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Welcome!
USC Citizens for Land Stewardship (USC CLS) is a community conservation
organization serving Upper St.Clair, PA.
Here you will find
information about local conservation happenings and issues. CLS also
offers a variety of outdoor activities
in celebration of our area's
wonderful natural spaces throughout the year!
Be sure to check this page often for news of what is happening or
coming up in the natural world of USC!
Join us for two outdoor experiences in April and one in May

iNaturalist
is a free application for Smart phones that was developed
by the California Academy of Sciences. There is no cost to
download
the application or to use it. iNaturalist puts nature at your
fingertips. Whenever you want to record something you see in
nature, you can open iNaturalist, use your phone's camera to take a
picture of what you see and use the built-in references to help you
identify it. iNaturalist automatically records your geographical
position, the date and the time of your observation. These are saved as
your observations. There is more. If you are participating
in an organized group effort to identify objects in our environment
such as a BioBlitz, you simply add yourself to an ongoing project and
your observations are included in the cloud-based data for the project.
When using new applications for your Smart phone, we all benefit from
having some experienced person help us set up the application and show
us how to use it. Once installed, it is very helpful to have
a chance to practice and compare results with others. Your
friends at USC CLS want you to celebrate Earth Day with training
and practice and great pizza and good company plus iNaturalist
experience so that you can come back the next weekend really prepared
to enjoy the City Nature Challenge and help us identify more
species than any other city. |
For more information, click
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USC CLS is representing Upper St. Clair as part of the Pittsburgh Region.
Help us show the world how biodiverse our home region is by making as
many observations of as many species as possible April 27-30! Over
60 cities on six continents are asking residents of and visitors to
these urban areas to explore nature all around them and document the
species they find . See the panel on the left for more details.
USCCLS Schedule of Events
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Friday April 27 2-4 PM Meet at Boyce Mayview Park, Southwest Entrance, Boyce Road, near Ardolino's Pizza
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Saturday, April 28 2-4 PM Meet in lower parking lot, Wingfield Pines Conservation Area, Mayview Road
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Sunday, April 29 12:30 - 3:30 PM Meet in lower parking lot, Wingfield Pines Conservation Area, Mayview Road
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Monday, April 30 2-4 PM Meet at Boyce Mayview Park Pavillion, Mayview Road
For more information at the Pittsburgh Region participation, click City Nature Challenge - Pittsburgh Region
To see the names of the cities who are our competition, click Participating Cities in the challenge
Using iNaturalst, your observations will be uploaded and added to a
database of all our observations. Experts will look at each of
your observations and identify them. Each identified observation
is then uploaded to the project record for you to see either on
your Smart phone or your computer.
If you would like to see what a project record looks like, you can see
the results of our Bioblitz project from last year. Click Chartiers Creek Bioblitz 2017
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Spring Migratory Bird Count - Saturday May 12, 2018
Join in the fun of spotting and identifying birds as they pass through
our region as part of the annual Migratory Bird Count. The count
takes place on Saturday, May 12th. Experience and expertise is
not required. There will be experienced people in the various
groups who will help you learn. The count is in Boyce Mayview
Park and groups meet and leave at various times throughout the day.
Contact Nancy Page for more information about starting times and where to meet. Phone: 412-221-4795. Email: nanpaul@verizon.net
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As
an
organization, we
are committed to promoting:
-
education
on environmental issues
-
prudent
and ethical land use
policies
to protect and enhance natural resources
-
awareness
of the value of our
natural
landscapes
-
recognition
of the enjoyment and
benefits of natural spaces within our community
-
activities
that promote harmony
between people and nature
-
watershed
restoration and
re-introduction of native plant species
Current
Issues:
Strip
Mining - The
Risk is Past
Mayview
State Hospital property will be developed without mining
South Fayette Township is
working
with Charter Homes & Neighborhoods of Lancaster to
create a
new development to be called Hastings. The first
phase will
consist of 44 single-family homes, 49 townhouses and 260 apartments
along with a restaurant, pool, clubhouse and day-care center.
Upper St. Clair Township is working with the developer to
provide
a connecting trail across or around this property so that the Boyce
Mayview Park Perimeter Trail can connect to a proposed connection to
the Montour Trail which is south of the site.
The developer does not plan to either strip mine or conduct fracking on
the site. USC CLS actively encouraged the South Fayette
Planning
Commission not to approve a zoning change which would have
enabled
the site to be strip mined before developed for longer term uses.
We are pleased that this is not going to happen. We
will be
following the project as it develops and encourage responsible land use
practices when appropriate.. |

Light Polution
Boyce
Mayview Park has
become one of
the most successful
stories of conservation in Upper St. Clair, as well as a fantastic
resource for
our community with the Community and Recreation Center, many hiking
trails, and The
Outdoor
Classroom. USC CLS is proud to have been a voice in the process that
has
allowed the Master Plan to come to life on the 450 acre site. However,
while
the development of the site into an accessible and popular park has
been
inspiring, it is important to consider the effects that any development
have on
the natural spaces nearby. One of the main issues that comes into play
with any
developed space is light pollution. As of July 1, 2013, Upper St. Clair
Township has approved temporary lighting for the ball fields at Boyce
Mayview
Park, including the Miracle Field.
USC
CLS understands the
appeal of
lighting the fields for
evening ball games with bright, stadium-style lighting in the park.
However,
USC CLS is hoping to eliminate any unnecessary use of these lights in
order to
minimize the effects that light pollution will have on not only the
habitats in
Boyce Mayview Park, but also the wildlife and people living in
surrounding
areas.
What
is light pollution
and why is it
a concern? Light
pollution can be described as the often disruptive impact of artificial
light
on both the darkness of the night sky and the light-related biological
rhythms
of life in the lighted area. As stated in a 2008 National
Geographic report on light
pollution, “Ill-designed
lighting washes out the darkness of night and radically alters the
light
levels—and light rhythms—to which many forms of
life,
including ourselves, have
adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some
aspect of
life—migration, reproduction, feeding—is
affected.”
You are likely already familiar
with the effects of light pollution if you have ever compared the view
of the
night sky in a city to a rural area. However, the effects of light
pollution
are not limited to cities; the type of lighting proposed for the
athletic
fields at Boyce Mayview Park would bring the same negative outcomes of
light
pollution to the surrounding areas in USC. We are calling for a
sensible plan
for the management of these lights, including exploring options such as
timers
and pay per use similar to the successful setup of the township tennis
bubbles.
Below
are some useful links to learn more about light pollution,
including the website of the International Dark Sky Association.
http://www.darksky.org/
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/plandev/Downloads/Athletic_Field_Lighting_draft0710.pdf
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/light-pollution/klinkenborg-text
http://www.treehugger.com/culture/darkness-natural-resource-and-were-losing-it.html
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Looking to get
involved? Volunteer with us!
There are many volunteer opportunities
with USC CLS. Are you a student in
need of service hours? Are you retired and looking for a way to stay
active and involved in the community? Do you have special skills that
you could use to assist a small community group? Do you simply love the
great outdoors? No matter what your interests, USC CLS can use your
help! We are a friendly, passionate community and would love to have
you on board. Please contact us at usccls@usccls.org
for more
information. |
Search
Search the USC
Citizens for Land Stewardship web
site using Google
Visit
this page often for
the latest CLS news and events!
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