A Sunday in the Park with Bill
Anytime I hear about other people's "walkabouts," I feel duty-bound to let the rest of you know.
On Sunday, District 8 Councilman Bill Peduto and an entourage of conservation folks will be in Schenley Park for a "City Parks Walkabout" and discussion. If you want to join them, sign up at http://www.ventureoutdoors.org/Activities.aspx?id=54042 to register.
The walk, rated as easy, is from 1-4 p.m., starting from the Schenley Park Visitors Center (across from Phipps Conservatory). It costs $10 for Venture Outdoors members, $14 for everyone else.
This is the last session of the "Pedal, Paddle, Peduto" series. Walkabout wrote about it when it kicked off in the spring, and you can view a video on that posting: May 20, headline "Head Outdoors With Bill This Summer."
The series was to get people out onto bike paths, the rivers and parks to explore and learn about who's doing what to save and enhance our natural amenities. Representatives from organizations that focus on biking, kayaking, rivers, trails, parks, trees -- all things green and healthy -- have served as guides.
"It's been great," Bill said. "The comments from people who have participated have been to expand it. Next year, we will probably do it May through September.
"We had a goal of 25 for each trip and exceeded every one. We had 42 on the kayak trip. We had 32 people on the biking trip. There was a lot of conversation on the biking trip because it was easier to converse. A lot more activity and exercise on the kayaking trip" but not as much talking because members of the flotilla didn't stay together. "But when we got to Herr's Island, Jeremy Smith from Riverlife jumped out and stood knee-deep in the water and gave a lecture."
"We had a lot of suburban people, people from Fayette County, Mercer County, Beaver, Butler, Somerset, Armstrong, Westmoreland. Of 42 kayakers, 10 or 12 were from the city."
Bill's guests this session will be Marijke Hecht from TreeVitalize at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Danielle Crumrine from Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest and Phil Gruszka from Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy - dedicated environmentalists, all.
If you participate, or have aprticipated in any of the P3 series, let me know how it went at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will share it as a post.