Saturday November 3, 2001

How can citizens access our three rivers? How do we decide how to use our riverfront land? Can we develop our riverfronts in ways that improve our ecology, our economy and our society?

3 Rivers 2nd Nature collaborated with Friends of the Riverfronts, The Sierra Club, Sustainable Pittsburgh, The National Park Service, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and the Riverlife Task Force to create a meaningful dialogue on public access and restorative development among members of the public, non-profit agencies, policymakers and experts.

This workshop was an opportunity to explore the ways in which the rivers and riverfronts of Pittsburgh are made available to the citizens of the City. The event included talks by invited experts on public access to waterfronts and new uses of urban industrial land.

Presentations were given by:

• Malcom Barton, MBE, Groundworks, United Kingdom Malcom Barton is director of Groundworks Trust, a large environmental charity. Groundworks' approach is to develop programs for post-industrial areas that link environmental, social and economic regeneration and contribute to sustainable development.
  
  
• Andy Willner, NY/NJ Baykeeper Andy Willner has extensive experience with the Public Trust Doctrine, which is based on the assumption that there are three things common to all mankind: air, running water, and the sea (including the shores of the sea). The purpose of the trust is to preserve resources in a manner that makes them available to the public for certain public uses.

Information distributed at this dialogue:

• "Taking Back what is Rightfully Yours: An Owner's Manual for the Hudson-Raritan Estuary and Guide to the Public Trust Doctrine" (pdf file 352k)
• History of Public Access to Pittsburgh's Three Rivers: front (pdf file 1m)
• History of Public Access to Pittsburgh's Three Rivers: back (pdf file 1.3m)
• Maps: Areas of Diminished public access and 1858 Map of Pittsburgh (pdf file 6.5m)