Hunter and fracking activist Alexander Lotorto protests in front of a flare. Image: Alexander Lotorto

by Morgan Myers

WILLIAMSPORT, PA - For generations, Pennsylvania sportsmen and women have loaded their firearms and headed to the woods in search of big game. But in recent years they've had to share the Wilds with a new kind of beast: the unconventional natural gas industry.

From well pads and pipelines to compressor stations and impoundment ponds, shale gas infrastructure requires significant acreage. According to the PA DCNR, Pennsylvania has leased about 700,000 of its 2.1 million-acre forest system for oil and gas drilling.

A handsome buck. Image: Ecoblog

"There's a gas well where I used to hunt," said Matt Schenck, Clinton County native and Environmental Educator with the University of Georgia. "Pine Creek's whole Bull Run area is oil and gas now. You can still hunt it but who would want to?"

"Folks should expect these operations to disturb land and change habitats," said Cliff Guindon of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. "In a lot of areas we're seeing mature timber stands that were large contiguous blocks opened up to place well pads, holding ponds, or other infrastructure."

Lycoming County resident and hunter Jesse Weigle noticed similar changes to his hunting grounds.

"Trout Run is a hotbed of gas well activity. We had to drive through a checkpoint to get to camp," said Weigle. "When the gas workers saw we were hunters they got excited. They pulled out their cell phones and showed us pictures of massive bucks."

To his surprise, Weigle saw more deer and deer sign in Trout Run than he did while hunting places with little or no gas activity. Weigle noticed that the deer in areas with high gas activity behaved differently, too.

Deer sign: a buck rub. Buck rubs are made when a deer scrapes its antlers against the base of a tree.  Image: Matt Schenck

"The deer in Trout Run were tamer than the deer in places with no gas activity. They're not afraid of humans anymore," said Weigle. "It was like hunting a different animal."

Environmental Scientist Kevin Heatley says Weigle's observations make perfect sense.

"Shale gas development disrupts contiguous forest and creates edge. Any time you create edge, you draw in deer," said Heatley. "The noise and traffic of industrial activity habituates deer to the human presence. The result is tamer deer."

"We don't have a direct indication that the gas development is affecting game species positively or negatively," said Dan Brauning, wildlife biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. "There are a lot of things I couldn't say on behalf of the agency that I could say as an individual. As an agency we receive a lot of revenues from the drilling. That's a matter of public record."

For the past decade, the number of Pennsylvania hunting license sales has been decreasing. Resident adult license sales hit an all-time low of 644,004 in 2012, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Could loss of hunting grounds due to gas development have something to do with the drop?

"Hunting license sales have been on a long term decline across the United States, and less in Pennsylvania than in some places," said Brauning. "You could talk all kinds of demographic and sociological impacts to hunting license sales. It mostly has to do with the urbanization of people and the aging population. Fewer people live in rural settings."

The remote, rugged terrain of Northeastern Pennsylvania draws hunters from out-of-state urban areas like New York and New Jersey to the region. 

"Tourism and recreation bring huge money for the state budget," said longtime Pike County hunter and anti-fracking activist Alexander Lotorto. "If people from the Poconos and other places stop coming to our hunting zones, we'll have even less than we had in the beginning."                         

Workers inspect a valve.  Image: Getty Images

But is shale gas development bad for 

deer populations?

"What's good for one type of species isn't good for another," said Guindon. "If you're a deer or a bear or a turkey, it's a plus for you. If you're a neotropical migrant that requires thousands of acres of contiguous forest, then opening up the land is a detriment to you."

But too many deer can be a problem.

"Deer are fundamental to the forest ecosystem but if you increase the population beyond the ecological carrying capacity you'll see a sweep of invasive species in the forest understory," said Heatley.

"Disrupting contiguous forest creates edge, which draws more deer into a tighter area.That has a cascade of effects: deer ticks increase and Lyme disease spreads because of vectoring corridors, which leads to human health problems."

Forests are negatively impacted, too.

"There will be changes in forest regeneration because gas development increases light penetration and decreases moisture levels in the forest floor. This impact continues into the forest for at least 300 feet from the edge of the right-of-way," said Heatley. "You'll have rippling effects across the whole swath. Multiply that by gathering lines and fundamentally you change your forest and Penn's Woods forever." 

Aware of their industrial footprint and sensitive to hunters' opinions, some operators remediate sites by planting forage such as clover. Industry trade group Marcellus Shale Coalition declined to comment on the practice.

"After operators are finished they put down a lot of lime and mulch as part of an erosion and sedimentation plan," said Guindon. "That's an attractant for many animals including elk, deer, grouse, and turkeys. What's being created in the long run is an herbaceous opening, which is something the Game Commission does anyway."

Heatley points out that, "Remediation is not restoration". The restoration ecologist clarifies his point with this reminder: "Remediation is erosion control, restoration is replacing what you destroyed. How are the gas companies going to replace the 100 year old forest they just sliced up? The answer: they're not."

"Pipelines create shooting lanes," said Brauning.

"Who wants to hunt a pipeline?" said Schenck. "I'd rather bushwhack through thorns in the deep quiet woods and not see a deer all day than hunt a pipeline."

Some worry that shale gas development delivers a fundamental blow to the hunting tradition.

"Hunting is about a lot more than bringing home a bag of meat. It's about being in the peace and tranquility of nature," said Heatley. "Otherwise, why not just shoot an animal in a cage or a squirrel in a park? You're losing the wildness in your critters."