Wildlife, plants, paddlers find a haven on Sycamore Island (2024)

From a passing watercraft or the banks of the Allegheny River, Sycamore Island appears untouched by humans.

A wall of invasive Japanese knotweed anchors the 14-acre island’s northern end, giving way to silver maple, cottonwood and, of course, sycamore trees, each grasping the silt against the river’s current.

From off the island, only the rotting skeleton of a barge tucked under some trees hints at a history of development on this strip of land between Blawnox and Verona. It’s officially part of Blawnox.

The Allegheny Land Trust bought the island in 2008 for $250,000. The sale ended a 200-year legacy of indifference and environmental degradation by private owners.

Penn Hills resident Rick Duncan took up the mantle of site steward shortly after the land trust took ownership. His philosophy is to make the space inviting for visitors, but not “overmanaged,” he said.

“We try to keep the island feeling a bit more wild,” Duncan said. “It’s not a park. It’s a conservation area.”

Armed with a machete and a packed lunch, Duncan, 69, visits once or twice a week to check on the island’s ecosystem. He also keeps it walkable for humans, clearing poison ivy from a trail that forms an off-kilter figure eight.

“I hate straight lines,” Duncan said.

Every so often, Duncan organizes a flotilla of canoes for visits. On a recent trip, he herded a group to the island for a two-hour tour. He’s a seasoned guide and does everyone the favor of swatting away spider webs as he shares bits of history.

The island is accessible by kayak, canoe or paddle board — no motorized boats allowed. Duncan recommends renting a kayak from nearby 10.7 Marina or using the Verona public docks at the end of Arch Street.

There’s a lone campsite that hosts about 60 people each year, but there are no trash cans. And campers who litter risk losing access.

If you carry it in, carry it out.

Ironically, a historic disregard for the island’s ecosystem created its most attractive features.

Nathaniel Irish Jr., a captain in the Revolutionary War, purchased the island in the early 1800s. He never developed it, and his progeny eventually sold it. For decades, it served as little more than a dump for waste from dredging in the river, giving the island its peculiar bowl shape.

The higher shorelines make trees lean in from either side, creating a natural cathedral in the island’s center.

Sycamore Island tacked on 8 acres from this dumping. It also gained one of its most prominent features: “Mt. Sycamore,” a 28-foot-high pile of former riverbed.

In the 1960s, developer Ernest Stein snapped up the property and built Harbor Isle Boat Club, complete with a fueling barge, docks and swimming pool.

Hurricane Agnes sent most of those structures over the Highland Park Dam in 1972, along with Stein’s ambitions to clear the rest of the island. Sycamore Island would bounce among a few more private owners before landing in the care of the Land Trust.

“Now and forever, it’ll be as it is now,” Duncan said.

Dredging wasn’t as kind to Sycamore Island’s neighbor, Ninemile Island, just yards away. The river continues to eat away at that 4-acre island — down from 31 acres — and Duncan predicts it’ll be gone within 100 years.

That will leave Sycamore as one of a few sizable, undeveloped islands on the Allegheny River. There are 12 islands between Pittsburgh and Kittanning, about half of which either have development in the form of camps or permanent residences or are rather small.

Another seven islands make up the Allegheny Islands Wilderness in the northern reaches of the river through Venango, Forest and Warren counties. Some of those islands have extensive campgrounds, unlike Sycamore.

A 2010 report commissioned by the Land Trust calls floodplain forests, like Sycamore Island, an “endangered species of landform.”

These areas are characterized by extended periods of flooding and ice flow as well as an abundance of sycamore trees, according to the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program.

They also can be home to a diverse array of plants and animals.

Sycamore plays host to raccoons, beavers, squirrels, muskrats, groundhogs, foxes and deer, according to Duncan. Many of those species swim back and forth to the island as they please.

More than 100 bird species have been documented on the island, according to the report. Reptiles and amphibians were less prolific at the time, though that has changed since the former Harbor Isle swimming pool was converted into a vernal pool — a type of habitat marked by shallow water that typically dries up in hotter, summer months but reappears to provide excellent breeding grounds for amphibians and other wildlife through the rest of the year.

Silver maples made up about 75% of the tree canopy in 2010. The tall, fast-growing tree took over after the boat club closed.

“What we’ve been doing since then is planting other species and trying to diversify the habitat,” Duncan said.

Duncan leads a network of about 25 volunteers who scatter native plants on the island while trying to root out invaders.

Lindsay Dill, senior director of marketing and community engagement for the Land Trust, called Duncan “the gold standard” for its stewardship crews.

After some trial and error, Duncan said he’s confident the 160 trees planted on the island’s northern end can withstand routine flooding, though the beavers might prove more challenging.

“Beavers love to come and cut down our trees,” Duncan said. “But the trees come back.”

Duncan keeps coming back, too. He’s on the island once or twice a week during canoe season, chopping, planting or just relaxing. In 2022, he added to his busy retirement by founding the Allegheny River Boulevard Preservation Association.

“He spends half his life on that island and the other half on Allegheny River Boulevard,” said Kathy Kaczka, who joined the trip Sunday.

Adriene Smochek, who also made the journey, said she’s “thankful that type of person exists.”

It’s hard work, but Duncan finds inspiration — and levity — in the island’s details. Halfway through the tour, he gestured to a fallen silver maple that has sprouted half a dozen different trees from its original trunk.

“It looks like a poster your employer would put up: Fortitude,” Duncan said.