Pitt\u2019s campus is transitioning into spring, and the grounds crew are adding more sustainable plants to campus.<\/p>\n
The spring season began on March 20, and Pitt\u2019s Office of Facilities Management<\/a> is installing a variety of new plants and flowers, focusing on adding color to Pitt\u2019s campus while supporting the local environment and incorporating native and perennial plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Andy Moran, senior manager of grounds in the Office of Facilities Management<\/a>, leads a team of 35 people who he said work to make Pitt\u2019s campus feel like \u201ca little oasis in Oakland.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe pride ourselves on first impressions. When parents are bringing their children onto campus for the first time, or when a relative is coming to visit a student on campus for the first time, we want their remembrance of the campus to be a \u2018wow\u2019 factor,\u201d Moran said.<\/p>\n The grounds crew will plant approximately 21,500 pansies<\/a> throughout campus in the upcoming weeks, which will be fully installed by the time families visit for graduation on May 3, according to Moran. Moran explained these flowers are more tolerant of cooler temperatures.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, the summer annuals<\/a> can\u2019t tolerate the cold weather,\u201d Moran said. \u201cIn order to get some color on campus for our graduation, we have to use pansies.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Moran, the pansies will be rotated out for summer annuals, though Pitt has plans to plant perennials<\/a> elsewhere, which can survive year-round. Zackary Wolynn, a graduate student in public administration and member of both the Pollinator Habitat Advisory Committee<\/a> and Conservation Club at Pitt<\/a>, said perennials are better than annuals at supporting<\/a> pollinators.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of [annuals are] genetically engineered<\/a> to look super pretty, but in doing that, they don\u2019t have the sex organs that most plants have,\u201d Wolynn said. \u201cThen [they] can\u2019t be pollinated, and it can\u2019t support bees or other pollinators.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Moran said native plants are also central in supporting the ecosystem, adding that the staff is required to think of native plants first and only use non-native plants when necessary.<\/p>\n \u201c99% of the time, we\u2019re putting in native plants. Just today, a contractor started putting in 29 large native trees around the Cathedral lawn,\u201d Moran said. \u201cBut if we have to match an existing landscape \u2026 we may have to put in something that\u2019s non-native.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of the first phase in a master landscape plan<\/a> for areas around the Cathedral of Learning, Moran said his team will also plant 20 other native trees around the Cathedral including oaks, white oaks<\/a>, sweetgums<\/a>, maples, dogwoods and redbuds<\/a>. Moran said this project, like all of the groundswork, will adhere to the Pitt Sustainability Plan<\/a> which he helped create in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been here for over 11 years and each year we\u2019ve built upon this sustainability plan,\u201d Moran said. \u201cFrom electric mowers and electric or battery-powered equipment to some of the fertilizers and the native plants, everything we do is trying to be on the more sustainable than non-sustainable side.\u201d<\/p>\n Pitt has earned multiple sustainability awards<\/a>, earning Bee Campus USA status in 2020<\/a> and Tree Campus status in 2021<\/a>, both of which are re-certified annually. Laurie Ann Follweiler, Pitt\u2019s greenhouse manager, said she has noticed a positive change since these developments.<\/p>\n \u201cI am happy to see the native perennials and shrubs along Bigelow outside the Cathedral,\u201d Follweiler said. \u201cIt\u2019s a refreshing change to the old traditional landscape plantings that offer little to the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Wolynn said the Pitt Pollinator Habitat Advisory Committee and Conservation Club at Pitt developed a \u201cplant matrix,\u201d which is a list that dictates what species of plants go into which gardens.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to be planting along a narrow strip of a sidewalk, it\u2019s worthwhile to plant native perennials,\u201d Wolynn said. \u201cBut we couldn\u2019t plant something tall and floppy, like sneezeweed<\/a>, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n Moran said the grounds crew has a \u201cright plant, right place\u201d framework for deciding where plantings should go. His experience working at Pitt has taught him to factor in lighting conditions, growth habits, nearby landscaping and drought tolerance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe learn something new every day here on campus,\u201d Moran said.<\/p>\n Sanjna Goyal, a junior environmental engineering major and president of the Conservation Club at Pitt, said the pollinator gardens<\/a> typically feature native perennials like bee balm<\/a>, coneflower<\/a> and wild indigo<\/a>. The club\u2019s next project is a partnership with Free the Planet<\/a> called the Posvar Pollinator Patch<\/a>, which will be planted April 8 through 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor this garden, we chose plants specifically based on their bloom time,\u201d Goyal said. \u201cWe try to choose plants that bloom at different times. That\u2019s better for the pollinators because it gives them options.\u201d<\/p>\n Goyal said choosing plants with varied bloom times also ensures there is something visually appealing to walk past at all times.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen flowers aren\u2019t really in bloom, we try to still have native grass species and other things, so it\u2019s not just twigs and sticks all throughout the garden,\u201d Goyal said. \u201cWe try to compromise a bit in the sense that it\u2019s still visually appealing for the most part. But we can\u2019t promise \u2026 intense English roses, because obviously we do prioritize the native species over the non-native ones.\u201d<\/p>\n