FCASD wins 2024 Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence

The Fox Chapel Area School District, in conjunction with three community organizations, was awarded a 2024 Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence. The “Second Graders Restoring Habitat at Salamander Park” was a joint project done in conjunction with students from Fox Chapel Area School District, the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Allegheny County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, and Fox Chapel Borough Parks Commission and Public Works Department.

As part of the project, second graders from all four of the district’s elementary schools (Fairview, Hartwood, Kerr and O’Hara) restored habitat at Fox Chapel Borough’s Salamander Park, which brought the district together with nonprofit environmental groups. More than 300 students enhanced a local habitat by planting over 300 trees to improve the riparian habitat of Sycamore Run (a stream that borders Salamander Park). The partnership engaged students, teachers, nonprofit organizations and community volunteers to plant more than 1,500 native trees.

“This year’s Environmental Excellence honorees showcase the innovative ways we can protect our environment and shape a more sustainable future here in Pennsylvania,” said DEP Interim Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley. “Together we will spur the next generation of environmental stewards and these projects represent our ability to work together to preserve Pennsylvania’s natural resources.”

Applications were evaluated for their degree of environmental protection, innovation, partnership, economic impact, consideration of climate change, sustainability and environmental justice, as well as outcomes achieved.

The awards, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), honored 22 projects statewide with the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence.