History
It was less than a year after President John F. Kennedy announced the country should further develop its natural resources that the Appalachian Laboratory (AL) first opened the doors of its storefront home on U.S. Route 40 in downtown Lavale. Then called the Appalachian Research Laboratory, it was created after years of persistent lobbying for scientific research on timber quality and fish and wildlife resources in western Maryland.
“In 1955, I noticed that Maryland had a great wealth of research on [Chesapeake] Bay problems but little or no research was done in Western Maryland,” wrote laboratory founder Donald Emerson in his memoirs.
Citing portion of Kennedy’s 1961 speech, Emerson told a LaVale newspaper, “Basic research lies at the heart of all progress.” With the offices at 22 National Highway now open we can now lift our heads in anticipation of participating in the “New Frontier” of development with a new era of biological research and education [here in Western Maryland].”
The first laboratory began in an old hardware store and was comprised of only four faculty members researching wildlife, freshwater fisheries, forestry, and conservation education. The storefront laboratory was one of four field research centers of the University of Maryland at College Park’s Natural Resources Institute. Within three years, the laboratory expanded and moved into a former drug store down the street.
In 1973, the Natural Resources Institute disbanded and the facility, renamed the Appalachian Environmental Laboratory, joined the newly-formed University of Maryland Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies, known today as the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, one of the world’s leading coastal and environmental research institutions. Two years later, the laboratory – which has since dropped “Environmental” from its name – moved into Frostburg State University’s Gunter Hall where it remained until 1999. On Earth Day of that year, officials dedicated the laboratory’s permanent home on Braddock Road in Frostburg: a $17.8 million, 47,000-square foot building and greenhouse with three floors of state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment. While staying true to its roots in wildlife, fisheries, forestry, and conservation, the late 1990s also brought with it a significant expansion of the scope of work at the Lab to include ecosystem, landscape, and watershed science.
Apart from fulfilling its original task of surveying Western Maryland’s natural resources, AL remains a vital research component for understanding the environment of Appalachia and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Today AL is home to more than 55 faculty, research associates, graduate students, staff and post-doctoral fellows who work with a variety of cutting-edge tools, including big data, spatial analytics, remote sensing environmental sensors, genomics, and stable isotopes. Its scientists continue to advance real-world solutions for issues related to air and water, fisheries and wildlife, and forests and agriculture, while also serving as a hub for educating the next generation of environmental leaders via its graduate programs, developing a high-skilled science workforce via its undergraduate internship program, engaging with the community via its community awards and environmental education events, and partnering in economic development via the CleanTech Research and Development Grant. Further, novel philanthropy through The Appalachian Laboratory Investor Network (TALIN) is accelerating early-stage, high-impact environmental research by Lab scientists across Appalachia and partnership with the Appalachian Regional Commission is allowing the Lab to secure funding to upgrade its research equipment and infrastructure. The Lab also continues to host the Chesapeake Watershed Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. Through various efforts, including a roof-top solar array and energy efficiency measures, including an ongoing effort to decarbonize operations, the Lab is striving to demonstrate environmental stewardship and sustainability in action.