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The Hollow Oak Land Trust preserves and protects green space with an emphasis in the Pittsburgh International Airport Corridor. Hollow Oak Land Trust owns over 400 acres and protects another 100 acres through conservation agreements with landowners. All conservation areas are open to the public for hiking, biking and relaxing in the great outdoors.

History
Founded in 1991, the Hollow Oak Land Trust is a nonprofit conservation organization that preserves and protects greenspace with an emphasis in the Pittsburgh Airport Corridor. Hollow Oak now owns 14 parcels of undeveloped land totaling over 400 acres in Franklin Park, Kennedy, North Fayette, Coraopolis, and Moon. Additionally, Hollow Oak owns two conservation easements for 90-acre Sahli Nature Park in Chippewa Township, Beaver County.

On December 23, 1993, Hollow Oak finalized its first purchase, the 113-acre parcel that later was named in honor of Frank Santucci who had died earlier that year. The property surrounds a former Nike missile site established during the cold war.

Hollow Oak conservation areas are protected to maintain and enhance their ecological values. Protected wildlife habitats include mature forest, steep slopes, floodplains, wetlands, and meadows. The conservation areas are accessible to the public for non-motorized use and can be used for nature study and research.

Montour Woods Conservation Area
The 260-acre Montour Woods Conservation Area is located in Moon Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The conservation area has three trailheads the Frank A. Santucci Trailhead, Meeks Run Trailhead and the Montour Woods Trailhead. Over 10 miles of wooded trails are open to the public for hiking, biking and enjoyment of nature. Over 300 species of flora and fauna have been observed at the Montour Woods Conservation Area.

The first parcels were purchased with the assistance of grants from The Pittsburgh Foundation and from the Pennsylvania Keystone Land Trust Grant Program in 2005. The property is an old farm site and includes steep slopes, floodplain, and a stretch of Montour Run. It protects the mouth of Meeks Run as it flows into Montour Run. In 2009, another parcel was purchased with support from a grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation.

The acquisitions protects approximately a linear half-mile on both banks of Meeks Run, a tributary of Montour Run.

Boggs Run Conservation Area
In August 1995, Hollow Oak accepted the donation of sixty acres of open space located in both Moon Township and Hopewell Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. This property was named the Boggs Run Conservation Area because one of its borders lies along that stream valley near the headwaters of Boggs Run. A beaver dam helps to maintain this wetlands habitat with its rich plant and animal life. Although this conservation area has been untouched by construction, the property is crossed both by electric power line towers and by a gas line. The land formerly was used for pastures and crops and will be connect ted

Fifer's Fields Conservation Area
The 35-acre former farm property was in possession of the Fifer family since the early 1940's. This property in Franklin Park, Pennsylvania is in an area rapidly developing with upscale housing. Instead of selling her farm for development, however, Penny Fifer decided that the 35-acre property should be retained as open space and available for recreational use by future generations of area residents. Hollow Oak agreed to accept the donation in 1998. Through an agreement with the Sewickley Hunt Club, the land is available for horseback riding and fox hunting (the dogs follow a scent that has been laid down). The Club mows the large open fields in the autumn, and the undisturbed field grasses during the spring and summer provide excellent cover and nesting habitat for migratory birds.

Kenmawr Conservation Area
This heavily wooded valley in Kennedy Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania was donated to Hollow Oak by a developer in 1998. The 60-acre parcel includes wooded slopes and a hilltop with an impressive view of the Ohio River. A small perennial stream flowing along the bottom of the valley is an unnamed tributary of Moon Run. Informal trails meander through the property.

Clemmons Conservation Area
This small area of approximately five acres donated to Hollow Oak in Robinson Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania consists of several parcels in a previously subdivided housing area. The most recent parcel in this group was purchased in 2003. Adjacent to Montour Run, much of the land consists of floodplain and allows space for flood waters that periodically spill over the stream banks. In 2001, the Hollow Ok Land Trust received a $22,000 "Growing Greener" grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to rehabilitate the land.

Forestbrooke Conservation Area
This 7-acre wetlands area in North Fayette Township at mile 6 of the Montour Trail was donated by a developer in 2006. This conservation area provides a flood-plain for the stream and a variety of habitat for fish, aquatic insects, birds, and other species.

Sahli Nature Park
Hollow Oak Land Trust owns a conservation easement at the 90-acre Sahli Nature Park in Chippewa Township, Beaver County. The park is noted for its majestic evergreens, colonies of lacy ferns and fields of wildflowers. Several of the trails are named for Native American Tribes with others named for the flora and fauna seen in the conservation area.

This area in northern Beaver County served as hunting and camping grounds for a number of Native American tribes including the Monongahela in the 1600's and then the Delaware, Shawnee and Seneca Tribes in the 1700's. Arrowheads were found on this property as recently as the 1930's. Property for the Nature Park was donated to Chippewa Township in 2010 by Jean Sahli Schall and Sue Sahli, daughters of I.S. and Gertrude Sahli, for whom the park is named.