Colcom Foundation Commits $1 Million to Upper Allegheny Headwaters
Northwestern Pennsylvania’s headwater streams feed some of the most biologically rich waters in the region. In 2025, the Colcom Foundation awarded Western Pennsylvania Conservancy a $1 million grant to keep more of that land intact.
The three-year initiative aims to permanently protect 1,000 acres of priority headwater land inside the Upper Allegheny Watershed, a basin that covers 7,600 square miles. Protected areas will include parts of the French Creek watershed, along with stretches of the Wild and Scenic Allegheny and Clarion Rivers.
French Creek’s Reputation
French Creek gets particular attention. The Conservancy describes it as “one of the most biologically diverse streams of its size in the northeastern United States.” Streams like this depend on healthy land upstream. When forests along headwaters are cleared or developed, sediment and runoff flow downstream and degrade habitat for fish, mussels, and amphibians.
Permanent protection removes that threat from the targeted parcels. Keeping forests standing and stream corridors shaded helps hold water temperatures down and filters pollutants before they reach the main channel.
Part of a Longer Partnership
The 2025 award builds on almost two decades of work between the two organizations. Back in 2006, the Colcom Foundation gave the Conservancy $2 million to create the Conservation Blueprint, which uses 25 years of Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program data to identify high-biodiversity forests, streams, and wetlands. That earlier grant leveraged more than $4.2 million in additional funding and helped protect over 4,000 acres of forest.
The Blueprint’s priorities help explain why the Upper Allegheny drew this new investment. The watershed holds the type of high-value habitat the framework was designed to locate.
Colcom Foundation has also funded acid mine drainage remediation on the Clarion River through the same partnership. That work has documented the return of freshwater mussels and eastern hellbenders, North America’s largest salamander, to river sections that once could not support them. Protecting headwaters upstream helps safeguard those recoveries. Read this article for additional information.
Find more information about Colcom Foundation on https://www.privateequityinternational.com/institution-profiles/colcom-foundation.html