The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford plans to continue developing its 275 acres of wooded property across Quintuple Ridge, which will give students the chance to apply their classroom knowledge to mapping, planning, environmental surveying and community organizing.
The university will use the property east of the main campus for community recreation and as a living laboratory for its students in biology, environmental science and environmental studies. The creation of hiking, biking and interpretive trails will also provide opportunities for history and graphic design students.
Last year, the university bought 145 acres of forested mountaintop above South Avenue. The land adjoined 130 acres of forested hillside above West Corydon Street. A logging project on the property will remove white ash trees that would have soon died due to an infestation of emerald ash borer beetles. Treating the trees to prevent the infestation is impractical since it requires yearly injections of insecticide into the ash trees, which make up about a third of the forest on the property.
Once the ash are removed, the remaining trees will quickly fill in the gaps in the canopy left by their removal, said Ken Kane of Generations Forestry Consulting Foresters, which recommended the cut last year.
Kane said the remaining forest is made up of red oak, hard and soft maples, hickory and cherry, which will be a good mix to attract and support wildlife.
During the fall 2020 semester, four Pitt-Bradford students laid the groundwork for a proposed recreational trails project. Those students were Julia Krzemian, an environmental studies major from East Concord, N.Y.; Amanda Ott, an energy science and technology major from Ellwood City; Mikey Roberts, an energy science and technology and environmental studies major from Dorset, Ohio; and Mykenna Zettle, a biology and environmental sciences major from St. Marys.
The students researched ways that trails could help improve the local economy and build on existing community relations, mapped the property using geographic information system technology, explored existing service roads that could become trails and identified community partners.
This coming fall, students in the university’s Concepts in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Introduction to Environmental Science, Principles of Ecology and Evolution Lab and Digital Photography classes, as well as those in the Environmental Studies Club, will have a chance to conduct work toward the final goal of a recreational trail system on the mountain.
Dr. Matt Kropf, director of the Harry R. Halloran Jr./ARG Energy Institute at Pitt-Bradford, has been coordinating the efforts with Dr. Ovidiu Frantescu, director of the Allegheny Institute of Natural History, and Dr. Denise Piechnik, associate professor of biology.
Kropf has spent time hiking, exploring and riding a mountain bike on the mountain. “There’s a lot of really good potential for some mountain bike trails there,” he said.
As part of last fall’s work, students identified and approached community partners with expertise in tourism and trail building. Those include the Tuna Valley Trail Association, Just Riding Along bicycle shop, the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau, the Penn Brad Oil Museum and the Bradford Brew station brewpub.
“We’ve got all of the right partnerships that are interested in this and that will hopefully benefit from it,” Kropf said. “We hope Quintuple Mountain trails can become a destination for people who are seeking recreation.”
To keep the work moving forward, the faculty members applied for and received a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission for students to present the results of their work at the Appalachian Teaching Project Conference held each December in Washington, D.C. Students who worked in 2020 on plans for the property presented at the conference last year as well, although it was held virtually due to the pandemic.
The classes involved this fall will each have their own areas of work. Students in Ecology and Evolution will conduct field surveys of vegetation on the trails and identify good places for interpretive signs to promote community learning.
Similarly, the Introduction to Environmental Science class will identify areas of key historical and cultural significance, such as remnants of the mountain’s history as part of the world’s first billion-dollar oil field.
GIS students will continue to layer information about natural and historical sites onto maps of the trails.
Volunteers with the university’s Environmental Studies Club will have a chance to take part, too, by organizing and taking part in trail work sessions as well as beginning the search for possible secondary trail routes.
Graphic design students will work on signs, brochures and other materials to mark and promote the trails.
In addition to the Washington, D.C., conference, students will make presentations to the Tuna Valley Trails Association, GIS Day academic conference held at Pitt-Bradford each November and the 150-year anniversary of oil celebration.
This is not the first time that Pitt-Bradford students have been heavily involved in the development of trails. In 2013, environmental studies students conducted the full environmental analysis for the Allegheny National Forest’s Trails at Jakes Rocks, which now attract mountain bikers from across the mid-west and northeast.
In previous years, Pitt-Bradford students studied the tourism potential of trail development in McKean County.
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