For Ilyssa Manspeizer, it’s the perfect job.
It’s far from her first challenging venture, if you count the elephants she worked to protect in Africa, but it has many of the same elements: fabulous vistas, gnarly habitats and feisty natives.
Manspeizer was hired to manage the development of the Grand View Scenic Byway Park on Mt. Washington, the 270-acre swath that offers the most spectacular aerial views in Pittsburgh.
“It’s a great project and an exciting place for me to be,” beams the New Jersey native, now happily at home with her husband and four children in Squirrel Hill. “It’s so difficult to find a project that combines economic development, preservation, and the environment. When you find that kind of project, it’s a real jewel.”
Manspeizer brings with her a master’s degree in nature conservation from London and a doctorate in development anthropology from Binghamton University, SUNY. Her work on elephant conservation in Ethiopia and community-based wildlife conservation in Zambia offered her preparation in helping communities with wide ranging perspectives to find a shared vision.
In addition to seeking funding and overseeing hillside work, Manspeizer attends forums, and a monthly task force sponsored by the MWCDC aimed at forging a partnership with the residents. There are dumps to be removed, trails and rock climbing ideas to be considered, views to be restored and historic elements to ponder, such as rebuilding of the 1.3-mile stairway that once ferried coal workers to work.
“Building community is an ongoing process,” she says. “The amount of work and sweat that has gone into this is phenomenal. The park is completely usable now and we will work for the next 20 years to make it into everything we can imagine.”
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Illysa Manspeizer, Grand View Scenic Byway Park
Photograph copyright © Jonathan Greene