On June 12, the PA Environmental Defense Foundation submitted comments to DCNR advising the agency a proposal to replace over 138 acres of State Forest land lost to natural gas drilling with land in Chester County does not meet its obligations as a public trustee under the state’s Environmental Rights Amendment.
Proposal
In May, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources invited public comments on a draft Environmental Assessment recommending the recreational value of State Forest land lost when it was leased those lands for drilling from 2008 to 2011 be replaced with land it is purchasing in Chester County.
Under the terms of federal Land and Water Conservation Fund purchases, that value must be replaced and approved by the National Park Service.
DCNR’s draft Environmental Assessment says, "Failure to resolve the conversions would put DCNR out of compliance with federal program requirements and potentially ineligible to receive additional LWCF funding."
In January, DCNR proposed to purchase the 987-acre Strawbridge 2 property to expand its White Clay Creek Preserve in Chester County. It has an assessed value of $13 million, according to DCNR.
The assessed value of the 138.37 acres of land leased for drilling which lost its recreation value is $625,000, according to DCNR.
Public Trustee
In its 10-page comments, PEDF said, “The State Forests and State Parks in Pennsylvania are public natural resources owned by the people of Pennsylvania, not the Commonwealth, under the Pennsylvania Constitution. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has stated that these public lands are part of the trust established in 1971 when the people of Pennsylvania amended their Constitution to include Section 27.
“DCNR, as the Commonwealth agency authorized to manage these public trust resources, must carry out this function consistent with its constitutional fiduciary duties as a Commonwealth trustee under Section 27.”
“By advancing a proposal that does not remedy the harm that has occurred to public outdoor recreation use of our public lands in the Pennsylvania Wilds, DCNR has violated its fiduciary duty under Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution to conserve and maintain the public natural resources of these public lands.”
State Recreation Plan
“Nothing in Pennsylvania’s Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) sanctions the conversion of our State Parks and Forests in the northcentral region of Pennsylvania known as the Pennsylvania Wilds to industrial use and replacement of these recreation resources with acquisitions in another part of the State.
“DCNR’s limited analysis of the outdoor recreation resources and opportunities lost in the Pennsylvania Wilds as a result of the LWCF conversions is inadequate. The large intact forests of the Pennsylvania Wilds provide a wilderness experience that has become increasingly rare in the northeast.
“One of the most significant impacts to public outdoor recreation from the conversion these public lands to industrial use is the loss of these large intact forest tracts.
“If DCNR had completed a fair evaluation of this loss, the inadequacy of the Strawbridge property to replace this loss would have been obvious.
“While NPS does not require replacement property to be directly adjacent to or close by the converted site, it generally expects the replacement property to serve the same community or area as the converted site. The Strawbridge property will not serve the public outdoor recreation needs of the Pennsylvania Wilds.”
PA Wilds Alternatives
“DCNR fails to consider reasonable alternatives in its Environmental Assessment to address the conversion of the LWCF-protected public outdoor recreation properties.
“The three alternatives considered include (1) no action; (2) removing the oil and gas infrastructure from the LWCF-protected properties in the Pennsylvania Wilds (an alternative that DCNR knows would be impossible to implement); and (3) acquiring the Strawbridge property in Chester County.
“DCNR fails to consider the most reasonable and obvious alternative(s), which would be to acquire replacement public outdoor recreation property(ies) in the Pennsylvania Wilds.”
Consideration Of Drilling Impacts
“DCNR leased over 130,000 acres of State Forest in the Pennsylvania Wilds for oil and gas development in 2009-2010, including the land subject to the LWCF protections at issue. This leasing was done in response to pressure from the General Assembly and the Governor’s office to generate money for general government operations due to shortfalls in tax revenue.
“DCNR was not given the time or resources to fully inventory the natural resources on the State Forest tracts to be leased prior to leasing. As a result, DCNR was forced to prepare environmental reviews to support the leasing without a baseline inventory of the natural resources that would be impacted in the Pennsylvania Wilds and without any comprehensive understanding of the new shale gas industry it was about to authorize.
“DCNR has made some effort post-leasing to begin to understand the impacts of the shale gas development on the State Forests in the Pennsylvania Wilds. DCNR published its first Shale-Gas Monitoring Report in 2014 to explain this effort and some initial baseline findings. DCNR published its second Shale Gas Monitoring Report in 2018. However, as noted above, DCNR has failed to consider the findings of its latest monitoring efforts in its Environmental Assessment.”
Conclusion
“...DCNR cannot proceed replace public land in the Pennsylvania Wilds that was supposed to be protected in perpetuity for public outdoor recreation use with farm land in Chester County. DCNR’s proposal does not comply with the requirements for replacing converted LWCF land under federal law.
“By advancing a proposal that does not remedy the harm that has occurred to public outdoor recreation use of our public lands in the Pennsylvania Wilds, DCNR has violated its fiduciary duty under Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution to conserve and maintain the public natural resources of these public lands.”
Click Here for a copy of the PEDF comments. For more information, visit the PA Environmental Defense Foundation website.
Comment Period Open
DCNR will be accepting public comments on the draft Environmental Assessment and its recommendations until June 18.
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