The Kittatinny Ridge Conservation Landscape spans approximately 200 miles and 2,000,000 acres. The Ridge intersects three major watersheds: the Chesapeake Bay, the Delaware River, and the Potomac River. It is a climate refugia, major migration route, and critical habitat for a multitude of species in Pennsylvania and beyond.
The Ridge is a place of escape and recreation for people throughout the region, nationally, and globally. The Appalachian Trail National Scenic Trail runs its spine before diverging south onto South Mountain. The Tuscarora Trail runs on the western portion of the Kittatinny Ridge before crossing the Mason-Dixon Line south into Maryland. The Ridge is bisected by multiple trails, rail trails, and water trails that provide many outdoor adventures including paddling, hiking, and biking. State game lands and forests provide opportunities for hunting, fishing, and many other outdoor activities.
The Complexity of Conservation
It is the conservation efforts by our many partners in government, nonprofit, and businesses that make these opportunities possible and that impact water quality for the region. Conservation lands in the landscape have an outsized role in providing high-quality drinking water for Pennsylvanians. However, Pennsylvania water quality is a complex topic involving multiple agencies, levels of government, and private industry. Understanding the exact impacts of conservation on water quality is still being researched.
A recent report by the Open Space Institute discusses the importance of forested areas on water quality and makes recommendations for conservation organizations, businesses, and governments concerned with water quality. This paper makes the point that water quality is affected by a complex set of inputs; however, watersheds with between 60-90 percent forest coverage highly correlate with better water quality. Forested areas act as a filter for nutrients, reducing water’s rate of speed, reducing sediment runoff, and allowing for greater infiltration than other land coverage types such as agricultural fields, lawns, and impervious surfaces. The study did not include areas with major point source pollution which would need to be addressed separately.
Pennsylvania has legacy combined sewer systems around the state. During flooding events combined sewer overflows occur, releasing both storm water and untreated human and industrial waste into local waterways. Combined sewer overflows negatively affect drinking water quality downstream for both public water and private wells. From 1980-1999 Pennsylvania experienced 7 severe storms with a cost inflation adjusted value of greater than $1 billion in damages per storm. From 2005-2024 there were 53 severe storms, averaging $1 billion in damages per storm.[1] [2] This was an increase of 46 severe storms with damages over $1 billion dollars in Pennsylvania.[3]
Upstream Solutions
Though there is a complex relationship between the direct inputs that determine water quality, avoiding development in key areas in headwaters and stream sides can help to improve water quality through avoidance of impacts. In addition, avoided emissions and avoided changes in land cover, which alters the albedo (the amount of energy that is reflected by the land cover), are important strategies for limiting climate change. These long-term inputs into the environmental system affect our water quality, causing greater costs for businesses dependent on drinking water, governments, and drinking water supply companies, and ultimately customers who depend on this infrastructure for their safe supply of drinking water.
Conservation is a pivotal piece of the pie for maintaining our supply of clean drinking water. Additional efforts to preserve urban tree canopies and urban green spaces, reduce point and nonpoint source pollution, and increase green stormwater solutions all work together to continue to provide this vital resource.
Sources:
[1] NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2025). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/, DOI: 10.25921/stkw-7w73
[2] Climate Central. (2025). Climate change in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Climate Central. https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-local/41462
[3] Climate Central. (2025)