The Manchester Fruit Tree Project

Tree Pitts­burgh is excit­ed to part­ner with Man­ches­ter Aca­d­e­m­ic Char­ter School (MACS) and the Drew Math­ieson Cen­ter for Hor­ti­cul­tur­al & Agri­cul­tur­al Tech­nol­o­gy (DMC) at Man­ches­ter Bid­well Cor­po­ra­tion to imple­ment a small fruit tree orchard in Man­ches­ter. This project roots from Tree Pitts­burgh, Man­ches­ter res­i­dents, and addi­tion­al stake­hold­ers work­ing to cre­ate the ReLeaf Man­ches­ter and Chateau plan. Not only will this project play a small role in increas­ing tree canopy cov­er in Man­ches­ter, but it will also pro­vide a project-based learn­ing envi­ron­ment for MACS stu­dents and increase the food capc­i­ty in Man­ches­ter. The Man­ches­ter Fruit Tree Project will inte­grate with MACS’ Air­plane Gar­den, pro­vid­ing an oppor­tune envi­ron­ment to edu­cate stu­dents and Man­ches­ter res­i­dents about urban fruit tree orchards. Eight trees of three dif­fer­ent species — paw­paw, ser­vice­ber­ry, and Asian pear — will be plant­ed on Earth Day, April 22, 2016.

MACS is a foun­da­tion­al part of the Man­ches­ter com­mu­ni­ty. They strive to fos­ter the dreams of all chil­dren by pro­vid­ing an out­stand­ing and dynam­ic edu­ca­tion in a nur­tur­ing envi­ron­ment, wih an empha­sis on extra-cur­ric­u­lar enrich­ment, hands-on learn­ing, and com­mu­ni­ty involve­ment. The DMC is one of West­ern Penn­syl­va­ni­a’s pre­mier edu­ca­tion­al green­hous­es. They are locat­ed on the Man­ches­ter Bid­well Cor­po­ra­tion cam­pus and pro­vide a home to Bid­well Train­ing Cen­ter’s hor­ti­cul­ture tech­nol­o­gy major. In addi­tion to whole­sale plant sales, the DMC’s unique non­prof­it oper­at­ing mod­el includes youth edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram­ming and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ments to inspire and expand urban sus­tain­abile agri­cul­ture and envi­ron­men­tal out­reach through­out the region. Tree Pitts­burgh, MACS, and the DMC are excit­ed for the great poten­tial this project has, and are thank­ful for the sup­port from the Man­ches­ter Cit­i­zens Cor­po­ra­tion, Man­ches­ter Tree Ten­ders, and the Man­ches­ter Green­ing Group.

This project is one of Pitts­burgh’s inno­v­a­tive com­mu­ni­ty ini­tia­tives sup­port­ed in part by a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund. Sproud Seed Awards are mod­est finan­cial awards ($500-$10,000) that pro­vide crit­i­cal finan­cial sup­port for projects and pro­grams in the ear­ly stages of devel­op­ment — when just a small amount of invest­ment has the poten­tial to yield big results in the community.

Please con­tact Rachel King with any ques­tions or to get involved.