After Decades of Neglect, a Restored North Park Lake Readies for Summer

Although renovations at North Park Lake are still in progress, the manager of the project said they won’t hinder a summer opening of the popular recreation spot.

Work on the lake is expected to be completed by the end of June. Renovation of the sediment-choked man-made lake is the final phase of a $20 million park-improvement project that the county and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began in fall 2009.

“We’ll still have some clean-up and seeding to do, and we’re planning to install another boat launch, but we’re almost done,” said Allegheny County Engineer Steven Smallhoover. “I think people are going to be very happy.”

The project had been scheduled for completion in May, but the need to dredge the Irwin Run Pond part of the lake, which was not included in the original plans, delayed completion.

“We’re trying everything to move Irwin Run along, but it has put us a little behind,” Smallhoover said. “If we don’t get rid of the sediment in that area it will migrate down and we’ll be back to where we were two years ago. It’s a sustainability issue.”

Smallhoover said he expected the work on the north side of Pearce Mill Road to take another few weeks. The 3,010-acre park, Allegheny County's largest, straddles Pine, McCandless and Hampton townships but is a recreation draw for residents of the North Hills and Western Pennsylvania.

Gary Rigdon, president of Friends of North Park, said he’s thrilled with the news.

“It’s taking a long time, but it’s worth the wait,” said Rigdon, of McCandless, who remembers rowing a canoe on the lake as a child. “The water had gotten so stagnant and unsanitary in summer you didn’t even want to go near it. Now it will be fresh and clean year-round.”

Workers drained the lake and removed more than 300,000 cubic yards of sediment from its bed, which had not been dredged in years and was gradually becoming shallower and stagnant. The restored impoundment now is as deep as 20 feet at the spillway. Another 15,000 cubic yards of silt are being gouged from Irwin Run Pond.

“Then we wait for the lake to fill up,” Smallhoover said. “It’s only about a quarter-full now.”

Although it impounds Pine Creek, the north fork of Pine Creek and Irwin Run also feeds it. Pine Creek and the lake draw big crowds during spring trout season, given their proximity to Pittsburgh and the northern suburbs, according to Rick Lorson, a biologist with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, which manages the 75-year-old fishery.

"As of 2006, when we did our most recent creel survey, North Park got 21,900 angler visits a year,” he said. “Based on the number of visits and what people spend to fish, that translates to $660,000 annually.”

Besides spring trout, anglers can expect to catch largemouth bass, catfish, crappies and other warm-water species when the lake is refilled and reopened, but they’ll have to be patient, Lorson said.

“It takes about 10 years to really build up a fishery, but folks should have decent fishing in about five years," he said.

Commission crews stocked North Park with a small number of adult fish salvaged from the soon-to-be closed Hereford Manor lakes in Beaver County. They also plan to add fingerling bass and other species from state hatcheries over the next two years.

The commission designed more than 100 fish-enhancement structures installed in the lake in recent months to help fish colonize and grow. They include submerged stump clusters, or stick clusters that rise above the surface of the water; spider humps, or piles of rocks supporting sunbursts of hemlock wood; and rock stars, or  smaller piles of cobble linked by boards.

Coir logs, snake-like devices made of coconut fiber, also have been anchored along shore to create habitats for salamanders and other amphibians.

The commission is paying to build a new boat launch on the Pine Creek side of the lake and refurbish the Irwin Run launch.

“These launches plus the boat house will also provide plenty of access for non-motorized watercraft,” said Smallhoover, who noted the lake has become increasingly popular with kayakers in recent years.

Both launches will have eco-friendly features designed to slow water runoff.

About 10 acres of wetlands have evolved over the years on the Pine Creek side of the lake. While they have reduced the lake’s surface size to 65 acres, they will help prevent the sort of silt pollution that has plagued North Park for more than 30 years, Smallhoover said.

“A wetlands environment creates its own ecosystem, so they’ll attract marsh birds and other wildlife,” he said.

Rigdon said he would like to see the Irwin Run marsh on the other side of the lake restored to its former life as a duck pond. As a board member of the North Area Environmental Council, Rigdon has applied for state and private sector funding to rebuild a dam at the 2-acre marsh.

“If we can retain water there, we can encourage waterfowl to return,” Rigdon said. “There are wood duck boxes there from the 1980s. We’d also like to build an observation platform so people can watch wildlife.”

Park-goers can look forward to restoration of a 7-acre area along Babcock Boulevard that has been used for storage, Smallhoover said.

“We’ll move the sediment once it dries, and the equipment. The fence will be gone, and an area that hasn’t been part of the park for 30 years will become green again.”