BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

The turnout for the tree-felling and brush pruning was great yesterday, given that I gave only 24 hours advance notice. Helping out were Jon, Jake, Kelley, Marco, George, and Bob. Many hands make light work! The improvement to the view is dramatic and beyond my expectations. See below. OK, I admit that a view of railroad tracks, locks, and a steel mill might not win awards, but at least trail visitors who stop to read the sign about the Braddock Locks will now be able to see what the sign is talking about. Before pruning (Feb. 2014) After pruning (Mar. 2014) clockwise: Paul with implements of destruction. Jake & Kelley clearing bushes. Jon & Jake. from left to right, Marco, George, Jon, and Jake felling trees and pruning.

Is there any concern about the viability of the root system still present after the pruning, especially with the recent history of the hillside integrity in that area?

Here's a followup picture, three months after the pruning we did in March. It looks pretty good (view across the river is still unoccluded).

I don't suppose you could make alterations to this so that the picture becomes clickable and thus zoomable?

stu: I used an [img src="url"] type tag. I could do a regular link, like this https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x7lhZB-xYnQ/U5sfpn5qi3I/AAAAAAAAINQ/8dHKCflWQ8k/w1654-h440-no/braddock_dam_june_gs_crop_s1.jpg but then the picture doesn't appear inline. Or you could do control-click (mac) or right-click (windows) and then Open Image in New Tab.

An easy way to do both is to click the little "insert image" icon just above the compose window. Insert the URL, click Apply Image, and you get: The site's CSS sometimes crops it though.

Here's a followup. To maintain the view, today I did some quick pruning of the taller plants (Tree of Heaven) growing here. I probably could have waited until the winter (when the poison ivy is less juicy) to do the cutback here. It appears that pruning once or twice a year here will suffice to maintain the view. before: after: (There’s a nice pile of beer cans on that slope. Obviously people come to the bench, stop, drink, and toss their cans. Humans can be such slobs.)

Here's what it looked like on 1/27, after 7 inches of snowfall (click for zoomable picture). A nice destination for cross-country skiing.

I want to go to this. It's been a while since I've done any direct action.

@mick: note that this thread is one year old

So, Paul, you gonna make it a once-a-year thing or what?

> So, Paul, you gonna make it a once-a-year thing or what? Twice a year at this spot seems to suffice. March and August worked well. The pruning maintenance here appears to be just a one- or two-person job. Note: if you're ever there and feel like picking up the beer/soda cans that some thoughtless person has thrown down the hillside, be my guest. Note: poison ivy nearby. Thanks. If you're up for other maintenance tasks, I could put you in touch with Bob MacGregor, who leads the Steel Valley Trail maintenance effort.

Poison ivy gets started in April, though the branches also cause the rash. So any effort to clean trash should be done between the melting of the snow and the start of the growing season.

Another followup to this thread from March 2014: I did some work here today. I could have called out others, but the work was pretty simple: two hours of pruning. I picked up the litter, also. Some idiot had tossed 15 cans of Miller High Life down the hillside. So the next time you see some low-life enjoying the High Life on the bench, check his throwing arm. Here's what the hillside looks like now:

I appreciate the irony of people drinking cans of Miller High Life on a slope overlooking train tracks

Probably some hipsters riding fixies.