In Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York Counties – also known as the South Mountain region – there’s been progress in preserving farmland and even non-farmland, but almost half of the streams in the region are impaired and there are more extreme hot and rainy days.

Those are a few of the findings of the first ever “State-of-the-Region Report Card" conducted by the conservation organization – South Mountain Partnership.

The metrics that got a thumbs up for working well were more preserved land, including farmland, driving proximity to trails, and better air quality.

The thumbs down, meaning more work to do, unfortunately was a longer list that included impaired streams and creeks, a decrease in riparian buffers, less forested land, fewer acres of orchards, walking proximity to trails and parks, and more extreme heat and rainy days.

A sideways thumb translated to more work needs to be done or more information is needed. That grade went to wetlands preserved, farmland, historic places, public open spaces, trail and bike routes and driving proximity to water access.

On The Spark Wednesday, Katie Hess, Director of the South Mountain Partnership and Pennsylvania Landscape Conservation said the report card is the first phase of a three-part project,"We have a report to final report that sets out recommendations for taking on the challenges that were revealed in this project. And South Mountain Partnership is taking on a handful of these over the next 5 to 10 years. But there are over 65 recommendations. And so we invite any individual or group who is interested in being part of implementing or exploring the implementation of other recommendations to join us.

Julia Chain, Program Manager of South Mountain Partnership added, "Something that we're trying to weave in through each of these recommendations and how we take action on them is accessibility. So, we understand that creating the most accessible opportunity to interact with nature is really critical. And I think this is just a good opportunity to highlight the work that the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has done here, because they've done a lot of this research to identify where we can grow in terms of accessibility. And they also really support our program. Our conservation landscape is one of eight in Pennsylvania and was selected by DCNR for being such a unique location."

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