical fieldwork, science-based conservation, and community education about endangered plants and habitats. Multiple –year scholarships have funded fieldwork by 26 graduate students who have worked in 22 countries and western Pennsylvania. Grantees return each year to Pittsburgh and share their research in schools and through family programs. GCAC founded Botany in Action, and this project was the driving force behind the creation of Pizzazz. GCAC gifted Botany in Action to Phipps in 1990.

“Body and Soul”: Parks and the Health of Great Cities, an International Conference
The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy will host this international urban parks conference, which is Sept. 21-23, 2008. GCAC is sponsoring the keynote speaker, Richard Louv, nationally recognized author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.” The focus of the conference will be the role of urban parks and the green space in the promoting of physical and emotional health of urban dwellers. Many of GCAC’s projects will be showcased at this conference, demonstrating how actively involved we are with the environmental health of our city.
This link will direct you to an article in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette about Richard Louv, URL for this story: http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.wshttp://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A53025.

Rachel Carson Centennial Celebration
GCAC sponsored “A Sense of Wonder,” a two-act play written and performed by Kaiulani Lee. Lee portrays Rachel Carson, a woman whose love and wonder of the natural world inspired her to become a leader in advocating to defend it. The premiere performance, in April, was open to invited guests. GCAC hosted the five remaining performances, targeting students at eight schools, throughout the Pittsburgh area. GCAC is keeping her legacy alive.

Student Conservation Association
This organization is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and 50,000 volunteers were at work this past summer on our public lands. Eighteen teenagers from Pittsburgh earned the opportunity to participate on national crews after having trained at Powdermill, organized Earth Day and honed their safety and camping skills. The SCA gives students a unique chance to discover how their actions impact the land, themselves and the people with whom they work. GCAC provided partial funding for a two-year partnership with SCA, which addressed the challenge of invasive species on the Botanic Garden site to restore the ecological and aesthetic quality of this landscape. This project provided 44 area high school students with hands-on conservation, leadership and teamwork experience. GCAC firmly believes in supporting environmental projects for young people.

Riverfront Park
GCAC and its sister club, Village Garden Club of Sewickley, teamed up to plant the Allee of Elm Trees at Sewickley Riverfront Park. Eighteen Prospector Wilson elms (15-20’) were planted at Walnut Landing to enhance the beauty of what will be part of the largest urban linear park. The elms will mature to 50 feet and provide a dense canopy of shade. The two garden clubs conducted thorough research to find just the right tree for this location.

The Osborne Trail and Park
A five acre tract adjacent to Osborne Elementary School will be used as an educational and recreational facility for students in the Quaker Valley School District and for area residents. Volunteers have helped removed invasive Norway Maple trees, which will be replaced by new trees, cleared brush and debris, and lined the pathway of the trail. Eston Owens, a local resident, has built a stone wall and amphitheater using on-site stones.

Powdermill Nature Reserve’s Marsh Machine Seminar Series Certificate Program
The “Marsh Machine”, an ecological wastewater treatment system, will be a man-made wetland built within a greenhouse. It will transform wastewater from buildings into clean water suitable for fishing, leaching into the surrounding forest or being recycled back into the system for non-potable uses. In a 20 month Seminar Series Certificate Program, 25-30 participants interested in pursuing a career in horticulture will work with professionals to develop/implement plans for the “Marsh Machine.” This will include the design of a greenhouse and selection of plant material for its filtering action, with plans for plant maintenance and replacement.

Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) Project
This project supports the Buy Fresh Buy Local Marketing Campaign, helping PASA to “forge positive and needed changes in the way food is grown, harvested, distributed and marketed in Pennsylvania”. This statewide, non-profit, membership-based organization promotes profitable farms that produce healthy food for all people, while respecting the natural environment. As the largest metropolitan area in the western region, Pittsburgh is critical to its work. The BFBL campaign will educate consumers about their environment and the interrelationship between the city and the farmland that surrounds it. Quoting PASA’s President Kim Miller, “Without a strong and sustained agriculture surrounding urban spaces, those spaces will lose their edge and dribble away

Friends of the Riverfront
For over 10 years, Friends of the Riverfront have worked to protect and restore our rivers and provide trails and greenways along the riverfronts of Pittsburgh. They have been responsible for creating the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, a spectacular pedestrian and bicycle trail system that stretches for many miles connecting dozens of Pittsburgh neighborhoods and communities. On September 17, 2004, Hurricane Ivan damaged a long stretch of the North Shore Trail, stretching from Washington’s Landing to North Shore Riverfront Park near the stadiums. GCAC granted two emergency flood grants for trail cleanup and native plant replanting along the riparian buffer zone as restoration of damage caused by the storm.

Allegheny Commons Landscape Restoration Project
Allegheny Commons, Pittsburgh’s oldest park, dates to 1867, and reflected the 19th century movement to beautify American cities and improve urban living conditions. Over the years, GCAC has made significant contributions to the Commons. Between 1995 and 1998, Christina Schmidlapp (in the name of GCAC) led an effort that raised approximately $175,000 in cash grants and donated tree care. It was used to preserve and protect some of the park’s fine collection of mature shade trees, document the park’s history, educate the public through a visitors’ guide, and advocate for improved maintenance. Building on that work and representing the first major step in implementing the park master plan, this present project is a four-year plan of tree care for North and West Commons. The desired outcome of this grant is a significant visible improvement in the park’s appearance and environmental health which will be an important catalyst for revitalizing the park’s other distinctive features (such as sculpture, paths, benches, signage, fencing, and lighting) with a long-range goal to enhance the Northside as a living and working environment and an economic development tool for Pittsburgh.

Family Naturalist Program at the Fern Hollow Nature Center in Sewickley
This program fosters use of Fern Hollow Nature Center grounds and area park systems for family focused environmental learning. Informational kiosks, creation of a self-guided nature trail with signage and maps, along with Family Nature Backpack Modules containing scientific equipment, allow families/groups to explore nature and learn about habitats at their own pace. Families will also have the opportunity to interact with the naturalist.

The Horticultural Society of Western Pennsylvania and The Student Conservation Association Partnership Project
This project addressed the challenge of invasive species on the Botanic Garden site using methods to restore the ecological and aesthetic quality of this landscape to a more natural and sustainable condition, while providing 44 Pittsburgh high school students with hands-on conservation, leadership and teamwork experience. The Conservation Challenge, which is the summer component of SCA's Three Rivers Urban Youth Corps Program, recruited forty- four inner-city Pittsburgh high school students. Each crew of eleven members was comprised of locally recruited high school students who spent three weeks in a program of conservation service, environmental education, outdoor living, career exploration and outdoor recreation. This was an Urban and Diversity crew and recruitment was emphasized toward young women and students of color. The students were between the ages of 14-18, and came from several Pittsburgh's Public or Charter schools.

Design Entrance Corridor for Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania
Support for re-creation of enhanced 1800’s Western Pennsylvania hardwood forest is the “theme” for the Garden Entrance Corridor. This Corridor Valley, highly disturbed by past coal mining, was left with only remnants of the once diverse forest. The design team, with a thorough knowledge of restoration ecology, will restore and reconstruct over 10.5 acres of degraded forest by improving diversity in the hardwood canopy and under story using native species. Native trees, shrubs, wildflowers and groundcovers will encompass the “view shed” along both sides of the entrance drive.

Schenley Plaza London Plane Tree DNA Study Project
The Garden Club of Allegheny County (GCAC), in partnership with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, undertook a cutting edge study of the monoculture of Schenley Plaza’s London plane tree (LP) population. This project is the first applied approach to research addressing the critical need for genetic diversity in managing urban tree populations as an alternative to pesticides. GCAC funded the study, in which botanist Dr. Cynthia Morton (CMNH) and Mr. Philip Gruszka (PPC) examined the genetic makeup of existing Schenley Plaza LP trees and LP cultivar ‘Bloodgood’ trees being produced and grown at national and local tree nurseries. The objective of this study was to determine genetic diversity of existing trees and compare that to the genetic diversity of replacement trees. LP trees are excellent urban shade trees because of their tolerance for heavy soils and less-than-ideal air quality. Hence, while Pittsburgh was at its height of industrialization, the LP tree was widely planted. In the area surrounding Schenley Plaza, 207 LP trees were planted in 1923. When the restoration project began in 2004, 85 trees had been lost to disease in 81 years. The underlying principles of the Schenley Plaza project are sustainability and stewardship, as we sought to prevent a similar loss of trees in the future.

Nine Mile Run Association (NMRWA) for their Regent Square Gateway Project
Poor water quality from polluted storm water is one of the biggest environmental problems facing the Pittsburgh region. This project will be the first step in creating a highly visible environmental demonstration site addressing numerous storm water problems. It will help protect Nine Mile Run, the largest free-flowing stream in the East End of Pittsburgh while also serving as a model addressing storm water and pollution in an innovative way and educating the public about the importance of water quality and storm water management. The project involves the redesign of an unwelcoming back entrance to Frick Park with two decaying parking lots and a highly eroded stream bank. Presently this site suffers from numerous storm water problems and exemplifies the worst in storm water management. Transformation of the site will further improve the stream and park, which are such important recreational and natural resources for the region.

Riverlife Task Force Phase One Landscape Management Guidelines (LMG) Project
The guidelines and other products created from this project will provide river municipalities, private owners and citizens groups with a set of practical strategies and tools for stewardship of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers within the boundaries of the city. This GCAC grant deals only with Phase I, the Three Rivers Base Map, a tool for co-ordination. Phase 1 is fundamental to the future success of the Guidelines as it is the foundation upon which the best practices and protocols will be developed. The Global Information System Base Map will provide crucial information regarding environmental and spatial assessment for the study area. A GIS system allows users to compile all existing data about the study area and thus will reveal gaps in available data along the riverfronts and will also help to identify future landscape demonstration sites. The GIS digital format can be updated as part of an active river management database maintained by the community.

These projects make a difference in the environmental welfare of our region. Your attendance and every purchase you make at PIZZAZZ benefits your neighborhood, so shop guilt free knowing your green will generate more green!