Preserving Pennsylvania Landscapes
Hikers need trails, and trails need land to cross. To hike, the land must be saved...
SATC is a strong advocate
of conservation and land preservation efforts as it relates
to trails and the important natural and scenic resources
that contribute to the hiking experience, environmental
health of our local landscapes and economic vitality of
connecting communities.
Although the Appalachian
Trail's path is now largely protected within a corridor of
public lands, the Trail experience through wilderness and
rural countryside is susceptible to irreversible change in a
developing region. One's journey on the Appalachian Trail
and various local and regional trails is vulnerable to major
land development as well as the incremental and cumulative
impacts of smaller development projects. Given those
prospects, safeguarding the experience and planning for
trails must be seen as an ongoing effort, requiring the
sustained support and cooperation of trail users, public
agencies, adjacent landowners, local communities, public
agencies and nonprofit organizations.
SATC invites you to learn
more about what is being done to preserve our local
landscapes around 
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and the various
trails that weave throughout our region. Central
Pennsylvania Conservancy has served as an important
partner to SATC in these efforts, particularly in the
preservation success stories of the Thousand Steps in
Huntington County and the White
Rocks project in Cumberland County.
Current Issues and Projects in the Region
>> URGENT: Governor
Zeroes Out Keystone Grants 
Pennsylvania Land Trust Association reports that Governor
Corbett's proposed 2012-13 budget ELIMINATES ALL
CONSERVATION, PARK and RECREATION FUNDING from the Keystone
Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund. The
budget goes on to propose that the termination of funding be
made permanent. This means a loss of $30M for conservation
in 2012-13 and far more in the long-run. It would be the
biggest cut to conservation funding ever proposed in
Pennsylvania. (Keystone funding for libraries and historic
preservation would remain intact.) Governor Corbett's
budget is a proposal. You have the power to stop it from
becoming law. Your action is critical to showing
legislators that Keystone funds are important to their
districts. We must be vocal! To sign a petition
.
>> The Plague on Streams, Farms and
Forests: ATVs
They run up and down
stocked Trout streams, damage crops on farmland, rip
out fencing and gates on public lands, intimidate
landowners who try to stop them, ride on our public
roadways. These trespassers have had virtually free-rein,
despite Act 68 of 2001(the ATV law).
Claim: If you give us more (legal) trails, the
trespass will stop.
Fact: Legal trails have engendered more trespass. A
DCNR study of 7-11-2000 stated that there was no
correlation that legal trails diminished
illegal riding. In fact, the seven State Forests with ATV
trails had an average of 50 more miles of illegal
motorized trails.
Claim:
ATVs will be the economic salvation of rural Pennsylvania.
Fact: The economic
benefit of hunters, hikers, anglers and wildlife-watchers
is far greater than the economic impact of ATV riders. Our
forests can’t be all things to all people. The vast
majority of people who visit our state lands go there for
the beauty and tranquility, not as a playground where they
can rip up the land. Economic salvation? Only if you’re
talking about after they drive out the hunters, hikers,
anglers and wildlife-watchers – the very folks who are the
big money-makers for Pennsylvania’s tourism industry.
Read a report
on educational suggestions for ATV solutions from the Conservation and Natural Resources
Advisory Council and DCNR's Summary
of
Pennsylvania's
All-Terrain
Vehicle Law.
>> Invasive Species
Prevention and Removal
Information supplied by Pennsylvania
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Does it seem like there's more thorny stickers in the woods,
and fewer wildflowers? Free trade every day brings
plants to our shores that don't belong here and crowd out
the ones that do. Mile-a-minute, multiflore (or
"M.F.") rose, Japanese stiltgrass, and garlic mustard are
just a few of the plants that choke off the native species
of our woods and starve our wildlife.
In 2007, SATC volunteers
have begun to take a stand and do our small part to combat
the insidious green menace. Springtime volunteers are
especially needed to hit invasive plants before they set
seed and make millions more. If you can't recognize
them, click here.
All hikers - click here
to learn the small steps ALL of us MUST do. Contact SATC
and ask to become a "Weed Warrior"...before it's too late!
>> Marcellus Shale Drilling
Information provided by the PA Forest
Coalition
“You can’t manage it if you
can’t measure it.” Funding for research on Wildlife has been
cut by 70%. Until a complete and detailed environmental
impact study has been performed it is premature to even
consider further leasing of DCNR lands. Mapping locations of
rare, endangered and threatened species will take at least
three years and require a five-fold increase in DCNR field
staff.
We cannot risk damaging Pennsylvania’s billion-dollar
outdoor tourism industry, which relies on scenic forests
with over 2,500 miles of trails and opportunities for
hunting, fishing, birding, hiking, mountainbiking, horseback
riding and snowmobiling.
Pennsylvania is home to Federally-designated “wild and
scenic rivers” plus innumerable HQ and EV streams in the
Marcellus gas play, which are habitat for our native Brook
Trout. Pennsylvania cannot allow our headwater streams to be
further endangered.
DCNR currently manages our State Forests properly – but to
retain FSC (Forest Stewardship Council ) certification, the
forests must continue to be managed sustainably. 88 percent
of the certified timber harvested in PA is from our State
Forests. Additional leasing of our State Forests will
imperil that certification and over 80,000 forestry jobs
that depend on it.
For more information visit
PAForestCoalition.org
or stay tuned to StateImpact
Pennsylvania - Energy. Environment. Economy. (A
reporting project of local public media and NPR)
>> Kittatinny Ridge:
State of the Kittatinny Report Released
The Kittatinny Ridge is
one of Pennsylvania’s largest Important Bird Areas, the
site of a world-famous 
autumn
raptor migration, and the path of the Appalachian Trail
through much of Pennsylvania. Audubon Pennsylvania,
the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and many partner
organizations have been working for years to conserve this
critical landscape. A recent report details the current
status of the ridge based on a series of measurements
indicating some of the area’s great successes and largest
remaining challenges. Click here
for the report.
Conservation Organizations and
Initiatives
Central
Pennsylvania Conservancy
Susquehanna
Water Gap Coalition
Dauphin County
Conservation District
Shermans Creek
Conservation Association
Visit the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association's (PALTA) web
site for a comprehensive list of land trusts and
conservation organizations. ConserveLand.org