Wingfield Pines Shines On a Wet Afternoon

Tucked behind Interstate 79 and across the street from Upper St. Clair’s is a bit of nature that has been reclaimed, repurposed and recycled thanks to the efforts of the Allegheny Land Trust and its army of volunteers.

Wingfield Pines Conservation Area is a great Sunday walk that has some history to it. Over the years Wingfield Pines has been the location of several golf clubs and even a swim club. Prior to that, like so much of the region, the land was strip-mined for what was beneath it, coal.  And like so many other sites, once the mine was played out, the scars of the industry were left behind.  

Looking around the area now it is hard to imagine the land’s varied past.

“We acquired the land in 2001 and it was a golf course before that, so walking around today you’ll see a couple of sand traps here and there,” said Emilie Cooper, Allegheny Land Trust stewardship coordinator, “But I think it’s changed quite a bit in the past nine years.”

To say the area has changed is an understatement.

You start out in what was the pool area—though today all that’s left is the concrete outline now been filled in and planted with grasses. Even the sign that greets you has its own bit of green, a newly planted roof garden of cactuses.

But the real innovation comes when you arrive at the ponds, five of them in a pinwheel configuration, water ranging in color from bright rust to sparkling clear.

Abandoned mine drainage (ADM) is the source of the rusty pungent water. The outflow of water from the old strip mines contains pyrite, an iron sulfide, which when exposed to air forms sulfuric acid and dissolved iron, the rusty orange sediment found in the water.

The passive system in place at Wingfield Pines uses no energy to clean the iron out of the water, the series of ponds doing the job like steps, with the water moving on and the dissolved iron being left behind.

“The ponds are two to four feet deep and were intended to have nothing growing in them, just to be chemical reactors and they were that way for the first year,” said Bob Hedin, president of Hedin Environmental in Mt. Lebanon, who designed the system.

The water starts out very orange, goes around the pond system and is clearly less orange than when it began. But that was the first year.

“We’re cleaning the water, it’s happening,” Hedin thinking back to the first year. Now, there is more than they expected.

"We have all kinds of biology happening here that I didn't anticipate, that no one anticipated. The first thing you see is this algae called muskgrass that's common in alkalin water. This material is a wonderful filter."

Seeing how the muskgrass developed on its own, at first there was concern that the algae would inhibit the flow of the water, but that doesn’t seem to be the case so far.

Walking around, you see an amazing assortment of plants fringing the edges of the ponds as the water flows along its way to the next one, growing clearer with each step.

As you come around the last pond you approach the man-made wetland area, home to a few herons, and on this day a pair of blue birds. Zig-zagging across the wetland via the boardwalk, you have the chance to become part of the center of this diverse eco-structure.  Tons of little blue tailed dragonflies flit around you like dancers in the afternoon sun as you stroll to the other side or maybe take a break at a set of benches halfway across.

Here the water is clear showing off a variety of water plants best left to our friends at the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania to describe. The society's Loree Speedy, Yale Cohen and Richard Nugent were compiling a list of plants in the wetlands and next to the trail.

Walking along the trail we only covered one side of the area. Most of the other side of the reserve has not had trails developed, but the trust is always looking for a few volunteers to come down and lend a hand.

If you are interested in more information, want to volunteer some time or just want to take a nice walk on a sunny afternoon, contact the Allegheny Land Trust at 412-741-2750 or checkout their website.