The university collaborates with the local community to maintain shared land ecosystems.
These include the Sustainable Communities Collaborative projects celebrated each semester with an Expo; the collaborative management of Millbrook Marsh by Penn State, the Centre County Recreation and Parks, and Clearwater Conservancy; and the Musser Gap to Valleylands project which relies on collaborative work by the university, the Department of Transportation, regional parks, and state parks.
The Rights-of-Way, or Transmission Line Ecology, project is done with Pennsylvania Game Commission and utility partners to demonstrate that plant communities can be selectively managed to support reliable electric service and a diverse plant community for wildlife habitat.