the almanac S e p t e m b e r 8, 2024
SOUTH HILLS COMMUNITY NEWS
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF PETERS TOWNSHIP
Peters Township public works employees install a plaque at the base of a gingko tree on the property of Dr. Joseph Falbo.
Deep roots
Several Peters Township trees have stood for more than a century By Jon Andreassi Staff writer
jandreassi@observer-reporter.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF HUMANE ANIMAL RESCUE OF PITTSBURGH
LEFT: Lee Ann Hill and Lauren Gibbons examine a turtle at Humane Animal Rescue’s wildlife rehabilitation center. RIGHT: Taylor Morgan and Lauren Gibbons treat a hawk at the wildlife rehabilitation center.
WHERE THE
WILD THINGS ARE
Rehab facilities aim to care for injured wildlife By Jon Andreassi Staff writer
jandreassi@observer-reporter.com
Last month while Mary Bailey was walking her dog in Whitehall, she came across an injured rabbit that was struggling to move. Bailey, of Brentwood, described the creature as having its left hind leg broken. “You could actually see the muscle and bone,” Bailey recalled. She attempted to contact the Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh, which operates a wildlife rehabilitation center in Verona. It was about 7:30 in the morning, so the facility wasn’t open, but Bailey said a recorded message offered detailed instructions on what to do in such a situation. So she scooped up the rabbit and headed to Verona. “I was petting the rabbit, which I probably should not have been doing, just to keep him calm and happy. I was surprised how soft and furry he felt,” Bailey said. The Humane Animal Rescue’s “Wild Side” facility is one of few wildlife rehabilitation centers in the region. None exists in Washington, Greene or Fayette counties. In Westmoreland County, there is Wildlife Works, located at 836 Chestnut St. in Youngwood. When Bailey arrived at the Humane Animal Rescue facility, she handed over the rabbit and signed a form relieving her of all responsibility. SEE WILDLIFE PAGE A2
The Peters Township home where Dr. Joseph Falbo lives was constructed in 1795, and he was recently “shocked” to learn that two trees on the property may be as old as the house itself. A pair of ginkgo trees form a sort of natural gateway to the front of Falbo’s home on Bebout Road. The trees, along with other natural features, provide a good deal of privacy, as the home is difficult to spot from the road. Tom Sierzega is a friend of Falbo and asked if he could study the trees to determine their age. “We were very happy to do so,” Falbo said. Sierzega sits on the Peters Township Environmental Quality Board, which embarked on a project to estimate the ages of some of the oldest trees in the area. They have identified the approximate ages of 15 trees, all on the property of township residents. “We’ve decided that some of these older trees, with all the development that is going on, it’s important to kind of save them and let people know they are here and the benefits they provide,” Sierzega said. The process to study the township’s trees began prior to the pandemic, which put the project on hold. “After COVID we started up again, and so now we’ve completed Jerry and Rose Pappert stand identifying the trees,” in front of the white oak on their Sierzega said. Peters Township property. To figure out how old the trees are, Sierzega worked with Dr. Jason Kilgore, the chair of the biology department at Washington & Jefferson College. Kilgore came prepared with a formula and equipment to get the job done. The ginkgos at Falbo’s home were determined to have been around since approximately 1795. The oldest tree they studied was a white oak along Kimber Drive that has survived since colonial times. Kilgore and Sierzega believe the tree was planted in approximately 1695. The formula Kilgore used is to multiply the diameter of the tree by the tree’s “growth factor.” He explained that each species of tree has a different growth factor. A white oak, for example, has a growth factor of five. So a white oak that is 20 inches in diameter would be around a century old. SEE TREES PAGE A2
An intern works at the wildlife rehabilitation center.
Struggling service organizations seek new members By Brad Hundt Staff writer
bhundt@observer-reporter.com
When Kathy Sabol was president of the Washington’s Rotary Club in 2002 and 2003, the organization counted more than 100 people as members – business owners, lawyers, doctors, some of the leading professionals in the community. Sabol is president of Rotary again, serving another oneCOURTESY OF THE ROTARY CLUB OF WASHINGTON year term that will take her Rotary volunteers pack boxes for the Food Helpers pro- into 2025. This time, though, gram in Washington County. she is confronting a landscape
UPPER ST. CLAIR Caddie scholarship winner PAGE A4 What’s happening, B3
that has changed considerably from what it was two decades ago. Now, membership has been sliced in half in Washington, with just 53 people taking on the mantle of “Rotarian.” “We are striving to rebuild our numbers,” Sabol said. Washington’s Rotary chapter is far from alone, though, when it comes to shedding members and grasping for ways to bring new recruits into the fold. Across the world, Rotary has been losing more members than it has been gaining, with about 44,000 new people sign-
SPORTS South Fayette football learns lessons from Marines PAGE B1 Real estate transactions, A6
ing up every year, but 51,000 departing. Stephanie Urchick, the Canonsburg resident who is president of Rotary International until next June 30, has conceded that Rotary has a “Romeo” problem – short for the perception that the organization consists of “Rich Old Men Eating Out.” Other longstanding civic organizations have been faced with similar problems. Nationally, the Jaycees, Lions, Optimists, Civitans and Kiwanis have all confronted declining membership numbers.
In fact, Washington’s Kiwanis Club will be officially folding at the end of September after lasting a little more than 100 years, simply because its membership has been reduced to about five people, all of them retirees. “We’ve run out of people, run out of steam and run out of energy,” Wil White, the club’s secretary, said last month. When White first joined Kiwanis in 2000, he noted that there were more than 100 members. SEE SERVICE PAGE A2
SIGHTS & SOUNDS Annual race to benefit USC graduate PAGE B3 Classifieds, B4