This Year’s Fall Foliage Enters Final Days

Fall colors outside Mellon Center in late October. (Mick Stinelli)

There are few places in the United States with better fall foliage than Pennsylvania, and fewer places with as much variety in trees as Chatham University.

Some of the best leaf peeping in Pittsburgh is available at the Shadyside Campus, whose 115 different species of trees earned the site its designation as an arboretum (a botanical collection of trees), and Eden Hall Campus, with its vast, untamed woodlands.

Mike White, a manager of Facilities Management, the department that handles campus maintenance and grounds work, is spending his first autumn at the University after being hired in May.

One of the first things White learned about the job was the importance of walking through the campus and getting to know every room in every building. But he soon found out that being familiar with the outdoor areas of campus was just as crucial.

“Knowing and noticing that there’s so many different species of trees no matter where you look, it looks like you won’t see the same tree twice within a certain area,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful campus to walk around.” 

Strolling through the Shadyside campus, you might notice a red-tinged persian parrotia (also known as ironwood) or a tulip tree. These plants’ native environments are separated by continents; at Chatham, they’re just a few steps away from one another. 

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Pennsylvania’s fall foliage season is more varied and lasts longer than just about anywhere in the world thanks to its geographic location and topography, which allow a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and vines that all contribute to autumn colors. The DCNR reported last week that fall colors in southwestern Pennsylvania peaked in October and began to fade by Nov. 1.

A tree shedding its leaves outside the Esther Barazzone Center at Eden Hall. (Rhianna Davis)

Tree Pittsburgh is one of the organizations that assist Chatham with arboretum management. Jake Milofsky, the director of tree care and reforestation at Tree Pittsburgh, said a variety of factors are considered before planting non-native trees at the University, such as stormwater control, oxygen production, shade, and aesthetic quality.

For a landscape like Chatham, where plant life is used to augment the beauty of the campus, using only native trees could be limiting. “If trees and species are the pallete of your paint selection, bringing in trees that are not native expands your pallete quite a bit,” Milofsky said.

But there are plenty of native trees on campus that bring gorgeous fall colors. There’s also more yet to come; on Nov. 7, Tree Pittsburgh is planting four more trees at Chatham, including a black gum, known by the nickname “Afterburner” for its bold red autumn leaves.

In October, Chatham once again received recognition as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of arboreta (the plural form of the word “arboretum”). Along with the scenic beauty these trees provide, they offer educational value, turning the campus itself into a learning instrument for students, researchers, and anyone who comes to campus.

Joe Stavish, the director of education at Tree Pittsburgh, has given seasonal walking tours through the Shadyside campus to both students and curious Pittsburghers. What impressed him most was that so many species — the relatively uncommon bottlebrush buckeye, Kentucky coffee trees, and Korean firs among them — were on a site of that size.

“It wasn’t a request from Chatham to do the tour,” Stavish said. “It was a request from us to let us use the campus as a classroom.”

Many trees on campus have lost their leaves by now, but gorgeous shades of yellow, red, orange, and brown still cling to some of the branches hanging over Woodland Road and the woods surrounding Eden Hall. Take a look before they’re gone.

Learn more about the trees on Chatham’s Shadyside Campus at the arboretum page on the University’s website, which includes a download of a tree guide and walking trail map.