"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. Three years later, the laboratory expanded and moved into a former drug store down the street.

In 1973, the Natural Resources Institute was disbanded and the facility, renamed the Appalachian Environmental Laboratory, grew as part of the newly-formed University of Maryland Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies, know today as the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Two years later, the laboratory - which has since dropped "Environmental" from it's name - moved into Gunter Hall on the Frostburg State University campus.

The laboratory continued to grow throughout the years, expanding its faculty and students and shifting its research focus to landscape and watershed ecology. Despite threats of closure during the mid-1980s, the Appalachian Laboratory again outgrew its facilities and needed a new home before the end of the century.

On Earth Day 1999, prior Laboratory Director Louis Pitelka, Frostburg State University President Catherine Gira and other state and local officials dedicated the laboratory's new home: a 47,000-square foot building and greenhouse located on Braddock Road. The $17.8 million research and teaching facility features state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment for examining terrestrial, freshwater and watershed ecology.

Today more than 50 laboratory scientists, students and staff study the processes of local ecosystems, how these processes operate within the larger context of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, the impact that human activity may have on these processes and ecosystem health locally, regionally and globally. In addition to fulfilling its original task of surveying Western Maryland's natural resources, the Appalachian Laboratory is seen as a vital research component for understanding the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and is part of one of the world's leading coastal research institutions.

As Western Maryland grows, the Appalachian Laboratory will continue studying the area's changing environment and striving to make that research available to future generations.