After decades of advocacy, the city of Pittsburgh has established Hays Woods Park — the city’s largest parkland acquisition since Frick Park’s creation in 1927.
Mayor Bill Peduto, who has long supported conservation of the area, signed a bill Friday securing the 644-acre greenspace that sits across the Monongahela River from Hazelwood.
City council recently passed legislation authorizing the purchase of Hays Woods from the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh.
In a statement, Mr. Peduto called the park a “gem in the middle of the city.”
“The addition of Hays Woods Park not only protects our urban canopy, but it helps the City in its efforts to reach its Climate Action goals,” he said.
Originally a series of privately owned farms and coal mines, Hays Woods was a site of contention for years after strip mining developments were proposed that would require severe deforestation and deconstruction of the park’s natural hills and ravines.
At one point in the conservation effort, council voted against a plan that would have seen a racetrack and casino built on the land.
Despite the park’s industrial past, Hays Woods has been naturally conserved, according to the city. Hays Woods features a substantial tree canopy and abundant wildlife — including a nest of bald eagles that arrived in 2013.
Broadcast by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, a popular livestream of the eagles nest can be viewed online. According to the society’s website, three eaglets hatched in Hays Woods during 2021.
Elsewhere, rabbits, turkeys, and deer roam throughout the park’s knotweed, cattails and wetlands.
At a 2019 public meeting to discuss the park’s future, residents in the area said they wanted to keep the area as green as possible after a brief plan by the URA to establish a housing development on the land was contested by a city task force.
A city council vote in October authorized the purchase of the park from the Urban Redevelopment Authority for $1. Before that, the park was purchased in 2016 by the URA for $5 million from Beaver County businessman Charles J. Betters.
With the park under its control, the city said it will begin planning its future, which includes the installation of parking areas and formalized access points. The park currently has no urban infrastructure besides a system of old roads, possibly left over from the area’s mining past.
To celebrate the acquisition, a tree was planted at an event attended by Mr. Peduto, Councilman Corey O’Connor — whose district covers Hays Woods — and other city hall officials.
First Published: November 5, 2021, 8:56 p.m.