About Our Region
Isolated by geography and motivated by self reliance, the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area has a rich history, heritage, and culture. The region’s unique environment has shaped the people here just as much as the people have shaped the environment. Connected by forests, streams, and mountains, the 18 counties of the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area are full of fascinating stories just waiting to be discovered.
The Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area works with willing partners in 16 West Virginia counties and 2 counties in western Maryland to explore and enhance the relationship between the forested mountains and the people who live here. With the overall theme of forest heritage, we focus on conservation, forestry, cultural heritage, asset-based tourism and community development.
Designated in 2019 as a National Heritage Area, which recognizes our region as nationally significant, we work together to enhance our assets and partnerships. Join in our Management Planning to help guide our future, and see Our Organization for how we got here and where we want to go.
The Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area covers the central Appalachian highlands of West Virginia and western Maryland. Our counties in Western Maryland are Garrett and Allegany. Our counties in the highlands of West Virginia are Preston, Mineral, Hampshire, Morgan, Barbour, Tucker, Hardy, Grant, Pendleton, Upshur, Randolph, Braxton, Webster, Pocahontas, Nicholas, and Greenbrier.
Our National Heritage Area is oriented around four core themes that highlight the unique Forest Heritage of the region. Read our themes below and Discover the Appalachian Forest by Theme with itineraries, interactive maps, and stories showcasing our region.
Forest Heritage
The Appalachian Forest showcases the interrelationship of people and the forest. Forest Heritage is the ongoing story of how the forest shapes history and culture, and how nature and human use shape the forest.
Forest Abundance
Ancient mountains of the Appalachian Forest feature abundant mixed hardwood and red spruce forests, where mountain microclimates and northern and southern species converge to create some of the most biodiverse forest ecosystems in North America.
Cheat Mountain Salamander
Roaring Plains West Wilderness
Crucible of Isolation
People from many cultures came together in the Appalachian Forest, where geographic isolation and the rough mountain terrain fostered a distinctive Appalachian culture of self-reliance and connection to the land expressed through folkways and living traditions that enrich America today.
Harvesting garlic mustard
Weaving on a loom
Logging Boom BUilds the Nation
On the cusp of the 20th century, the expansion of railroads opened the widespread harvest of the Appalachian Forest in a logging boom that helped fuel industrial expansion for the Eastern United States but devastated the landscape and altered mountain economies.
Loggers on Cheat Mountain
Cass Scenic Railroad State Park
Resilient Forest
Recovery of the landscape from the logging boom shows the resilience of the Appalachian Forest, with scientific management today conserving forestlands for multiple purposes including ecological stewardship, recreation and tourism, and sustainable harvest of forest products.
Cranberry Glades Botanical Area
Kayaking on Mill Creek
Read more about these themes in our Management Plan
