Jeannette, Pennsylvania 15644

Westmoreland County (Hempfield Township)

As the name implies, Quarry Sanctuary was formerly a stone quarry. Over the years, nature has reclaimed much of the land, with swaths of primarily mixed-deciduous forest, and meadow areas with native and naturalized perennial plants. We recently had this property certified with the Monarch Watch program, as providing habitat and nectar sources for Monarch butterflies, and countless other creatures. 

 

Quarry Sanctuary is challenged by multiple types of gas infrastructures, each presenting unique opportunities to evolve current maintenance practices, as well as plans for expansion, or decommission, of these infrastructures.

 

One such example is the proposed expansion of a gas regulator station. Current plans call for clearing 1,100 to 1,300 square feet of mature forest to accommodate this project, which would result in extreme disturbance and loss of wildlife habit within the existing forest ecosystem-in-recovery. In taking a systems view to consider the most ecologically sustainable and economically efficient ways to design for expansion, we have proposed an alternative site within Quarry Sanctuary that would not require the felling of trees/brush.

 

To support our plea to save the forest around the existing regulator station from further destruction, we offer this from Land Trust Alliance:  https://landtrustalliance.org/blog/our-forests-are-a-big-key-to-the-climate-fight

 

According to the above link, a new study published in the journal Nature "shows diverse forests have the potential to capture approximately 226 billion metric tons of carbon in regions with low human footprint if ecosystems are protected and forests allowed to recover. The study found that the greatest proportion of carbon capture (61%) can be achieved by conserving the ecosystems that we already have."

 

Additionally for the proposed regulator station expansion project, we are advocating for a net-zero facility. We are looking to buildings like our local Frick Environmental Center, and Phipps Center for Sustainable Landscapes, as sources of inspiration in terms of design, materials, construction, energy and water generation and consumption, on-going maintenance, and ecological sensitivity.