Along stretches of the Clarion River that ran orange with mine acid for generations, freshwater mussels and eastern hellbenders, the continent’s largest salamander, are turning up again. Colcom Foundation, an independent non-profit foundation based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has spent three decades funding efforts to reverse what more than a century of coal mining and industrial growth did to southwestern Pennsylvania’s water and forests.

Established in Pittsburgh in 1996, Colcom Foundation states its mission is “to foster a sustainable environment to ensure quality of life for all Americans by addressing major causes and consequences of overpopulation and its adverse effects on natural resources.” In western Pennsylvania, that mission has translated into a specific, well-documented restoration program covering watershed remediation, streambank stabilization, acid mine drainage treatment and urban reforestation.

The pattern extends well beyond one river system. Nearly 3 billion birds have disappeared from North America since 1970, according to a 2019 study in Science by Kenneth Rosenberg and colleagues, a decline spanning farmland, forest and grassland species alike. Restoration funding of the kind Colcom Foundation directs is one of the few interventions capable of reversing habitat loss at that scale rather than merely slowing it.

How Colcom Foundation’s Grants Rebuilt a Regional Watershed Strategy

Colcom Foundation’s largest and longest-running restoration partnership runs through the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. A $2 million grant in 2006 funded creation of the Conservancy’s Conservation Blueprint, a science-based map built on 25 years of Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program data that identifies the highest-biodiversity forests, streams and wetlands across four regional ecoregions. That grant has since catalyzed more than 10 major projects. It also drew in over $4.2 million in additional funding and helped protect more than 4,000 acres of forestland.

Part of that funding reached the Clarion River, where acid mine drainage has poisoned water for decades. Colcom Foundation and the Conservancy have documented freshwater mussels and eastern hellbenders returning to stretches of the river once too polluted to sustain them. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the eastern hellbender as endangered across its 15-state range in December 2024, citing sediment loads and declining water quality. More than a year later, the agency still hasn’t finalized that protection. It missed a December 2025 deadline to issue a final rule, and the Center for Biological Diversity sued in February 2026 demanding a binding timeline.

Colcom Foundation extended its partnership with the Conservancy in 2025 with a $1 million grant supporting permanent protection of 1,000 acres of priority headwater land within the 7,600-square-mile Upper Allegheny Watershed. The funding targets French Creek, which the Conservancy describes as “one of the most biologically diverse streams of its size in the northeastern United States,” along with stretches of the federally designated Wild and Scenic Allegheny and Clarion rivers.

Colcom Foundation Also Backs Pittsburgh’s Fight to Keep Its Tree Canopy

Rivers aren’t the only front. Allegheny County lost 10,148 acres of tree canopy between 2010 and 2015 to the emerald ash borer, oak wilt, and development pressure. It’s still losing roughly 2% of what remains every five years. Colcom Foundation has funded Tree Pittsburgh since 2007 and has provided annual operating support since 2012. That funding underwrites a nursery that grows thousands of native trees each year for planting across the county.

The sustained backing helped Tree Pittsburgh lead formation of the Pittsburgh Canopy Alliance in 2020, a coalition of 20 environmental organizations working toward no net loss of county tree cover. That track record subsequently helped the Alliance secure an $8 million U.S. Forest Service grant funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, plus $1 million for the city of Pittsburgh. The five-year award is earmarked for tree planting, maintenance and workforce training in neighborhoods facing the heaviest pollution burdens.

What Colcom Foundation’s Restoration Work Has Achieved in Western Pennsylvania

Coal mining left its mark on southwestern Pennsylvania’s rivers. Invasive pests and development left theirs on its tree canopy. Colcom Foundation has directed restoration grants toward both for decades, funding watershed remediation through the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and tree canopy recovery through Tree Pittsburgh, work that traces back to the mission the foundation set when it was first established.