HARRISBURG—From the Schuylkill River watershed to
the farmland of Lancaster County, 10 of Pennsylvania's "natural treasures,"
already besieged by big developers and industry, face even greater risks from
pending state budget cuts. So says a new environmental group, which released
a report on the issue Monday.
The report written by PennEnvironment entitled, Our
Natural Heritage At Risk: Threats Facing 10 of Pennsylvania's Most Special Places
shows that the governor's proposed budget will dramatically increase the likelihood
of destruction for Pennsylvania's richest ecosystems.
Already, Pennsylvania has some of the fastest rates of
open space destruction in the nation. In just five years, the Commonwealth lost
half a million acres of farmland and other open spaces to development-the second
fastest rate in the nation, after Texas. While the state created programs to
address the protection of open spaces-the Keystone Fund and the Growing Greener
Program-the governor froze funding for these programs early in 2002, putting
many conservation efforts on hold.
PennEnvironment's report illustrates those impacts by
highlighting the potential damage that could be done to ten of the state's most
important natural treasures if the state does not put the proper protections
into place. The full report may be found on at www.pennenvironment.org.
Specifically, these detrimental policies have the potential
to:
· Slow the pace of land preservation in
the Schuylkill River watershed, a 1,900 square-mile area in southeastern Pennsylvania
that provides drinking water for more than 1.8 million people.
· Increase development pressures in the
Unami Creek Valley Woodlands, the largest surviving band of forest in fast-growing
Montgomery and Bucks counties; the French Creek watershed of Chester County,
a natural and historic jewel on located on the outskirts of the Philadelphia
metropolitan area; and the Bear Creek area of Luzerne County, which is threatened
by rapid development in the Poconos region.
· Delay protection for highly productive
farmland in Lancaster and Chester counties, where sprawl threatens to overtake
farms that have served as the breadbasket of the Northeast for three centuries
and destroy the region's rich tradition of family farming.
· Allow acid mine drainage to continue
to pollute rivers and streams in the Slippery Rock Creek and Kiskiminetas-Conemaugh
River watersheds in Western Pennsylvania.
· Limit efforts to prevent nutrient runoff
from farmland into northwestern Pennsylvania's French Creek, the most biologically
diverse waterway in Pennsylvania.
"How we respond in these ten areas will largely
tell the story of whether Pennsylvania continues to follow through on its commitment
to restoring and preserving our natural environment, or whether we will allow
our best natural places to be irrevocably harmed by developers, and oil and
gas companies, as well as the timber and mining industries," stated David
Masur, Director of PennEnvironment.
"The Schuylkill Watershed Conservation Plan is a
road map for protecting and improving one of the most important water resources
in the state," commented David Harper, River Conservation Program Director
for the Natural Lands Trust. "Of course, any plan is only as good as the
action it inspires and the Keystone and Growing Greener programs are critical
for success of the plan's implementation projects."
PennEnvironment called on the legislature restore promised
funding to the Keystone Fund, whose source of funding was cut in 2002, and fully
fund the $650 million, five-year commitment made by former Gov. Tom Ridge to
the Growing Greener program. PennEnvironment also asked for the legislature
and the next governor to increase funding for the program, in order to deal
with the billion dollar-plus backlog in conservation programs. Environmentalists
and conservationists are recommending an increase of $1.5 billion over the next
ten years. Proponents of Growing Greener and Keystone have pushed to meet this
goal by increasing landfill tipping fees by five dollars, to seven dollars per
ton.
"The Keystone Fund and Growing Greener program have
helped to restore and protect the rich biodiversity and the very fragile ecosystem
of the French Creek watershed.... It is the home of endangered species, both
plant and animal," said John Hoekstra, President of the Green Valleys Association.
"While the Growing Greener grants have allowed for restoration of some
sites that have been negatively impacted in the past, the grants have also allowed
us to acquire property and help us work on proactive planning."
"The track record of these programs is incredible,"
stated Masur. "Growing Greener has been responsible for restoring more
than 370 miles of streams polluted by acid mine drainage, and helped protect
more than 40,000 acres of farmland, while the Keystone Fund has supported more
than 1,400 community park and recreation projects, protected 35,000 acres of
critical natural areas."
