The Evergreen Heritage Center: a Western Maryland Sustainability
Showcase

Surrounded by 130 acres of forest, wildlife, ponds, and evergreen trees, the Evergreen Heritage Center, first settled in the late 1700s, is the site of an ancestral home that began as a cabin, became a plantation, and is now supporting indoor/outdoor learning in a setting adjacent to the Great Allegheny Passage and the Western Maryland Scenic Railway.

Janice Keene, president of the Evergreen Heritage Center, has maintained the beauty of the center and has been working with Frostburg State University (FSU) and other members of the academic community to
provide hands-on learning opportunities and teach students of all ages about our environment and how to sustain it for future generations. The vision for the Evergreen Heritage Center is for "students, teachers, researchers, and guests all visiting Evergreen to learn about, enjoy, and help preserve Maryland's heritage now and in the future."

Last semester a study, conducted by a number of FSU faculty and students, analyzed various elements of the Evergreen environment. Dr. Craig Caupp's Environmental Studies class conducted a slope analysis, examined plants, streams and other environmental elements. Professor Sunshine Brosi, responsible for the ethno botany program at FSU, used the Center for an outdoor class last semester; the students collected
and inventoried medicinal herbs. Dr. Daniel Fiscus's forest science class visited Evergreen to see an environmentally friendly timbering demonstration. Students who have done projects at Evergreen can then use the work products they generate in their classes to add to their portfolios or resumes.

This year, the Evergreen Heritage Center has plans for more accomplishments in its work in sustainability.
This semester there are eleven classes at FSU that are using the center for hands on projects. "We have hosted several classes this semester in terms of outdoor learning including ethno botany," stated Keene.  For example, students are planting a medicinal herb garden and are growing shitake mushrooms.

In February, the Evergreen Heritage Center Foundation and other academic and business organizations, applied for a Congressional appropriation for an initiative called Green Learning, Green Jobs. According to Keene, "'Green Learning, Green Jobs' is a priority initiative that members of academic and business communities have defined to create and provide a series of job-skill focused sustainability learning programs." The program will teach sustainability solutions, provide students with credentials to provide good paying jobs, and provide jobs for workers who have been affected by the tumbling economy.

Last year, the FSU Foundation, in partnership with FSU, Allegany College of Maryland, Allegany County Public Schools, and the Evergreen Heritage Center, was awarded a grant for a Feasibility Study to create an indoor and outdoor learning facility. "Work under that study has identified more than 100 courses, science camps, and youth projects with the central theme of sustainability," explained Keene.  Hands-on learning opportunities include biology, geography, ethno botany, history, education, business, and art, as well as science day camps that would include field trips to the Center and continuing education courses that would leverage the  Center's venue. "The Feasibility Study is due to be complete at the end of June," stated
Keene.

In reference to future plans, Keene explains, "We are still awaiting the final results of the Feasibility Study, but regardless of the results, we plan to share the beauty of the Evergreen Heritage Center and its lessons of sustainability with young and old alike."