Member
Nancy Levine
Member
It started with an effort to get a single tree planted in a front yard.
A large red maple needed to be removed from the sidewalk of Dr. Nancy Levine’s Highland Park home in 2007. She was disappointed to see the old tree come down and wanted to replace it, but quickly learned it’s quite a process to purchase a tree and get approval from the city to plant it near the street.
After much research, Nancy applied for a street tree through TreeVitalize Pittsburgh, a partnership among WPC, Tree Pittsburgh, Allegheny County Parks, the City of Pittsburgh and the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Nancy was already familiar with the Conservancy. When she moved to Pittsburgh in 1992 to take on the role of Director of Family Practice Residencies at West Penn Hospital, she volunteered with colleagues to plant WPC’s Highland Park Bridge flower garden and became a Conservancy member.
After getting trees planted on her street, Nancy focused on reforesting Highland Park! For the next seven years, not only did she complete and submit all of the applications for street trees in Highland Park, but she mobilized large teams of volunteers for plantings and created schedules for tree care and pruning. Her applications led to more than 500 trees planted in Highland Park!
Once, she finished a tree application on her way to catch a flight to Mexico, working furiously to meet the deadline while stuck in standstill traffic on the 31st Street Bridge. She submitted the application in the nick of time and still caught her flight!
She became a volunteer Tree Tender and recruited others. Tree tenders learn to plant, monitor and care for street trees to ensure survival.
Nancy traces her love for nature and passion for conservation to her childhood in Europe. She loved exploring the natural world, and cites Rachel Carson as her childhood heroine.
Now retired, she has more time to enjoy biking, kayaking and swimming. Nancy included WPC in her estate plans because she feels strongly about all the work the Conservancy does…but trees remain her true passion.
“I feel climate change is the biggest existential crisis facing us today,” she says.  “Aside from all of us making big changes and sweeping legislation, I believe the best way to combat climate change is by planting more trees.”
Ultimately, she hopes her gifts enable the Conservancy to “keep doing what we’re doing, and more of it: planting trees, cleaning up water and educating the next generations on the importance of this work.”
The following lists some of the ways you can volunteer at the Conservancy. We welcome volunteers to help in our community flower gardens, plant trees or maintain our preserves and trails, among other tasks. View a list of our current or upcoming volunteer opportunities and register for one today.