Let’s Talk About Parks: The Hidden Magic Of Green Infrastructure

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sometimes we see things and don’t realize the magic that is just beyond what is immediately visible to our eyes. On a recent blue-sky afternoon nature walk in Frick Park led by Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy naturalist educators, a closer examination of a trailside log brings a multitude of beautiful details into focus. Bright green mosses, vivid orange and yellow fungi that seem to glow, and the wormy inner life of the separating bark come into view. As the guide flips the log over, the secret under-life of the deeply textured wood mass is suddenly apparent. Hundreds of tiny pathways crisscross each other like roads on a city map as ants, worms and other critters use the natural shelter and rich moist soil as their home and buffet. The mossy log looks beautiful from the outside, but there is also enormous value in what is underneath. Green infrastructure — human-built installations that take advantage of nature’s terrain and absorption to soak up excess stormwater — are much the same. They look beautiful from the outside, but underneath they are stormwater-absorbing powerhouses... Read the full article