{"id":254971,"date":"2026-07-29T21:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254971\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T21:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:45:08","slug":"pittsburgh-trees-help-cool-neighborhoods-as-advocates-try-to-plant-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/254971\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh trees help cool neighborhoods as advocates try to plant more"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Riona Duncan<\/a> | Pittsburgh Media Partnership Newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n

In Pittsburgh\u2019s South Side Flats, neighbors call Mike Clark \u201cthe Lorax.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nickname fits. Clark, vice president of the South Side Community Council, has helped plant more than 400 trees in one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city. South Side Flats is known for narrow rowhomes and concrete \u2013 to plant a street tree, the city first has to cut a hole through the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to convince a lot of my neighbors that you could put a tree in the sidewalk,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThey grew up here, and they had no trees around, and it didn\u2019t make sense to them. And then you start doing it and they\u2019re like, \u2018I\u2019ll have one!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Across Pittsburgh, trees can make the difference between a block that feels livable on a hot summer afternoon and one that radiates heat in every direction. That difference is not just uncomfortable. It can cause health risks, raise utility bills, and affect quality of life.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

\"AA stand of new trees along the edge of Ormsby Park in Pittsburgh\u2019s South Side Flats neighborhood. Trees can help reduce overall temperature in certain areas. Photo: Riona Duncan \/ Pittsburgh Media Partnership<\/p>\n

A recent Carnegie Mellon study<\/a>\u00a0found that formerly redlined Pittsburgh neighborhoods \u2013 including parts of Garfield, the Hill District, North Side, and South Side \u2013 are nearly 5 degrees hotter than the rest of the city. Redlined neighborhoods are areas that were historically denied home loans based on race and ethnicity, leading to a lack of investment. The gap between redlined neighborhoods and other communities is tied to tree cover, green space, and the amount of asphalt and dark surfaces that store heat.<\/p>\n

The phenomenon is known as the urban heat island effect: cities become hotter than surrounding areas because pavement, parking lots, rooftops and other hard surfaces absorb and hold heat.<\/p>\n

Suzy (Zekun) Li, the first author of the study, said the \u201cmost impactful\u201d option in the City of Pittsburgh is increasing green space. A 10% increase in green coverage would lead to a 3.6-degree temperature reduction, she said.<\/p>\n

Plants create a natural cooling effect, but as in other cities green space isn\u2019t evenly distributed across Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

The Trust for Public Land\u2019s 2026 ParkScore Index<\/a> found that Pittsburgh residents living in neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of people of color have access to 47% less nearby park space per person than those living in neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of white residents.<\/p>\n

The tree canopy across Pittsburgh is also uneven, ranging from the forest in Hays to streets of Chateau, where tree cover is as low as 5%.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.alleghenyfront.org\/pittsburgh-trees-heat-climate-change-environmental-justice\/<\/p>\n

Tree Pittsburgh leaders are trying to get more green in neighborhoods across the region, by planting and maintaining trees.<\/p>\n

Their Releaf initiative<\/a> focuses on areas that have the lowest tree cover, with projects in places such as Homewood, Chateau, and Rankin.<\/p>\n

These projects start with community engagement about the benefits of trees, said Clara Kitongo, tree equity manager. Her strategies include using a thermometer to show the difference in heat underneath a shade tree, and tree walks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve walked with folks in community where after walking and observing and seeing the difference, just really being with the trees, then they\u2019re able to see them in a different way,\u201d Kitongo said. \u201cI think it\u2019s us reconnecting to our humanity as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark credits the TreeVitalize<\/a> program, a joint program supported by local government agencies and nonprofits such as Tree Pittsburgh, for most of the trees he\u2019s helped plant. TreeVitalize provides the trees and a planting demonstration, and the Community Council brings volunteers to plant 10 to 40 trees in a day.<\/p>\n

The program also supplies trees that volunteers plant in South Side Park, four blocks away from bustling Carson Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked for South Side Park for a number of years and never could find it,\u201d said Kitty Vagley, the treasurer of Friends of South Side Park. \u201cI finally brought a map one day, and we hadn\u2019t known that what we were looking at was the park. It just looked like derelict property.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since the Friends of South Side Park<\/a> started planting trees and maintaining the green space, she sees many more people in the park. \u201cPlants bring people together,\u201d Vagley said.<\/p>\n

The work doesn\u2019t end after a tree is planted. Although trees help cool down hot neighborhoods, the stresses of hot neighborhoods can kill trees. The risk is especially high for trees on the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a harsh environment. You have the heat effects from the street and asphalt radiating up. You have salt issues. You have trucks making deliveries and whacking branches,\u201d said Lisa Coeffe, the city forester. If a street tree lives beyond seven to 10 years, she considers it a success.<\/p>\n

Clark says that he\u2019s only lost two trees in the last three years. When he walks around the neighborhood, he pulls dead branches off trees. He\u2019s put down plastic to keep dog urine from killing saplings, and on the hottest days he drives around with a water buffalo in the back of his pickup truck.<\/p>\n

Between 2011-15, the city\u2019s tree canopy was in decline. Coeffe said that for the last seven years, the trend has reversed.<\/p>\n

Overall, between 2010 and 2020, the City of Pittsburgh had a net gain of 4 acres of tree canopy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe canopy ebbs and flows,\u201d Coeffe said. \u201cBut we\u2019re trending in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riona Duncan is a summer intern for the Pittsburgh Media Partnership newsroom.<\/p>\n

The PMP Newsroom is a regional news service that focuses on government and enterprise reporting in southwestern Pennsylvania. Find out more information on foundation and corporate funders here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Riona Duncan | Pittsburgh Media Partnership Newsroom In Pittsburgh\u2019s South Side Flats, neighbors call Mike Clark \u201cthe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3667,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-254971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-heat-wave","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}