Men's Soccer Team Plants Trees and Cleans Up Local Park

On Sunday, April 29, the Carnegie Mellon University men's soccer team joined forces to serve the community along the park boarding the Pittsburgh campus. The team was able to take advantage of the sunny afternoon by planting trees and removing invasive plants from the area around the Schenley Park Visitors Center on Panther Hollow Drive.

The team joined others to plant 40 balled-and-burlap trees to provide habitat, manage rain water in the Panter Hollow Watershed and improve the park aesthetics. They were also able to work on pulling and bagging the invasive plant garlic mustard. Managing the invasive species preserves park biodiversity and habitat. Volunteers have pulled hundreds of bags of garlic mustard out of Schenley Park over the past few years.

"We chose the project in Schenley Park because this year we wanted to work close to home," junior Ben Bryant said. "Last year we did a project that was quite a ways from campus, but this year we wanted to work in a park that we see on a daily basis. In fact, the trees we planted lining the golf course are right next to Skibo Gym, where we usually have regular training and weight lifting sessions. It's really cool to give back to the community, especially when we can see the fruits of our effort so close by."

"The experience was great this year," added Bryant. "We did the project together as a team and it really brought us together. Doing something other than playing soccer is a unique way of team bonding and it felt great doing something together that benefitted the community at large."