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11,700 More Acres of Lycoming County Public Land Bites The Dust ...
...and the mud and ruts, trucks and off road engines; the fumes, noise, lights, leaks, spills, equipment failures and human error of shale gas development. The PA Board of Game (BOG) Commissioners gave over State Game Land 75, a beautiful, remote unit paid for by hunters, to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) last week.
On January 29th, the commissioners approved a "restricted surface use oil and gas cooperative agreement" involving 11,700 acres in McHenry and Pine townships, in northwestern Lycoming County.
How did this transaction come about without public input? Apparently PGE requested the Game Commission offer up its oil and gas ownership. PGE are already developing leased rights on Tiadaghton state forest tracts to the south of the Bark Cabin Natural Area and have invested heavily in infrastructure there, including gas and water pipelines and some kind of yet-to-be-disclosed monstrous facility on private land near Okome.
Just because PGE requested it, does that mean the BOG had to say yes? Especially without public input? Practically speaking, it did, at least in the Corbett administration era. Apparently, the BOG was made an offer they couldn't refuse. Title to a 6,200 acre tract of land adjacent to SGL 62, in McKean County, known as the Kinzua Tract, sealed the deal.
The initial royalty rate for each SGL 75 well is set at 18 percent. That will increase to 21 percent once PGE's accounting wizards say payout costs have been met.
The agreement provides PGE with surface rights on SGL 75 for drilling pads, access roads and pipelines. Presumably compressor stations, metering facilities, pig launchers, impoundment ponds, etc. will also be needed.
In a response to an email inquiry by an Okome neighbor, most of who are not very happy with PGE's incessant intrusions onto their lives and hogging of Truman Run Road, someone from BOG replied:
The exchange is for 6,000 acres of high quality habitat; we are only exchanging gas rights and limiting the surface disturbance to two sites of about 200 acres on the 12,000 acres of SGL 75.
We have carefully considered the impacts and the benefits of this exchange and determined that it is in the best long-term interest of our sportsmen. Our staff is the best in the field when it comes to watching out for the sportsmen's interest. This is not to deny that there will be some short-term impacts, but on the whole, the disturbance will be relatively short and the benefits will be for a very long time.
Must be nice to have such an optimistic outlook on such an enormous and destructive footprint on the forest's ecological balance.
In the meantime, a Lycoming County outdoorsman says:
SGL 75 is a favorite place for wilderness rambling. The Midstate Trail goes across the very remote and wild Trout Run watershed with a nice waterfall at Hoyt Hollow. There are also scenic glens and falls on Sherman Fork and Browns Fork. There is a very picturesque aspen glade area on the south side of Trout Run west of Browns Fork. The southwestern piece of SGL 75 contains some dense hemlock groves and old logging grades with the MIdstate trail connecting the Bark Cabin Natural Area with the Okome "Barrens" to the north. This deal will potentially destroy the wilderness character of the Midstate Trail from Little Pine Dam north to Blackwell. One more case of chipping away at our "PA Wilds" assets.
PGE also has agreed to meet once a year with unknown participants to discuss the development and to solicit input and suggestions to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat. Big of them.
