CONSERVATION

The Evergreen Heritage Center (EHC) Foundation continues the EHC’s history of utilizing best practices in environmental conservation and providing education in and demonstrations of those practices to children and adults.  Two of those practices are forest stewardship and soil and water conservation.

Forest Stewardship

The Evergreen Heritage Center contains 115 acres of forest that have been managed per Maryland forestry guidelines since 1949. In 1984, the EHC adopted a Forest Conservation Management Agreement, and shortly thereafter, in 1986, the EHC received an award for Tree Farm of the Year. In 2000, the EHC officially joined the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Forest Stewardship Program and follows its 2000 Forest Stewardship Plan. Due to environmentally friendly tree harvesting methods used at the EHC, the DNR frequently utilizes the Evergreen forest to conduct demonstrations on responsible logging for landowners considering timber harvesting on small lots. The EHC has hosted demonstrations for the Society of American Foresters, the Maryland Forests Association, and the Walnut Council. The EHC also supports Maryland Forestry by the Bay.

Soil and Water Conservation

In addition to forest management, the EHC has also been a member of the Allegany Soil Conservation District since 1959 (supporting both soil and water conservation), and is a member of the Nature Conservancy organization (supporting the preservation of natural resources). In 1966, carrying forward this commitment to protect the environment, a 30’ by 70’ pond was built on the property to assist in fire prevention and water conservation. In addition, in 1992, a soil and water conservation plan was implemented to minimize soil erosion and control agricultural sources of pollution to improve water quality in the various streams that run across the property. More work remains to be done, including improving the water quality of streams and ponds on the property that have a low PH level due to runoff from the old abandoned coal mines.