May 22, 2002

For Immediate Release

Conservation Groups Call for End to Logging, Oil and Gas Drilling in Pennsylvania's State Parks

Clarion, PA - Today, a coalition of conservation groups called for a permanent ban on commercial logging and oil and gas drilling within Pennsylvania's State Parks. The organizations called for the ban in response to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) request for public comment on the regulations guiding state park management. The letter was sent to the DCNR today by the Allegheny Defense Project (Clarion, PA), Communities for Sustainable Forestry (Kane, PA), Greenwatch (Jersey Shore, PA), Heartwood (Bloomington, IN), and Pennsylvania Environmental Network (Fombell, PA).

The groups pointed to the recent controversy over drilling under 500,000 acres of state parks and forests as the need for a regulatory requirement prohibiting such drilling. In April, conservationists uncovered a secret plan to auction off leases for oil and gas drilling on the state park and forest lands. Conservationists also uncovered the fact that DCNR Secretary John Oliver has financial ties to the oil and gas industry including stock in producers of natural gas generated power.

"Despite numerous requests, DCNR Secretary John Oliver has failed to provide a lease document that demonstrates that state parks will be protected by planned oil and gas leasing," said Bill Smedley with the Pennsylvania Environmental Network. "If Secretary Oliver truly intends to protect these areas from drilling activities, then it should not be difficult for the Secretary to amend the state park regulations to specifically prohibit drilling in the parks."

The groups pointed to past logging at Ricketts Glen State Park in northeastern, PA, as an indication for the need to prevent future logging in state parks. Over the past two years, a large area of Ricketts Glen State Park was "salvage" logged by the DCNR after it was hit by a windstorm. According to conservationists, the DCNR was dismissive of public concerns and used the windstorm as an excuse to get at the commercially valuable black cherry while compromising environmental concerns. Conservationists say that the DCNR has since hinted that other such logging projects are likely in other state parks in the future.

"Last year, Secretary Oliver's DCNR broke records by logging more acres of state forests and parks than at any other time in history," said Jim Kleissler, Forest Watch Director for the Allegheny Defense Project. "Pennsylvania's state parks are one of PennsylvaniaÕs main tourist attractions and provide important wildlife habitat for many of our native species. Commercial logging and oil and gas drilling are incompatible with the purpose of our state parks."

Click here to see the letter submitted by the conservation groups.

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