14 trees planted in Brighton Heights Park

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Brighton Heights Park is going to be throwing some shade in a good way this coming spring thanks to 14 new additions to the park.

At an event Wednesday, Tree Pittsburgh, along with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Duquesne Light Company and the Brighton Heights Citizens Federation, planted 14 new trees throughout Brighton Heights Park.

These trees are part of the Power Hitters program run by Duquesne Light, planting one tree in the greater Pittsburgh community for every Pirates' home run hit during the season. Since the fall of 2021, over 200 of these Power Hitters have been planted.

"We came up with this great idea last year, where we could turn the home runs the Pirates were hitting and translate that into trees in our local communities, which is a great way to give back and to support our environment," said Samantha Heartzman with Duquesne Light. 

There was a wide variety of species planted in the park, everything from Lindens to Bald cypress. Jake Milofsky of Tree Pittsburgh said that it is very important to plant new trees for the community.

"They are shady trees, but the good kind of shady," Milofsky said. 

"We always have to be planting new trees, so that the next generation has big trees to enjoy," Milofsky added. "You know the trees we are planting here today are small, but if you look at the other trees in the park, they're big. And it takes decades to grow that much."

Experts say trees offer numerous environmental benefits, from removing air pollution to reducing stress to helping kids do better in school just from having trees as part of their environment.

"So, if we want kids who haven't been born yet to have shade to play under and sit under, we need to be planting trees today for that next generation," Milosky said. 

Most people here seem to think that 14 new trees are not only a home run for the park but for the community.