The Ecoregion 

Berkshires, Poconos, Alleghenies: between western Massachusetts and western Pennsylvania lie the glacially carved, bountiful hills and valleys of America's oldest chain of mountains. 

The Oldest Mountains' Mosaic 

Self-interest alone, one might think, would be sufficient reason for residents of the densely populated states of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania to preserve their last remaining open spaces. For more than a century, frazzled urbanites have repaired to nearby countryside for solitude, physical rejuvenation, and psychic solace.   

But today even Walden Pond is in danger of development. Greed, speculation, and a stubborn reluctance to plan for the future are rapidly turning the great birch, maple, and spruce forests of the Central Appalachians into parking lots. It is to these challenges that the Sierra Club is bringing its vision.   

Ten thousand years ago, Pleistocene glaciers blessed the Central Appalachian region with rolling hills, deep valleys, and craggy mountains. In addition to its namesake range, the region's other mountains have become synonymous with rest and recreation for city-dwellers: the Shawangunks, the Catskills, the Taconics, the Berkshires, the Poconos.   

From the mountain heights flow the prolific waters of the Susquehanna, Delaware, Hudson, and Connecticut rivers, supporting verdant mixed southern and northern hardwood and conifer forests. Elk forage here, bobcats hunt in the forests, and Atlantic salmon spawn in the rivers- though populations of the two latter species hang by a thread. To the west, the Allegheny and Monongahela empty into the Ohio, then into the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.   

Appalachian environmentalists face a chilling task, because 35 million human residents make this ecoregion the most densely populated in North America. If those who work to protect it can create harmony between people and nature, they will at the same time create a model for populous areas throughout the world.   

But harmony is hard to attain where the human note rings so discordant. Overpopulation is a serious threat, but the sheer number of people is not the only problem. More land has been devoured by development in the 13,000 square mile New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area in the past 25 years than in the previous 300, not because of increasing human numbers, but because of the way people have been deployed: a relatively insignificant 6 percent rise in population during this period coincided with a loss of 60 percent of the area's open space to ruthless suburbanization. The process has not only stolen wild land, it has brought with it the environmentally destructive projects of commuter civilization: more highways to carry more cars greater distances (and more cars spewing more exhaust), more garbage dumps, more contaminated watersheds, more congestion for the next set of commuters to flee. You can run but you can't hide: Central Appalachia is riddled with one out of four of the nation's Superfund hazardous-waste cleanup sites.   

The march of the bulldozers destroys urban environments as surely as it does rural wildlife habitats. As cities are abandoned and drained of capital, the urban environment crumbles, and the poor and minorities- those without the option of leapfrogging to the newest suburb- remain behind. The result is environmental racism.   

Essential to livable cities, of course, are decent jobs. Sierra Club members in Central Appalachia are finding that it is not enough merely to condemn growth; they have to develop economic models and projects that demonstrate successful alternatives.   

At the same time, what's left must be saved. Club members are lobbying legislators to push for stronger protections for natural resources. This includes protecting land from development; creating "greenways" of contiguous forest and farmland; electing environmentally aware local officials who can influence and enforce zoning regulations; and increasing the participation of  
Sierra Club members on planning commissions, town boards, and other policy-making bodies. If humanity cannot reconcile itself with nature, Central Appalachia will lose its last remaining sanctuaries from the urbanized world.   

To Help  

Contact   

Sierra Club Northeast Office  
85 Washington St.  
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866,  
1-518-587-9166  
e-mail ne.field@sierraclub.org  

or  

Task Force Chair Nancy Rauch  
e-mail nancy.rauch@sierraclub.org or rauch@umis.upenn.edu. 

Critical Ecoregions Program: A Joint Effort of the Sierra Club and The Sierra Club Foundation.   

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© 1998 Dave Smith / Sierra Club Central Appalachia Ecoregion Task Force