New Project Office Increases WPC’s Conservation Investment in the Upper Allegheny Region

In October 2006, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy opened its Allegheny Project Office in Ridgway, Pa. as a means to better serve this important ecological region and connect to local communities in three important ways:

• Increase WPC’s on-the-ground presence
• Work closely with private forest landowners in the heart of Pennsylvania’s hardwood region
• Provide expert ecological service to local communities and groups

More than 60 percent of land in this important forested area is privately owned, but only three percent is managed by professional foresters. WPC embraces the concept of “working forests,” which holds that good forest stewardship and conservation can be mutually inclusive for productivity and economic returns for forest landowners. WPC’s Ridgway office offers technical assistance to private landowners wishing to manage their timber with conservation values in mind. The office also provides technical assistance to local water shed groups.

WPC believes that many of those who have invested their lives in these beautiful, forested areas have a love for their land and are already, or could become, advocates for conservation. It is our goal that the Allegheny Project Office will afford them the best opportunity to succeed.

See a slideshow of the Opening of WPC's Allegheny project Office in Ridgway, Pa.