Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy unveils new five-year roadmap ahead of 30th anniversary in 2026
For nearly three decades, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has been revitalizing the city's parks and green spaces like Frick in Squirrel Hill. Now it's looking to the future, with a new five-year plan.
Alison Halasz mountain bikes at Frick Park about five days a week. She loves to be outside, and ever since the pandemic, she has taken her workouts to the city's parks.
"It's such a treasure," Halasz said. "It's a retreat in the city for exercise, for dogs, for nature."
One thing she notices is that maintenance crews are always on the grounds.
"You see those workers, you know, grooming the trails, adding new gravel, water mitigation, and, you know, like flood mitigation and removing trees that have come down," Halasz said.
The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy is a nonprofit that partners with the city government to restore and enhance the park system. It has been in operation since 1996, and ahead of its 30th anniversary in 2026, it's unveiling a roadmap for the next five years.
Alana Wenk is the conservancy's director of advancement.
"We're really keeping that lens of creating safe, beautiful, accessible park spaces at the forefront of this plan," Wenk said.
In recent years, the organization transformed places like Frick Park and Schenley Plaza. Wenk said they will continue those big projects and also work to upgrade smaller parks.
"Areas that don't necessarily need a Frick Environmental Center or Schenley Plaza, but just want to have smooth pathways to walk on, have increased lighting, have more tree plantings," Wenk said.
In the process, they're going to focus on accessibility, like with a new sensory nature trail project at Frick.
At the same time, as the world faces new environmental challenges, they plan to put more stress on sustainability, and put the community's needs first, needs like those of Halasz, who looks forward to what's to come.
"They're improvements that improve the quality of your experience at the park," Halasz said.
The conservancy will share more about next year's anniversary celebrations in the coming months.
