- The Allegheny River is rich.

- It's one of the few rivers in North America.

It is composed of glacial tilt.

- These are the old tilings from the old boat slips.

There used to be a marina on the island in the late sixties, early seventies, - Rich in plants and wildlife, - But they were deer on the island and they swim - Rich in aquatic life.

- We've got the crayfish back, we've got our clams back, we've got the snails back.

- The river is also a great place to fish and boat - In this area right here because of the water coming off of the dam.

There's a current here, so there's a lot of good fishing on that corner of the island, - But it's those islands so close to the city of Pittsburgh that make the Allegheny River unique.

There are six of them just minutes from Pittsburgh - And they're also interesting and some of them are loaded with Indian artifacts.

- Arrowhead.

Yes, it's a good spot for - Them.

And loaded with history too.

- This picture was taken approximately a hundred years ago.

It's the southern point of the island and that's what we're looking out.

- There's something about an island, there's something about it that people really, you know, get excited about.

- The Allegheny River is 325 miles long.

It begins in northern Pennsylvania and in the center of Potter County.

The Allegheny first winds through part of upstate New York before bending back into Pennsylvania, making its way to the confluence in Pittsburgh.

There the Allegheny meets the Monga Hala to form the Ohio.

- The Allegheny is really a is a a young river.

It's a new river.

It - It, - It's also a river of islands.

- Paul Wigman enjoys natural history and he a lot about Western Pennsylvania's geological past.

Paul worked for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy for 28 years, first as a naturalist, later as vice President of Science and Stewardship.

Now Paul is a writer and photographer.

- Allali River is a, is a river of diversity.

It's diverse in its plants and it's diverse in its animals because at one time it was flowing north, so you had animals that were accustomed to that more northerly flow, maybe a colder climate.

Then it became a south flowing river into the mon and then almost, or then into the Ohio.

So all of that floor and fauna from the Ohio now has come into the Allegheny.

So you have a mix.

- It was the continental glacier 16,000 years ago that changed the course of the river and also formed the Allegheny's many islands.

- The Wisconsin Glaciation was the last glacier to cover western Pennsylvania as it moved from central Canada into this region.

That ice sheet was slowly moving down and as it moved down, whatever rivers existed were blocked up.

They were damned.

- As the glacier sheet melted, it left behind enormous silt and settlement.

Some of it deposited in riverbeds collecting until it was high above the floodplain eventually becoming islands.

- We have islands here in the lower part in the Pittsburgh area, beginning with a point you, you go to Washington Landing or old Hares Island - Before railroads.

Pittsburgh depended on these rivers for transportation, paddle boats and steam ships carried people and freight up and down the Allegheny.

The riverboat pilots as they got closer to Pittsburgh, used the lower islands for navigational guidance.

Most were named for their proximity to the - Point nine - Mile Island.

Sycamore Island is in there and in 12 Mile Island in 14 mile Island.

As you go further up into the more northern reaches of the Allegheny, there's also many, many islands.

- This is Allegheny Islands, which stretches from here all the way down through here, and it's now divided into two main islands.

- Francis Stein is a natural resource program specialist with Pennsylvania State Parks, the parks own Allegheny Island State Park, also known as 14 Mile Island in Harmer Township.

Thousands of people pass over it every day because the island supports the Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge high above - Allegheny Island State Park, which is 14 miles from Point.

State Park consists of two main islands, one's above lock and dam number three, and one's just below lock and dam number three, both islands are not developed.

People can boat there, fish there, enjoy the islands, but there's no facilities, no roads, no trails.

- Not long ago the island was whole.

It was split in the 1930s when Locke and Dam number three was built.

The island became a state park in 1980 with all 43 acres designated as green space.

- Because it is an island in the middle of the Allegheny River, it is prone to flooding, to put facilities there probably would not be wise.

It is only accessible by boat.

So we decide to keep it as green space and keep it undeveloped.

- The island has several shoals or sandbars where boaters often stop to picnic and to relax.

- There is some problems with trash.

Some of it comes down the river and it catches on the islands itself.

There are some people that may go to the islands and perhaps not pick up after themselves.

We encourage anyone who visits the island to practice leave no trace principles and carry and carry out all of your trash.

- Sherry Lynn McCulley often comes here to clean up.

She lives with her mom and grandmother just across from the island.

Over the years she's seen boaters leave their garbage behind and she's decided to do something about that.

- I live right there and the smell of dead fish is pretty gross.

And when people come over here and litter, then it will kill the fish.

And then I have to deal with it later anyways, so I figured just get rid of it now, - Helping Sherry Lynn on this day, her mother, Carrie McCulley.

Carrie grew up on the river.

She learned to swim here off and took a raft over to the islands and she remembers that not too long ago.

- Oh, it was dirty and you could not go in that river without shoes on.

The fear of stepping on an old Iron City can or an old broken down bottle because you could easily get cut.

Well, you know your feet, there was just so much debris.

- What do you think, mom?

Five pounds.

- But it slowly, people started taking more time to think about, you know, if you want to play here, you have to keep it nice and clean.

- The peaceful Island has a dark pass that includes witchcraft, pirates, and death threats.

- Gary Rogers, a historian and writer, is reading from a book he wrote called Tales from Our Towns, the Allegheny Valley, the peaceful island he refers to is 12 Mile Island.

It sits on the Allegheny River just across from Oakmont, near Harmer Township and can be seen by people crossing the Halton Bridge.

Gary is president of the Oakmont Historical Society.

He's done a lot of research on the Allegheny and its islands, - 12 Mile Island.

The first record I found was the original owner was a man by the name of John Haymaker.

And he purchased the island or was land granted the islands in the late 17 hundreds.

- The island changed owners several times and took on the owner's names.

First Sweeney's Island, then Brewster's Island.

Benjamin Franklin Brewster was a lawyer and unofficial judge who sometimes presided over local disputes, including a witch trial, which had a fascinating connection to 12 Mile Island - Back around 18 10, 18, 12.

There were a group of people, they lived in that area across the river and there was a lady who lived there and she was very peculiar.

The word went around that she was a witch.

So they came to Judge Brewster and they said, this lady's a witch and they wanna try her for witchcraft.

- Soap Brewster set up court on the island and tried the so-called witch testimony was damaging and that worried Judge Brewster, - He told them that he had never, never presided over a witch trial before and he had to consult his law books.

So he called a recess, told everybody to go home and he would resume the trout the following day.

Well, everyone left the island except for the woman, and he told her, he said, you know, you're in danger.

You can't stay here.

It's best if you leave this area.

- So she did.

The judge declared a mistrial.

Residents were furious and the judge fell out of favor.

But Judge Brewster's Island troubles didn't end there.

- During the summer of 1832, Brewster's Island was overrun by a band of river pirates.

The bandits held Mr. Brewster, his daughter and two grandchildren hostage on the island, - Fearing for their safety.

The judge and his family escaped their island home by boat and never returned.

- As you can see, not much has changed in the past a hundred years.

There's still a cabin there and there's cabins over there and you can see a beach on this side.

And there's still a little bit of a beach over there - With all its foliage.

And from this vantage point, it may look as if nothing has changed.

But 12 Mile Island has gone through many transitions in the last a hundred years.

In the late 18 hundreds and early 19 hundreds, 12 Mile Island was a popular place to set up camp and a favorite landing spot for paddlers.

Many coming over from canoe clubs that used to line the shores of Verona and Oakmont.

- This area around Oakmont was known as a resort area and what they would do, a lot of people from Pittsburgh would come out during the summer and join these canoe clubs and boat clubs.

And quite a few had set up over on 12 Mile Islands.

- Then a decade or so later, 12 Mile Island had a park similar to the Trolley Parks of the day.

- It was built by the Pittsburgh Steamboat company.

And what they would do is on the weekends they would bring people from Pittsburgh out to 12 Mile Island on the paddle wheel Steamboats.

And they had a a a thousand foot sandy beach where they could swim.

It was a thousand feet long.

They had a baseball field, volleyball field, dance pavilion, picnic grove concession stand.

And that was on the northern end of 12 Mile Island for a number of years.

- Today, 12 Mile Island is home to private summer residence, but it's not the only island on the lower Allegheny where people live.

Six Mile Island, also known as Gaia.

Suta Island has seasonal campers.

It's just below Locke and Dam number two near Sharpsburg.

And in the city of Pittsburgh, Washington's landing formerly called Hers Island once had a large stockyard with slaughterhouses.

It now has year-round residence, a business park and recreation.

- Joe.

It's an old Indian medicinal plant right there.

See him growing right there.

Three stalks sticking up.

- Ed Ds of O'Hara Township enjoys canoeing around what is probably the most beautiful setting of urban islands on the Allegheny.

The setting nine mile Island near Verona and Sycamore Island across from Ox.

- Well, there's nothing much on E either island.

They've been flooded.

Most of the vegetation and good native stuff has been washed away.

When you see these shoreline trees collapsing into the river, that's a sign of bank erosion.

There's your herring again, right on the shore, if you notice, could canoe the whole Allegheny, roughly.

There's an island about every four or five miles.

See some of the stuff they dumped here to prevent erosion.

They brought 'em in on a barge 40 years ago and dumped them there.

And right now, nine mile is about half the width that it was in the 1960s.

And the shoreline is eroding, probably averaging about a foot a year.

It was a good spot for Indian artifacts that Sandy Beach, Sycamore Island wasn't quite as good.

It, it was too much mud and the Indians didn't like mud anymore than we do.

So the islands tend to move downstream very slowly.

So the primary erosion occurs at the upstream end of the island.

It - Erodes at the head and deposits at the end.

It appears to be moving.

The whole thing is not sliding along.

The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania is one of the oldest Audubon society in the United States.

They actually adopted Sycamore Island the early 19 hundreds as a bird sanctuary.

And they would canoe out, they'd do their birding and they watched over it.

There was a an apartment to be built there, big flood.

The crane was on the island, it got flooded out.

So more recently, the Allegheny Land Trust has seen it as an important natural island, acquired it, set it aside, and is now a refuge.

- These are the old pilings from the, the old boat slips.

There used to be a marina on the island in the late sixties, early seventies - Where these pilings are concerned.

One of the neat things is we've, in our studies here, we've found a variety of species of native mussels.

Mussels can be an indicator of, of ecological health.

- There're used to be a channel I understand and the boats used to go through stop, get their gas and continue through.

- Roy is executive director of the Allegheny Land Trust.

He's working with Scott Quiel, an ecologist with Applied Ecological Services near Philadelphia Today.

The Ox Volunteer Fire Company offered the pair a ride to Sycamore Island so that Roy and Scott can continue their stu - You'll see on the island there's not weed, Japanese not weed.

And this displaced some of the native plants that would be there.

And some of those native plants may have provided habitat for different birds coming through or other critters that could have inhabited the island.

- Turkey vultures.

They, they definitely make use of this island.

And, and there's a group of them right there.

- That little guy scanning the water.

- I believe that's a bank swallow or, and I, it's either River Swallow Bank Swallow, I'm not sure which.

- Is that a mallard down there?

Oh, we - Just, - With foundation support, the Allegheny Land Trust bought Sycamore Island in 2008 for $250,000.

The Land Trust works to restore and conserve natural resources in Allegheny County.

- We've got properties on Mount Washington and now we have a property in an on a river as an island.

So we kind of span that spectrum of islands to mountaintops within Allegheny County.

But then upon acquiring the island, we, we knew it was a, a treasure.

We knew it was something special.

- We consider the end of this island pretty sacred.

A lot of different birds make use of it.

The the, these black willows, which are now in flower, they, they're, they're like a magnet for, for pollinating insects that barge sort of, and actually in, in for the future of this island, we sort of see that as a, as an area that's gonna sort of mark our our ecological zone.

You can look here, but please don't, please don't trample the area 'cause it's a sensitive area.

We kind of view this almost as like an outdoor room.

This is like a great space.

This could connect easily into a trail.

We're sort of walking on, on one right now.

There's a footpath that's sort of already existing here.

And it can, and it can give somebody like a great, a great experience of, of walking in the island.

- You've got the canopy, you've got large sycamores and cottonwoods and silver maples, and then you have this low herbaceous layer.

You don't have a, a lot of mid-level vegetation, so you get pretty distant views even though you're in a, in a forest.

- A lot of this is real good.

This is shrub dogwood.

So that's a, that's a, that's a positive.

- Sycamore island is biologically diverse and for the most part undeveloped.

The Allegheny Land Trust wants to keep it that way.

- The philosophy that's driving management plan is really one of ba balance that allows people to access the island to get that experience and walk away with perhaps a better understanding of river ecology.

A better understanding of land conservation, I can tell from, but we also need to be careful about protecting the resources that we're in business to protect.

- Like the other islands on the Allegheny River, Sycamore Island had its share of owners.

The first on record is Nathaniel Irish.

In 1810, he purchased the island for just a few dollars.

At the time, the island was not quite seven acres.

Today, Sycamore is more than twice that size.

14 acres long.

- It's on the inside of a Riverbend and that's where the slower water is.

So that's where your silt is gonna deposit.

So, you know, any development upstream as the pausing seal at the streams might be coming down and helping to grow Sycamore Island.

This, - This river gets dredged on a regular basis, which also ha has a, has a major impact on the islands around here.

And in, in the past, dredging have gotten dumped on this island, which is why we're as high as we are right now - With many silver maple and cottonwood trees.

The island is classified as a hardwood floodplain forest in spite of its name.

- We can't say with certainty why it's called Sycamore Island.

This is only a conjecture maybe at some point before it had all this fill added to it.

It it had the, the, the American sycamore tree was, was more prevalent on it.

Here's a younger sycamore taking advantage of this, this hole in the canopy to reclaim that.

There's also a, a silver maple growing right next to it.

I'd really like to see more plant diversity happening, even though it's called sycamore island is, is a, is a good thing.

We, we, the, the maples are definitely in abundance.

- There's an abundance of trees, lots of plant life birds, and some very unusual artifacts.

- This, this is an urban island.

You get pleasant surprises and unpleasant surprises.

- This is, we think it's some type of boiler furnace from the day when it was, there was an arena on here and you can see the utility pools over here, another utility pool over there.

And you'll see some more remnants further up on the island.

- Remnants perhaps left behind from the 1960s when development plans were scrapped.

This is what's left of a swimming pool.

- We have found pumps on the island.

When you're surrounded by river water, it's easy to have access to, to water.

I don't know specifically what, how they filled it up at the time.

The story that we have on, on the pool so far is that, that some of the people that remember this say that not long after this was put into the ground, it's sort of popped up.

I don't know if ground freezing did it.

It somehow popped itself out.

- The pool in this barge have become part of the wildlife habitat, so stay where they are.

- We have found green frogs in here.

This is in effect a pond.

- There are plans to rework the pool into a relic pond to help increase the island's amphibious population.

- These are grow growing machines.

I'm allowed to pull out invasives and, but watch the ground.

When I pull this thing out, the ground moves laterally and I'm trying to go slowly on purpose to show you like this is, this is what a rhizome is.

It grows laterally underground and, and it, and it, and it has this massive network of, of roots and says, I pull this.

Here's a new shoot here.

This is why this plant is such a menace.

- A menace because Japanese knotweed grows so tall that it shades the ground preventing native plants from growing.

- One of the reasons it can grow so tall so quickly is this is hollow.

It's like a sprouting machine, but - Did the challenge with the invasive species, the knotweed and some purple loose strife.

And these plants are pretty persistent.

- Here's a kill deer.

Another challenge is the Allegheny Rivers.

A lot of migration pat patterns that are followed by birds and, and, and, and also fish.

There's a wide variety of, of, of animals that make use of the island.

You wanna keep it as hospitable and, and and friendly as possible to, to the different creatures that, that, that from time to time use it where that, where that might be residents there.

- So it looked like the access was decent here.

- Yeah, the Allegheny Land Trust expects that with time and with the help and dedication of volunteers, the island will be transformed back to its natural state with native plants and wildlife becoming an education and recreational spot for visitors.

- If school kids who know nothing about this stuff and know nothing, what loss of habitat means and the impact and how it also can tie into things like global warming and loss of water and other issues like that.

Educate these kids in the future stewards of our environment about what an invasive plan is.

This is what it means to stand in a monoculture of, of, of Japanese knot leaf.

To be able to educate them and show what a healthy ecosystem is.

- And it's in this environment that people can learn a lot from these islands.

Each one, what you might call an urban oasis within a few miles of Pittsburgh.

- You need a space for wildlife, for healthy environments.

A place to have trees.

The green space here can add some coolness to the city environments, - Part of the geological history of the whole area.

You know, and they are important from that viewpoint around what's happening to them.

You know, are they eroding away?

Are they growing?

And it tells us something about where our is headed.

- If it's glamorous or it goes back to Gilligan's Island or what.

But, you know, there's something, something unique about an island.

And fortunately, you know, this is an island that's in an urban environment where a lot of people can see it and visit it and, and take advantage of this really treasure that we have.