125 trees to be planted on Eliza Furnace Trail in Pittsburgh

The nonprofit Tree Pittsburgh will plant 125 trees and shrubs along the Eliza Furnace Trail on Tuesday, as part of the organization’s goal of replacing lost tree canopy.

Tree Pittsburgh staff will partner with the Arbor Day Foundation and the Target Corporation for the event.

Planting will start at 10 a.m. The planting site will be about a half mile east of the trail’s Second Avenue parking lot. The trees and shrubs planted, according to Tree Pittsburgh, will offer “a buffer from noise and air pollution created by traffic on the Parkway,” in addition to shade for runners, walkers and cyclists.

Tree Pittsburgh, an environmental nonprofit that restores and protects urban forest, and numerous partners have been planting trees along the trail for more than a decade, according to a news release. The group hosted several tree-planting events via numerous partnerships, including one in November 2020 that resulted in the planting of 50 trees along the trail.

“It’s very exciting to finally fill in this exposed segment of trail,” Jake Milofsky, director of tree care and reforestation at Tree Pittsburgh, said in a statement. “As the planting matures, it will transform the character of this trail for generations.”

A PowerPoint from Tree Pittsburgh logged the loss of more than 10,000 acres of tree canopy in Allegheny County from 2010 to 2015. Pittsburgh lost the most acres during this period — about 1,007 — which amounted to about a 3% loss in tree canopy for the city.

Maggie Aupperlee, a spokeswoman for Tree Pittsburgh, said the organization has several additional plantings coming up this spring, totalling nearly 1,000 trees and shrubs. Those plantings will take place in locations including Etna Riverfront Park, South Park and several area schools.