There are hundreds of miles of gas and water lines being carved as permanent destruction to our forests across the state. They are everywhere one looks.
With a possible 30 percent reduction in drilling in our area next year, it will give UGI Corp. and others time to construct a $1 billion, 200-mile long gas pipeline to markets south toward Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., as well as the $250 million MARC I pipeline to New York State, and the latest $380 million gas pipeline expansion to its Lycoming County pipeline to bring the bountiful gas production to the Northeast and New England, where heating oil is used extensively.
Is our state and local governments aware that heating oil is also used extensively in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania? Cut us a break. The abuse and destruction which our forests and streams are receiving is the price we are paying, so the gas companies can extract and deliver gas to neighboring states, as well as foreign countries.
Why doesn't the state have a forestry commission to control the amount of devastation being done to our private and state-owned woodlands? For every mile of pipeline laid for gas or water through our forests, there are hundreds of acres of timber and habitat being destroyed, most of it permanently.
It's time to shed some light on something that has been hidden from the general public for too long, such as our state forest land, which we all own a part of, but yet have no say in protecting or controlling its destiny.
With all the departments and commissions which serve as arms to our state government, is there not one that harbors statistics concerning the welfare of our state forests?
I feel the state has overstepped its boundary by allowing Penns Woods to be desecrated, which violates the very sanctity of holiness and sacredness.
