OPA Live! Ecosystem Restoration & Environmental Threats: Avenues for Public Engagement

Host Brenda Lynn Smith takes over the OPA Instagram for a live discussion with guest Susan Haugh.

Ecosystem Restoration & Environmental Threats: Avenues for Public Engagement

During the past year, public parks and trails were much more heavily used than ever before, as they offered one of the few safe options for recreation. Did this increased familiarity with natural areas lead to greater support for organizations dedicated to their preservation and restoration, or to a wider understanding of the serious threats facing ecosystems everywhere? During this session, Brenda Smith and Susan Haugh will discuss what each has found to be effective ways of engaging the public around these larger questions.

About Brenda Lynn Smith

Brenda Smith joined Upstream Pittsburgh as Executive Director in January 2008. Since then she has led the organization’s work in community engagement, urban forestry, sustainable stormwater management, and advocacy for clean, safe, affordable, and publicly controlled water, as a founding partner of the Our Water Campaign. The Nine Mile Run stream in Frick Park has gone from being a dangerous eyesore to a popular regional amenity; UpstreamPgh continues to develop green stormwater infrastructure, from rain barrels to parking lot retrofits, in the upper watershed communities to further improve water quality.

About Susan Haugh

I am a creator and activist, composer and collaborator. Weaving these passions together,  supported the LGBTQIA+ community through two performance-based organizations, Dreams of Hope and Renaissance City Choir, in Pittsburgh. I moved to Minnesota for love and was blown away by the prairie and oak savanna and am now working with Belwin Conservancy where I bring my passion for arts and culture together with my love of nature to support the health of the planet for generations to come.