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On a map, it looks like a big blank space between Millvale, Reserve and Shaler, with roads dead-ending there. It's 155 acres of green space, and the Allegheny Land Trust wants to keep it that way forever.
It's inviting the public to help buy the land so it can be preserved and protected. The land conservation nonprofit will hold a virtual public information session about the project at 5 p.m. Monday via Zoom and Facebook due to COVID-19.
People have already donated more than half of the $40,000 that the trust wants to raise from the community to encourage other donations and grants. That happened even before the trust mailed fundraising letters this week, said Lindsay Dill, the trust's marketing communications director.
The project was launched via Zoom and Facebook on Earth Day, April 22, when the Allegheny Land Trust was joined by Millvale Community Development Corp., Millvale Community Library, New Sun Rising, Girty's Run Watershed Association and Triboro Ecodistrict, which support the project.
The Millvale CDC already was working with the landowner, C&S Management, to preserve the parcel before the trust joined the effort late last year. The trust has a formal agreement to buy the parcel for $600,000, pending a site assessment and fundraising. The trust aims to raise $725,000 to cover other costs. Its deadline is March 2021.
Trails criss-cross these steep woods, which are home to a diverse variety of animals and plants as well as a family of cellphone towers. The undeveloped forest is important for absorbing rainwater that would overrun Girty's Run, which flows through Millvale's business district to the Allegheny River and has caused epic flooding there.
The creek, like the...