PA Environment Digest

By Richard J. Allan, Secretary, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

Recent news coverage has distorted two decisions by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and it is important to set the record straight.

We recently changed how the department supports its Conservation and Natural Resources Advisory Council. This function is now handled by existing agency staff instead of a full-time director. This cost-efficiency move did not change the makeup or role of the council in providing input on all aspects of DCNR's work, including natural gas development.

Suggestions that this simple administrative change will reduce oversight of Marcellus Shale development are flatly false. In the past, the council has not concentrated on energy extraction issues - but it is, of course, always welcome to do so. I hope that this change will spur more input from the council on all DCNR efforts.

Also, a new advisory group was created in 2011 - the Gas Best Management Practices Work Group. Made up of conservation groups, universities and state and federal agencies, this group will help DCNR to further refine practices to minimize, mitigate and monitor the impacts of resource development on public lands.

Our second decision was to make sure that our grant programs do not direct scarce funds to scientific work already being done by DCNR or its partners.

The Wild Resource Conservation Program was designed to provide grants from funds generated from the public who purchased license plates, merchandise or donated part of their tax refunds.

Unfortunately, public support has dropped drastically and is insufficient to support administration of the program. DCNR did its best to fill the gap by reallocating Environmental Stewardship Funds to augment the grants. However, these are dwindling as well, which resulted in the grants awarded being decreased.

DCNR continues to study and monitor our state's natural resources. We invest more than $2.3 million annually in these efforts, including: field inventories and surveys for endangered, threatened and other species; ecological monitoring; natural community classification; water and soil monitoring; and social considerations such as public safety and impact on state park and forest visitors.

These efforts include many of the same projects that were supported by the Wild Resource Conservation Program, and we simply can no longer afford any duplication of effort.

Citizen review and the use of sound science are crucial to our decision making, and neither of these things will suffer from our efforts to better control spending.

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