Who We Are

About The South Mountain Partnership

The South Mountain Partnership is a regional, landscape-scale conservation project in south-central Pennsylvania. This Partnership has emerged to guide efforts within the South Mountain Conservation Landscape, one of seven Conservation Landscapes that the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) has identified throughout the state.

Launched in 2006, the Partnership operates as a public-private partnership between DCNR and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and has grown into an alliance of citizens, businesses, non-profits, academic institutions, and local, state and federal government agencies and officials collaborating to envision and secure a sustainable future for the South Mountain landscape.

This landscape is home, it is where we live. Together, the Partnership strives to collaborate in sustaining all that makes our home landscape so special and all that supports the quality of life that we enjoy.

Photo Credit: Amanda Chrisman
SMP Map

About the Region

Connecting portions of Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, and York counties and covering approximately half a million acres, the South Mountain landscape is one of Pennsylvania’s more unique regions. The region’s most prominent geographic feature is the forested uplands of the South Mountain ridgeline, but fertile agricultural valleys shape this landscape as well. In fact, no single element or feature defines this region of south-central Pennsylvania, but rather it’s the unique convergence of diverse natural and cultural elements that makes this landscape so special.

Long Pine Kayak
Photo Credit: Sheena Baker

The Partnership’s Vision

The South Mountain Partnership envisions a future of — a landscape of conserved resources and vibrant communities sharing a common sense of place and collaborating on well-planned growth and sustainable economic development.

The Partnership’s Mission and Goals

Conserving Landscape Resources to enrich the quality of life and sense of place of the South Mountain region’s citizens and communities.

Orchard

Conservation of Landscape Resources

Conserving and stewarding the natural, cultural, recreational, and agricultural resources that makes the South Mountain landscape unique.

Promotion of Landscape Resources

Elevating public awareness of the natural, cultural, recreational, and agricultural resources.

Ashley Mummert Kayaks

Connections Across the Landscape

Creating a community of collaboration amongst a critical mass of public agencies, non-profit and community organizations, businesses, and citizens.