For Sarah Moore, it all started at the Churchill Valley Greenway.
“I would go there every day with my husband and my dogs, and we would walk the grounds and just talk about what we were witnessing and how remarkable this space was, and about how it used to be treated so horribly. Then I started filming in there pretty regularly for about three years, just bringing my camera and filming what I observed and witnessed,” Moore said.
The result of Moore’s observation is “Rewilding” — a seven-channel video work which showcases the Churchill Valley Greenway, as well as a handful of other former golf courses where natural, uncultivated habitats are being restored.
Moore emphasized the idea of handing back the land not just to entities who can sculpt it back to an imagined past, but also to natural forces that create constant change.
“I define [rewilding], and how people I've talked to define it,” Moore said, “rewilding is land that was once used by humans for some reason for industry or sport or living, and then it is given back to the land in some way.”
“Rewilding” is part of a larger exhibit at the Pitt University Art Gallery which reflects on the intersections of land and labor and aftermath of heavy industry’s collapse in Western Pennsylvania.
According to the art gallery’s director Sylvia Rhor, “Rewilding” stands at the center of the gallery to serve as a place of reflection on the role nature plays in everyday life, but also, she said, “contemplation for action.”
“How can [residents] approach some of the landscape in southwestern Pennsylvania that has been destroyed or changed by industry over the years? And how can we tell a different story?” Rhor asked.
She pointed out that in contrast to the other sections, humans are missing from the video installation, save for a ladder or some architectural elements.
“But then you realize, no, this has been shaped [by humans] in a way as well — shaped by the filmmaker, shaped by the Allegheny Land Trust, shaped for the park goers and the people coming to this area. So I think that the contemporary human interaction is still at the heart of a lot of these endeavors.”
“It's almost the next iteration of this natural landscape,” Rhor added. “We cannot go back to a time before industry, before the golf courses, before any of that. We're actually giving it a new a new meaning in the contemporary setting, which means in contact with us as a city with the citizens of the city. So we're not completely returning to a place before any of this time.” she added.
Cecilia Muzika-Minteer, a graduate fellow who works at the University Art Gallery grew up in Western Pennsylvania. She said many attendees have been surprised to learn that two of the courses, Wingfield Pines and the Churchill Valley Greenway, are in Allegheny County.
“A lot of people walk into this space and they don't recognize it because we see these scenes of nature. Once people start to ask questions about where this is, people start to connect it to the region and think in a more critical way as well,” Muzika-Minteer said.
Indeed, Churchill Valley Greenway is a mere 20 minute drive, traffic permitting, from the University Art Gallery.
Immersion in a ‘rewilding’ reality
Upon arrival at the greenway, the stillness and quiet of nature displayed in the exhibit is replaced by the sounds of footsteps, dogs barking, and songbirds.
The Allegheny Land Trust is overseeing the rewilding transformation at the Churchill Valley Greenway. Lindsay Dill, who directs marketing and community engagement for the organization, says the trust is committed to fostering a space where people can easily connect with wildlife and the natural world.
“I think one of the cool things about it being a former golf course is that these cart paths still remain. So it makes it very accessible for people to kind of come in, walk pets on the edge of the [greenway], and come with strollers. People who struggle with uneven footing on a wooded trail can also navigate these paved paths a little more easily,” Dill said.
When the 151-acre Churchill Valley Country Club closed in 2013, the space was largely abandoned by developers. Local neighbors, however, remained attached, partaking in leisure activities on the grounds as fairways started to take on a wild life of their own. When plans for a strip mall and housing on the site were announced, several of these community members contacted the Allegheny Land Trust and helped raise funds to acquire the property at a cost of $3 million. The trust acquired the property in 2021.
Emilie Rzotkiewicz, Senior Vice President and COO of the The Allegheny Land Trust, says grassroots community support was essential at Churchill just as it was at Wingfield Pines, another former golf course that was acquired in December, 2001.
“They came to us and said, ‘Hey, this is a great space. We're using it already. We don't want more developments to be built here,’” Rzotkiewicz recalled.
Today the Churchill Valley Greenway remains indelibly shaped by its past as a golf course with trees and streams strategically placed to enhance the golfing experience. Dill explained that the design makes the land more susceptible to invasive species and other environmental threats.
She pointed to a straight line of spruce trees delineating the boundary of the former course. While many of these trees will remain, plans are underway to introduce native trees throughout the open fairway.
“We've had multiple school partnership events and other nonprofit events where we've invited people out to come and plant hundreds of trees. I think at this space we've probably planted between 500 and 700 trees already, if not more,” Dill recalled.
In addition to competing with invasives like Japanese Knotweed, the young trees also have to contend with intense deer foraging. The Allegheny Land Trust has received additional funding to build fencing to protect the trees until they are old enough to not be chewed away.
Located in a low-lying and flat area with high slopes, the Churchill site is prone to flooding. This is, in part, because of extensive efforts by the former golf course to reshape the direction of waterways on the property using gabions — structures generally made of rock or concrete which often protect hillsides and river banks from erosion but also prevent water from moving in a more natural way. Evaluation and eventual removal of these gabions is a priority for the Allegheny Land Trust.
The Allegheny Land Trust is also working to install a treatment system to treat aluminum mine drainage polluting Chalfant Run which flows directly through the property. The organization received a $2.7 million state grant through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to build and manage the acid mine drainage treatment system to restore the stream.
But not all of the human-created structures are an impediment to the rewilding process. Short steel bridges dot the Greenway’s entrance, allowing foot traffic to pass over the often busy Beulah Road. Constructed in 1976 using locally produced COR-TEN steel, (the same material used on the U.S. Steel Tower), the Land Trust has embraced and refurbished these structures.
Dill explained that at the land trust, rewilding is about embracing the existing character of the county, including the needs of humans, and pursuing non-invasive efforts to supplement the lives of residents with less development and more nature.
“At this space, we're going to have waterfront and stacks of rock that remain and golf cart paths that remain. At Deadman's Hollow — a former sewer pipe factory — we have left in place the ruins of that factory. And we think they help make the space special. We’re obviously still removing invasives and planting natives and implementing sustainable trail systems. But where possible, it is interesting to leave the historical remnants there to remind us of what once was,” Dill said.
