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EPA Highlands Action Program

The Mid-Atlantic Highlands Action Program, established by Congress in July 2001, encompasses 79,000 square miles in the Central Appalachians of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is a collaborative between EPA, local communities, state and local government, other federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, and the private sector to carry out monitoring, research, management, and restoration activities within the region. The goals of the program are to improve water quality, living resources, and habitat, and to foster stewardship of resources through an outreach program for public information and education. HAP uses the best available science to improve the natural resources and socio-economic conditions in the Mid-Atlantic Highlands.

EPA Highlands Action Program and the Appalachian LCC

Mid-Atlantic Highlands Action Program: Transforming the Legacy

Transforming Legacy Report Image This report by the Canaan Valley Institute documents the need for the Highlands Action Program and recommends an approach to implement this program within the region. It identifies the values and needs of stakeholders in the region, evaluates the stressors affecting the environment, identifies human activities contributing to stressors, highlights factors affecting economic conditions, and proposes opportunities for sustainable environmental stewardship.

Click here to read the full report.

Strategic Plan for Restoration and Protection

Strategic Plan EPA HAP Image In 2002, Congress funded the Mid-Atlantic Highland Action Program. EPA then set out to establish interagency agreements with other federal agencies and cooperative agreements with states, local governments and non-governmental organizations. Together, these partners working with local communities and the private sector would use environmental indicators and strong science to identify the causes of problems, develop solutions and management actions to resolve identified problems; and develop a management plan.

On September 25, 2009, a Strategic Plan for the Mid-Atlantic Highlands was finalized to set forth an approach to meet the goals and objectives of the Program. Its title -- "Protect, Restore, and Connect Forested Headwaters.”

Charter for the Mid-Atlantic Highlands Action Program

Stewardship of the environment is an important part of the community, quality of life, and economics of the region. The Mid-Atlantic Highlands Action Program will use the best available science to improve the natural resources and socio-economic conditions in the mid-Atlantic highlands by achieving the following program goals:

Highlighting special places that have ecological and cultural importance
Revitalizing damaged ecosystems
Empowering citizens and communities to strengthen the linkages among cultural heritage, economic viability, and the condition of the environment
Enhancing opportunities for the restoration industry in the highlands, which will enhance lasting employment opportunities for its residents
Leveraging existing resources to support all these goals.

Click here to read the Signed Charter.

Funded Projects

Frostburg Grows, Grow It Local Greenhouse Project

State: Md; River: Braddock Run; Award: $300,000

The Western Maryland Resource Conservation & Development Council (WMRCD) is partnering with Frostburg State University (FSU), Maryland Department of Natural Resources and others to convert unused mined land into a five-acre greenhouse and shadehouse complex. The complex is designed to grow tree seedlings for restoration efforts throughout the state and to later produce a sustainable source of local fruits and vegetables. Additionally, it will also serve as a facility to train community members in production and cultivation in a controlled/modified environment. These state-of-the-art techniques will begin to restore and revitalize some of the most damaged ecosystems in Appalachia–those scarred by strip mining.

Learn more about this project by checking out the following materials:

Fact sheet; Additional photos; Video; Frostburg Grows, Grow It Local Greenhouse Project – Frostburg Grows-EA-FNSI

Project: Marsh Creek Watershed Conservation Easement

State: PA; River: Marsh Creek; Award: $250,000

The grant will help the Land Conservancy of Adams County (LCAC), Pennsylvania implement the Marsh Creek Watershed Conservation Easement project – an effort to preserve more than 147 acres of forest through a conservation easement. These high quality forestlands include the headwaters of Marsh Creek and are adjacent to more than 900 acres of preserved forestland that provide important bird habitat.

Learn more about this project by checking out the following materials:

Fact sheet; Additional photos; Marsh Creek Watershed Conservation Easement – Categorical Exclusion

Project: Restoring The Riparian Corridor In Waynesboro’s Riverfront Parks

State: VA; River: South River; Award: $163,875

The City of Waynesboro, along with Trout Unlimited and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, will restore riverside habitat, stabilize streambanks, and better manage polluted runoff using a variety of green infrastructure techniques to improve water quality at Ridgeview Park and the Wayne Avenue pocket park along the South River. This restoration work will follow the removal of two dams along the South River in 2011 that provided access to additional habitat for the area’s trout fishery. The presence of springs throughout the South River watershed makes it a unique resource with respect to the potential for eastern brook trout habitat restoration.

Learn more about this project by checking out the following materials:

Fact sheet; Additional photos; Video; Restoring the Riparian Corridor in Waynesboro’s Riverfront Parks – Categorical Exclusion

Project: Shenandoah Valley Priority Lands Project

State: VA; River: Cedar Creek and North Fork Shenandoah River; Award: $150,000

The grant will help the Potomac Conservancy, which safeguards the lands and waters of the Potomac region, implement the Shenandoah Valley Priority Lands Project. The project is an effort to protect important riverside, agricultural, and forested lands in Virginia’s northern Shenandoah Valley with permanent conservation easements. Conservation of these key lands will preserve water quality in the Shenandoah River, the Potomac River’s largest tributary. It will also support farms, forests, scenery, and the heritage and recreational opportunities for which the Valley is known. More than 1,100 acres of land will be protected.

Learn more about this project by checking out the following materials:

Fact sheet; Additional photos; Shenandoah Valley Priority Lands Project – Categorical Exclusion