Volunteers make the difference
Donations of time and hard work are the lifeblood of the Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy
ird Park is one of the crown jewels in Mt. Lebanon’s park system. The Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy has put in hundreds and hundreds of volunteer work hours into Twin Hills and Robb Hollow parks over its 40-year existence, but Bird Park also has received a large volume of love and care, which fits in with the history of the organization. A difference of opinion on putting a soccer field in Bird Park led to the formation of the conservancy.
In May of 1983, the Mt. Lebanon Commission held a public hearing to discuss possible uses of a budget surplus to fund several capital improvements projects, including the soccer field. Following the discussion, the Commission voted to allocate $95,000 for the project. The vote was met with a lawsuit filed by neighbors of the park, and an attempt by some of the plaintiffs to put the issue up for a referendum.
Long story short, the field was built in 1984, and in November of that year, many of the field’s opponents formed the Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy. The conservancy’s stewardship of Mt. Lebanon’s parks involves scheduling workdays to remove invasive plants, and volunteers did a significant amount of work on the stream restoration project in Bird Park.
Most people’s introduction to the conservancy comes through School in the Park, a springtime event that gives every third-grade class in the Mt. Lebanon School District the chance to spend a half day in Bird Park, learning about various aspects of ecology and natural habitats. Sarah Levinthal and Lex Smith coordinate the program.
Planning for the May event starts in January or February, Levinthal says. One of the keys to the program’s success is recruiting volunteers.
“People are really busy now,” she said. “We always end up with a couple of slots that we’re scrambling to fill, but we do have some dedicated volunteers who actually take vacation days from work to help out.”
Levinthal attended School in the Park as a Markham third-grader, and last year, her daughter, also a Markham student, attended School in the Park.
Smith sees School in the Park as a chance to combine learning and play.
“Most field trips are like, ‘Don’t do this, don’t touch that,’ and we’re more like ‘run and play, go be in nature, play in the creek, get dirty, play with bugs.’”
Sarada Sangameswaran is an environmental educator with a master’s degree in ecology. She joined the conservancy in 2017, a year after moving to Mt. Lebanon, and has served on the board of directors since 2020.
“I’m blown away by the amount of talent that is on our board. We have educators, we have scientists and at least three landscape architects. These are people who really know what they’re doing, and they’re choosing to donate their time.”
Under her tenure as president, Sangameswaran would like to see the level of public programming increase. She led a maple sugaring program in Bird Park, teaching kids and adults about how to extract the sugar from a maple tree.
“We’ve done tree walks, we partnered with an ornithologist to do a bird walk, and other programs. Mt. Lebanon is considered an arboretum, and we’ve partnered with the municipality to do their arboretum event,” she said. “We had stations, we had walks, we had art projects. I mean, it was really community at its best. We had doughnuts. Who doesn’t like doughnuts?”
New in 2024 was a program celebrating International Migratory Bird Day in May, and Green Reads, a book club that meets at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library to discuss books with environmental topics.
Another recent major conservancy project is Trish’s Woodland Garden, in honor of board member Trish Beckjord, who died in 2023. In lieu of flowers, Beckjord requested donations to the conservancy in her memory. The donations, plus a $500 grant from the Pennsylvania Native Plant Society, allowed the conservancy to plan the garden.
High school senior Ezra Moon is a junior conservancy board member. He worked to mobilize volunteers to help with preparing the ground at Bird Park for a memorial woodland garden.
Most conservancy workdays attract 10 to 15 volunteers. By getting the word out through his AP Environmental Science class, Moon was able to muster a record number of workday volunteers, 43, for the heavy work of getting the ground in shape. On the following garden workday, the record jumped up to 58, who installed almost 400 native plants in the space.
Volunteer coordinator Moira Aulbach was pleased by the turnout, and with the more than 600 volunteer hours logged in 2024. That number is comparable to 2023’s 609 volunteer hours, but about 400 of those hours were because of the stream restoration project.
Aulbach will be stepping down from the board, but plans to remain active in the conservancy.
“I’m just passionate about the environment, about native plants and enhancing our community. It’s nice to work with like-minded people.”
Former conservancy president Angie Phares got involved with the group through School in the Park.
“When we moved to Mt. Lebanon 13 years ago, we chose our house in part because it is so close to Bird Park,” she said. “As a kid I always felt most creative and calm when I was in the woods and I wanted that opportunity for my kids if they needed it, too. When I found out about School in the Park and the park cleanups, I started volunteering right away and found it a great way to meet people who like things I like.”
Phares is grateful for the turnouts at the workdays and other events but, like other conservancy members, she says “We always need people.”
Ron Block, another former conservancy president, agrees, and believes the volunteer spirit can be contagious.
“We have an amazing, dedicated and enthusiastic group of volunteers,” he said.
“They are passionate about education, about the environment, and about making a difference. As we complete more projects, the efforts become more visible, and people who enjoy the parks appreciate the improvements and want to give back,” he said. “People like to be a part of positive change.”
“What I have gotten back far exceeds what I’ve put in,” said Sangameswaran. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of work, but you feel so good at the end of the day that you’ve done something. If you volunteer your time, it’s awesome!”
Aulbach echoes the sentiment.
“It’s very rewarding,” she said. “You can walk through the parks and see the improvements we made, and some that may not be evident this year, but will be the next year or the year after.”
