Wildlife Report Says Environmental Responsibility is Overdue
by Ben Moyer
Pennsylvania, our wooded home astride the Appalachians, between Great Lakes and Atlantic tides, host to great rivers, is changing, more rapidly and fundamentally than ever before. The attributes of this place that we value so much—forested mountains, clean streams, productive farms, and diverse wildlife—can no longer be taken for granted. We are in danger of losing them from this, our place on the Earth, perhaps within this generation.
The nature and extent of this change is revealed in “Pennsylvania’s Wildlife and Wild Places; Our Outdoor Heritage in Peril,” a recent report funded by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Wild Resource Conservation Fund, the Game Commission, and the Fish and Boat Commission. The report outlines the diverse challenges arrayed against the state’s natural heritage and offers recommendations to reduce their impact on us all. It tracks environmental change from the days of William Penn’s early settlement to the 21st century. While some early abuses, such as denuded forests in the 1800s, have largely healed, the aftermath of today’s threats may prove irreversible.
According to the report, Pennsylvania is losing 350 acres of forests, farms, wetlands, and other open space to sprawl development every day. In one year, 120,000 acres of the state’s woodlands and fields—about the size of Delaware County—are consumed by sprawl, and rampant development spreads across enough life-supporting terrain to smother Beaver County every three years.
The impacts of sprawl go beyond the aesthetic. It consumes landscapes that protect water quality, prevent floods, support rural economies, provide habitat for wildlife, and host hunting, fishing, and eco-tourism visits that spur $6 billion in annual economic activity.
Sprawl is particularly severe in the state’s agricultural zones. Urbanized land areas swelled by 81 percent in southeastern Pennsylvania between 1987 and 1997 and counties such as Berks, Lancaster, and York, graced with some of the most fertile farmland on earth, are losing open land at the most rapid rates. Recently, however, sprawl has accelerated in western Pennsylvania, and appeared in parts of the region formerly considered outside its path. Pointing out the state’s wasteful trends in land use, the document reports that during the 1990s: “Pennsylvania ranked 48th in population growth, yet only four other states lost more open land to development.”
The report notes threats to our forests as well. It reminds us that Pennsylvania is a “forest state,” and that woodlands shaped our history, economy, outdoor traditions, and our very identity as a place. Although Penn’s Woods may appear healthy when viewed from afar, their future is in doubt due to development, introduced insect pests, disease, acid precipitation, and an over-abundant deer herd that, in much of the state, consumes all tree seedlings before they can grow out of a whitetail’s reach. These threats are intensified as roads, rights-of-way, cell towers, and other intrusions fragment Pennsylvania’s remaining forests into smaller and smaller tracts. Small and isolated blocks of woodland are more vulnerable to deer browsing and invasion by exotic plants and insects. Populations of native forest birds like the wood thrush, scarlet tanager, and many warbler species have declined rapidly in recent years as forest fragmentation has gnawed away at surviving interior forest habitats. Less than half (42%) of Pennsylvania’s forestland is more than 300 feet from a road or other disturbance and the trend toward forest fragmentation is accelerating.
Pennsylvania’s streams and rivers, key to economic growth and quality of life, also face dire threats. Acid mine drainage deadens 15,000 miles of streams in the state, about 18 percent of the total stream miles. Agricultural pollution continues in many watersheds, and stormwater runoff from newly urbanized areas has turned formerly healthy streams into flood channels that dry up soon after the floods recede. Besides the direct impact on people and communities, nine species of native Pennsylvania fish are officially listed as endangered in the state and nine others are considered threatened.
Rare and unique habitats, such as shale barrens and outcrops on mountain ridges, caves, bogs, and vernal ponds are home to some of the state’s most endangered wildlife, yet are continually diminished by threats ranging from highway construction to all-terrain-vehicles (ATVs).
The report acknowledges that there is still time to salvage much of Pennsylvania’s natural wealth and the economic boon it provides, but warns that our options for repair are dwindling. Five recommendations are offered, with action on each overdue:
- Protect the best of what remains of Pennsylvania's major habitat types. (Old growth forests, wetlands, pristine streams, grasslands)
- Restore and improve degraded or impaired habitats.
(Abandoned mine lands, streams polluted by acid mine drainage and farmland runoff, forests over-browsed by deer.)
- Work cooperatively to conserve privately owned, working resource lands (Family farms, forest products, outdoor tourism destinations)
- Strengthen species inventory, monitoring, public education, and research programs (Understand, document and convey appreciation of Pennsylvania's natural legacy)
- Promote environmentally responsible land use (Stem unwise sprawl development; revitalize existing downtowns)
"Pennsylvania's Wildlife and Wild Places; Our Outdoor Heritage in Peril" can be viewed at DCNR's website at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/pawildlifebook/index.htm .
The report's warnings and hopes are perhaps most succinctly expressed by a quote it features from one of the best known Pennsylvanians of all time: "It has been my opinion, that he who receives and estate from his ancestors is under some kind of obligation to transmit the same to their posterity".Benjamin Franklin
Help protect Pennsylvania's natural wealth and the economic boon it provides. Save the places - the forests, farms, rivers and streams - you care about! Ask your legislators to increase funding to protect forests and open space for future generations, restore polluted land and water, restore wildlife habitat for sportsmen through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and revitalize Pennsylvania's communities.
Take action on the Internet at http://capwiz.com/paconserve/home/ or call Katherine Smitherman by phone at 412-454-1347, or by email, ksmitherman@paconserve.org.
