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Working in Partnership in the Central Appalachians

Working in Partnership in the Central Appalachian Mountains

 

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The Conservancy works across six states to protect and conserve the Central Appalachians. You can make a difference by donating to one of the following states:

 

Go Deeper

Click for a virtual slideshow of Pennsylvania's Aitkin Cave
Take a virtual tour of Aitkin Cave to see how the Pennsylvania chapter is working to protect rare species in the Central Apps.

Warm Springs Mountain in Virginia
Warm Springs Mountain Preserve helps stitch together thousands of acres of forest and conservation lands in western Virginia’s Allegheny Highlands.
 

Spanning across six states in the eastern United States, the Central Appalachian Mountains require a protection plan as comprehensive and versatile as the region itself. 

A relatively intact ecosystem filled with natural diversity, the Central Appalachians are facing the perfect storm of environmental threats – heavy demand for energy, increasing development, poor agricultural and timbering practices, and contamination to our freshwater supply.

As a global organization, The Nature Conservancy brings a holistic approach to protection efforts in the region, where it already has been working for nearly fifty years. 

Backed by a track record of conservation successes and science-driven solutions throughout the Central Appalachian states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee the Conservancy owes its effectiveness to the close relationships it maintains with a variety of partners. 

Focused on collaboration, the Conservancy is better able to recognize common threats and develop goals across the four Central Appalachian states.  Strong partnerships offer the Conservancy’s best chance at creating fully functioning forested landscapes across the entire Appalachian chain.  

Where We Work

Scientists in the region are sharing expertise, working with public land managers to increase their emphasis on diversity and restoring natural processes, such as with prescribed burns in fire-dependent habitat, and connecting important habitat corridors.  For example:

  • At Warm Springs Mountain in Virginia, the Conservancy has reached an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to expand prescribed fire both on the preserve and 1.3 million acres of adjacent national forest.

     
  • As part of the Conservancy’s Allegany Forests Project in Maryland, large blocks of public and private forests are being connected through land acquisition and the purchase of conservation easements.    

     
  • In West Virginia, the Conservancy is working closely with the U.S. Forest Service on implementing a management plan that sets aside over 150,000 acres of the Monongahela National Forest for restoration of spruce forests and enhances conservation across hundreds of thousands of additional acres. 

     
  • Conservancy scientists in Pennsylvania have been developing a region-wide database of known cave systems, and the rare species that inhabit them, which will enable the Conservancy to set conservation priorities on a large scale.               

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): © Steve Shaluta/WV Tourism (Monongalelia National Forest, Grant County, West Virginia); © Dave Dadurka/TNC (Maryland's Cranesville Swamp Preserve); © Byron Jorjorian (Warm Springs Mountain in Virginia).