TRALI program protects Pittsburgh’s urban green spaces one garden at a time
But even just a tiny plot of land can make a big impact when it comes to urban farming.
By Amanda Waltz
Pittsburgh City Newspaper
Aug 11, 2021
Excerpt:
And Allegheny Land Trust, a nonprofit preservation group which works with communities to save, and make public, green space throughout the Pittsburgh region, is working to protect existing urban farms in the city.
ALT has expanded its mission to include urban gardens, small-scale agricultural ventures where groups grow fresh produce in abandoned or unoccupied lots. To help accomplish this, ALT joined up with fellow nonprofit, Grow Pittsburgh, to create the Three Rivers Agricultural Land Initiative, or TRALI, a partnership focused on purchasing and protecting urban agricultural lands in perpetuity. This includes Kincaid Street Garden in Garfield, which TRALI announced in July as being permanently protected.
TRALI signals an expanded mission for ALT from acquiring large parcels of land for outdoor recreation and preservation of wilderness, to a focus on urban gardens maintained by neighborhood residents. The groups hope the change can improve Pittsburgh’s landscape by providing urban gardens and sustainable farming even in popular neighborhoods that are seeing a lot of development.
“Over the years, we feared that the lots could be taken out from under us, as has happened to other community gardens in Pittsburgh,” says Lydia Yoder, one of the 25 volunteers who work the Kincaid Street Garden each year, in a press release. “That fear prevented us from making long-term investments in the garden. We can now plan for a long future for the garden.”
