Earth Month in Pittsburgh features a range of celebratory events and volunteer opportunities to raise awareness for green spaces throughout the region.

Though Pittsburgh is known as the Steel City, its public parks rank in the top 20 nationally, and Visit Pittsburgh marks the city as a sustainable travel destination. Organizations throughout the city continuously make efforts to improve tree canopies and mitigate the effects of climate change. In April, Pitt and neighboring organizations will host educational workshops, tree plantings and public events to build community awareness of the value of green spaces.

Earth Day was established in the U.S. on April 22, 1970, after a Santa Barbara oil spill which increased concerns for the environment. In 1990, Earth Day became a global event and was slowly expanded to become Earth Month. Today, these holidays provide advocates with an opportunity to shed light on their work while encouraging community members to engage with the local environment. 

Alana Wenk, a spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, said Earth Day is “a wonderful opportunity” for students and residents to appreciate Pittsburgh’s parks system and feel inspired to care for green spaces. 

“Pittsburgh is in a unique position to have such an expansive and accessible park system, and these spaces truly belong to everyone,” Wenk said. “Take advantage of them, spend time in them and help protect them — they’re some of our city’s most special assets.”

At Pitt, there are several university-wide events during Earth Month for students to participate in. On Earth Day, Plant2Plate is hosting their second annual Seed2Supper and Back Again event, where students can learn about growing food while exploring the Oakland Avenue garden. 

Aurora Sharrard, assistant vice chancellor for sustainability at Pitt, said students can choose from a slate of Earth Day activities, including kitchen workshops and herb plantings.

“This Earth Day, I hope Pitt students find the opportunity to learn something new about campus, the Earth, our planet or each other, and revel in the beauty of our natural, built and social communities,” Sharrard said.

Lindsay Dill, Allegheny Land Trust’s senior director of marketing and community engagement, said “Earth Month is every month” for her since she works at an organization dedicated to conserving land throughout Allegheny County.

“We’re always working on conserving more green spaces that support the health and well being of our communities,” Dill said. “We’re here doing the close-to-home conservation that impacts your air and water and recreation and education and ability to grow food.”

Lisa Ceoffe, city forester with the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works Forestry Division, said there are many opportunities to learn about and volunteer with environmental organizations like Tree Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which plant trees across Allegheny County.

“You can volunteer to plant trees, you can volunteer to pot up plants, you can plant trees each spring and each fall,” Ceoffe said. “There are lots of ways to get involved.”

Maggie Aupperlee, marketing and communications manager for Tree Pittsburgh, said “it’s never been more important” to talk about the environment. According to Aupperlee, the effects of climate change are happening now, evidenced by the fact that 2025 was one of the warmest years on record.

“There’s a lot of disinformation out there about a lot of different things, including the environment. There’s a lot of talk that climate change isn’t real,” Aupperlee said. “There are predictions that [Pittsburgh’s] climate will be like Louisville, Kentucky [because] it’s just getting hotter.”

In addition to Earth Day events, the city of Pittsburgh is also celebrating Arbor Day, a holiday dedicated to planting trees, which is observed on the last Friday of April. On Saturday, April 25, an event in Mellon Park will feature arts and crafts, tree planting, lawn games, food and live music.

“These events really help you celebrate the trees themselves — to sit under a tree and enjoy the shade and learn more about trees,” Ceoffe said. “It’s important to remind folks about the significance of trees because the more education we get, the more people are prone to want to protect the tree canopy and really understand how sacred the trees are across the city.”

Aupperlee said Tree Pittsburgh and its partners are working to address the urban heat island effect in Pittsburgh neighborhoods, which occurs when urban areas lack green spaces and results in higher temperatures and lower air quality. Aupperlee said Pittsburgh’s tree canopy is unequally distributed, with white and wealthy communities having more trees than communities that are predominantly Black and low income. 

“Where a lot of Black and other BIPOC people live — and also towns along the Mon where a lot of the steel [production] was happening — aren’t invested in because the steel mills closed and everybody left,” Aupperlee said. “Those communities deserve to have trees as well.”

Aupperlee said Tree Pittsburgh’s ReLeaf Program helps communities advocate for more green spaces by surveying the land, establishing a roadmap to increase the tree canopy and assisting with project implementation. 

“[There are] varying levels of what people and their communities want, but we work with them to create that plan [and] make some of those things happen,” Aupperlee said. “Then, when that plan is over, we don’t just leave — we continue to work with and in those communities, listening to them.”

The organization has ongoing projects in Lawrenceville, Duquesne and Beltzhoover, among others. Aupperlee emphasized the importance of these projects in creating a more equitable distribution of trees and green space across the region so that everyone can enjoy their benefits.

“The outdoors is for everyone,” Aupperlee said. “Anyone can go outside and enjoy grass or the shade of a tree. No matter your ability level, you can get outside and breathe some fresh air, enjoy the sun and enjoy looking at the trees.”