Harrison tree planting boosts experience for ballpark spectators

Anyone who has ever watched a game at the Natrona Heights Baseball Softball Association complex will likely enjoy the experience even more next year.

Volunteers from the youth league in Harrison joined the township tree committee and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to plant more than a dozen Zelkova trees on the picturesque grounds off California Avenue.

“These are large shade trees and they have a good canopy,” said Melissa Burnett, a conservancy field staffer. “They’ll make a nice addition.”

The planting project also included five trees on Broadview Boulevard and six along Federal Street near the water treatment plant in the township’s Natrona section.

Commissioner Chuck Dizard said the energy and excitement from volunteers was breathtaking. In all, there were about 50 people who turned out for a morning of hard work, including 20 employees from the ATI facilities in Harrison.

“I work in this town, and I want to do what I can to give back and keep it looking good,” said ATI employee David Edmiston.

Alicia Wehrle, the conservancy’s community forestry project coordinator, said the trees will not only beautify the area but will help with air quality and stormwater runoff.

“Harrison always turns out with good volunteers,” Wehrle said. “It’s awesome to see ATI and the community working together on this.”

The township’s partnership with the conservancy has seen hundreds of trees planted over the past six years.

Dizard said the trees at the NHBSA complex will “have a dramatic effect and will help transform the whole area.”

Baseball buildings and grounds officer Chris Cottone and facility maintenance officer Mike Comley requested to have six trees line the fields, just outside the fences where spectators watch the action.

“The trees will give the parents shade and make it more pleasant to be in our park,” Comley said.

“We’ve been putting a lot of time in to beautify the fields, and we want people to hang out and use the park for enjoyment, in the way it was designed for.”

The NHBSA will maintain the trees, and there will be no cost to the township.