The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' decision to open 75,000 acres of Pennsylvania's State Forests to shallow gas drilling combined with that agency's decision to consider opening 45,000 acres of State Forest land to industrial windplant development indicate that the department's decision-makers have a poor understanding of the adverse effects of forest fragmentation. It is impossible to construct miles of roadway associated with gas wells or miles of roads and transmission lines associated with industrial windplants and not cause severe forest fragmentation.

These adverse effects of forest fragmentation include reduced habitat area, habitat isolation and loss of species from an area, disruption of dispersal, increased edge effects and loss of core habitat, and the facilitation of alien invasive species. Due to their linearity, roads and transmission lines have particularly pronounced fragmentation effects.

Because natural resource agency lands are among the last remaining large blocks of unfragmented land in Pennsylvania, these lands are particularly in need of protection. Ironically, a publication produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Moyer 2003) emphasizes the importance of preserving these last remaining large blocks of unfragmented habitat in the state.

Forest conservation, not energy extraction, should be the overarching purpose of our State Forests.

Sincerely,

Stan Kotala, M.D.
President - Juniata Valley Audubon
RR 3 Box 866
Altoona, PA 16601-9206
814-946-8840
ccwiba(at)keyconn.net