Powdermill Nature Reserve is located in the Allegheny Mountains Section of the Appalachian Plateau Province of Pennsylvania. The Nature Reserve runs major research programs in avian biology throughout the year. A 20-year study of demography and population structure of 15 species of small mammals is presently underway in a permanent study area (beech-maple-poplar community) of Powdermill.

Powdermill also functions as a teaching site for many university-based classes in field biology and Powdermill Biological Station has served as a designated recording station for the National Weather Service since 1967.

Powdermill Nature Reserve offers an opportunity for children to participate in week-long nature programs, as a part of their education section, during the summer months. Individuals and families can attend free nature programs on Sundays from January through October. The classroom and exhibit areas in the Florence Lockhart Nimick Nature Center, as well as the trails outside, provide meeting spaces for these programs and for school field trips and teacher workshops. Activities for grades K-12 are developed by the highly trained Education staff and may be adapted from recognized curriculums including: Aquatic Project WILD Keystone Aquatic Resource Education (KARE), Pennsylvania Songbirds, Project Food, Land, and People, Project Learning Tree, Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), Project WILD, and The Wonders of Wetlands.

Research programs at Powdermill Nature Reserve have focused on mammalian population dynamics, behavior, and physiological ecology; reproductive biology of amphibians; distribution and abundance of amphibians and reptiles; ecology of stream ecosystems with emphasis on detrital dynamics, invertebrates and fish; plant systematics; taxonomy of aquatic insects; avian ecomorphology; habitat selection and breeding biology of neo-tropical migrants; differential migration patterns; molt studies; and the impact of insect pest species on the natural ecosystem.

Powdermill has banded an average of about 10,000 birds annually over the course of the program's 38-year history. In addition, several thousand recaptures of previously banded birds are recorded each year. Powdermill's bird-banding database currently contains nearly a half-million records representing almost 200 species. From this collected data, knowledge has been gained about longevity in wild bird populations, differences between sexes and age groups in migration behavior, bird life cycles, and weight and plumage changes. Powdermill is also the headquarters for the Second Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas project.

Approximately 87% of the environment of Powdermill consists of mixed deciduous forest. Dominant tree species include beech, yellow poplar, sugar maple, red oak, and hemlock-rhododendron riparian woodlands. Successional communities are typified by hawthorn, crab apple, black locust, and black cherry. The remaining area of Powdermill (13%) is characterized by managed grassland habitats.

Approximately 95% of the Reserve's over 2,200 acres are contained in a conservation easement with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.