Letters

Open Letter to
Members of the General Assembly and Governor Wolf

June 14, 2021

Across America, state legislatures are choosing to invest American Rescue Plan dollars in the green infrastructure that secures and improves the economic, environmental, and public health and safety of their communities. The Pennsylvania General Assembly should be a leader too by reinvesting at least $500 million (7%) of the state’s ARP money in green infrastructure. Actions of other states include a broad range of green infrastructure spending:

• Florida will invest $300 million in land and easement acquisitions to conserve natural and working lands and $500 million to address flooding and sea-level rise. Another $59 million will be spent to restore the Everglades and $25 million to restore water quality from springs. This is all in addition to another $658 million on other water-related infrastructure. An equivalent investment level in Pennsylvania would be $900 million (adjusting Florida’s spending proportionately downward to account for PA’s smaller population).
• New Hampshire will invest $22.6 million in state park infrastructure. This would be $205.5 million if proportioned to PA’s larger population size. (This is in addition to ($50 million—$467 million PA-adjusted—for water investments.)
• Among Indiana’s investments are $25 million ($47 million in PA-adjusted terms) for conservation land acquisition and another $60 million ($113 million, PA-adjusted) for trails.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have the enthusiastic support of Pennsylvania voters—Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike—to invest in green infrastructure. Polling from last fall[1] found that 87% of likely voters agree that even with [what was then] a tight budget, we should still find the money to invest in protecting Pennsylvania’s land, water and wildlife; that protecting water quality and land in Pennsylvania is critical to keeping the state’s economy strong (90 percent agree); and that it is more important than ever to have parks, preserves, and other public spaces where we can safely enjoy the outdoors (91 percent agree).

The American Rescue Plan provides a unique opportunity to boost investments in projects that Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly support, can be implemented now, and will continue to deliver value for decades to come. From nature-based solutions that prevent flooding and stream degradation (for example, riparian forest buffers on farms and wetland restoration), to rehabilitation of the parks and trails that underpin a large part of the Commonwealth’s tourism and outdoor recreation economies, American Rescue Plan dollars can make a tremendous difference in the lives of Pennsylvanians.

Our various green infrastructure needs are immense but the economic payoff in addressing them is huge. American Rescue Plan dollars applied to green infrastructure would support myriad small businesses and good-paying jobs with them. Projects involve surveyors, appraisers, legal services, engineers, planners, drafters, environmental remediators, hydrologists, geologists, agricultural consultants, horticulturalists, architects, landscape architects, landscapers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators, painters, roofing contractors, fencing installers, paving contractors, material delivery, sign makers, archaeologists, and arborists. Supplies and equipment are needed from nurseries, lumber yards, quarries, building material suppliers, hardware stores, equipment manufacturers, and equipment rental businesses.

Investing in Pennsylvania’s environment makes strong fiscal sense. It is well established that state environmental investments provide tremendous rates of return—whether the measure is job creation and economic activity, avoided costs (such as public health and flooding), net tax revenues, or the wellbeing of people and communities.[2]

For more information, please reach out to the people and organizations of the Growing Greener Coalition including but not limited to:

Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Shannon Gority, PA Executive Director
[email protected]

Ducks Unlimited
Nikki Ghorpade, Government Affairs Representative
[email protected]

Conservation Voters of PA
Joshua McNeil, Executive Director
[email protected]

Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds
John Dawes, Executive Director
[email protected]

Lancaster Farmland Trust
Jeffrey Swinehart, Chief Operating Officer
[email protected]

Natural Lands
Oliver P. Bass, President
[email protected]

PennFuture
Jacquelyn Bonomo, President & CEO
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Environmental Council
John Walliser, Senior Vice President
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation
Marci Mowery, President
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Recreation & Park Society
Tim Herd, CEO
[email protected]

Sierra Club PA Chapter
Jen Quinn, Legislative and Political Director
[email protected]

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Tom Sexton, Northeast Regional Director
[email protected]

The Conservation Fund
Kyle D. Shenk, Northeast Region Director
[email protected]

The Nature Conservancy, PA/DE Chapter
Ronald L. Ramsey, Senior Policy Advisor
[email protected]

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Derek Eberly, Pennsylvania Field Organizer
[email protected]

 The Trust for Public Land
Owen Franklin, PA State Director
[email protected]

Trout Unlimited
Jennifer Orr-Greene, Eastern Policy Director
[email protected]

WeConservePA
Andrew M. Loza, Executive Director
[email protected]

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Cynthia Carrow, Vice President
[email protected]

[1] TargetSmart survey of 1,332 likely PA voters conducted September 20-27, 2020; credibility interval of +/- 3.0%

[2] See the numerous studies documenting the benefits in the Economic Benefits section of https://conservationtools.org.

 

Download

Earlier this year, Bradford County was awarded $596,000 in grants funded from the Environmental Stewardship Fund (Growing Greener program) for watershed and stream corridor rehabilitation efforts. The grant funding includes:

• $100,000 for the Wysox Creek Watershed Association, Inc.’s Comprehensive Watershed Rehabilitation project in and around Rome Township and Borough. The project will stabilize headwater tributaries, reduce storm water runoff from municipal roads, create retention basins to decrease stormflow problems, and increase groundwater recharge in the Bear Creek watershed.

• $171,000 for the Bradford County Conservation District‘s Satterlee Creek Stream Corridor Rehabilitation 2 project, which will stabilize stream and road corridors and reduce sediment and nutrients that enter Satterlee Creek.

• $325,000 for the Bradford County Watershed Initiative 2020, which will enable the county to complete up to 10 streambank stabilization projects and reduce approximately 1,000 tons of sediment, 1,000 pounds of phosphorus, and 2,500 pounds of nitrogen each year. The initiative will also host educational programs for municipal officials, contractors, and land owners.

Funding for these projects results in directly improving water quality for communities and open spaces throughout Bradford County and beyond.

Open Letter to
Members of the General Assembly and Governor Wolf

June 8, 2020

 

93% of Pennsylvanians agree—68% strongly—that “we have a moral obligation to take care of our environment.” Whether the focus is protecting waterways, wildlife and natural areas conservation, the importance of parks and open spaces, or preserving productive farms, an overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians find these matters to be “very important.”

Support crosses party lines; for example, “protecting PA’s drinking water” is found to be very important by 75% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 92% of Democrats.

90% of likely voters agree that “protecting water quality and land in Pennsylvania is critical to keeping the state’s economy strong, even in a time of COVID”—67% feeling strongly about this.

COVID has triggered a boom in outdoor recreation that is clearly continuing beyond the peak of the crisis. This is borne out in polling that finds 91% of the public agreeing—60% strongly—that “it is more important than ever in a time of COVID to have parks, preserves, and other public spaces where we can safely enjoy the outdoors.”

Pennsylvanians care deeply about our natural resources. The American Rescue Plan provides a unique opportunity to boost investments in projects that Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly support, can be implemented now, and will continue to deliver value for decades to come. From nature-based solutions that prevent flooding and stream degradation (for example, riparian forest buffers on farms and wetland restoration), to rehabilitation of the parks and trails that underpin a large part of the Commonwealth’s tourism and outdoor recreation economies, American Rescue Plan dollars can make a huge difference.

The Growing Greener Coalition urges the General Assembly and Governor to direct at least $500 million (7%) of state government’s share of Rescue money to these investments.

[1] TargetSmart survey of 1,332 likely PA voters conducted September 20-27, 2020; credibility interval of +/- 3.0%

For more information, please reach out to the people and organizations of the Coalition including but not limited to:

Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Shannon Gority, PA Executive Director
[email protected]

Ducks Unlimited
Nikki Ghorpade, Government Affairs Representative
[email protected]

Conservation Voters of PA
Joshua McNeil, Executive Director
[email protected]

Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds
John Dawes, Executive Director
[email protected]

Lancaster Farmland Trust
Jeffrey Swinehart, Chief Operating Officer
[email protected]

Natural Lands
Oliver P. Bass, President
[email protected]

PennFuture
Jacquelyn Bonomo, President & CEO
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Environmental Council
John Walliser, Senior Vice President
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation
Marci Mowery, President
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Recreation & Park Society
Tim Herd, CEO
[email protected]

Sierra Club PA Chapter
Jen Quinn, Legislative and Political Director
[email protected]

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Tom Sexton, Northeast Regional Director
[email protected]

The Conservation Fund
Kyle D. Shenk, Northeast Region Director
[email protected]

The Nature Conservancy, PA/DE Chapter
Ronald L. Ramsey, Senior Policy Advisor
[email protected]

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Derek Eberly, Pennsylvania Field Organizer
[email protected]

 The Trust for Public Land
Owen Franklin, PA State Director
[email protected]

Trout Unlimited
Jennifer Orr-Greene, Eastern Policy Director
[email protected]

WeConservePA
Andrew M. Loza, Executive Director
[email protected]

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Cynthia Carrow, Vice President
[email protected]

 

Download

Open Letter to Members of the General Assembly
and Governor Wolf

June 2, 2021

 

Pennsylvania’s waterways need help. The American Rescue Plan can clearly play a major role in providing this assistance. At least $500 million (7%) of state government’s $7 billion share of Rescue money should be directed to our huge green infrastructure needs:

• Billions of dollars in water investments are needed on a multitude of fronts to restore 25,468 miles of Pennsylvania waterways that are unsafe for drinking, swimming, and fishing.
• Lack of investment in addressing stormwater management and flood prevention leave many Pennsylvanians highly vulnerable to loss of property, health, and life.
• Farmers need help to implement conservation practices like forested stream buffers to keep soil and nutrients on the land instead of running into the water.
• Untreated abandoned mine drainage, desolate abandoned mined lands, and uncapped oil and gas wells harm our water and drag down local economies.

Funding these needs out of the American Rescue Plan is a great fit:

• These are lasting capital investments! They are not operational expenditures that have to be supported with state general funds after the federal money is gone.
• Tens of millions of dollars in green infrastructure projects are shovel ready now. Many more can be ready in short order if money is made available.

The American Rescue Plan presents a momentous opportunity to begin addressing the Commonwealth’s enormous backlog of green infrastructure needs. In addition to water-related projects, other states are moving to invest more broadly in other green infrastructure needs. American Rescue Plan dollars might also be appropriate for addressing:

• Our State Parks and Forests, which require nearly $1 billion in restoration and repair work.
• Local parks and community open spaces that are seeing a surge (often doubling) in public usage and resulting wear-and-tear in this new era of increased interest in outdoor recreation.

American Rescue Plan dollars applied to green infrastructure would support myriad small businesses and good-paying jobs with them. Projects involve surveyors, appraisers, legal services, engineers, planners, drafters, environmental remediators, hydrologists, geologists, agricultural consultants, nurseries, architects, landscape architects, landscapers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators, painters, roofing contractors, fencing installers, paving contractors, material delivery, sign makers, archaeologists, and arborists. Supplies and equipment are needed from nurseries, lumber yards, quarries, building material suppliers, hardware stores, equipment manufacturers, and equipment rental businesses.

Investing in Pennsylvania’s environment makes strong fiscal sense. It is well established that state environmental investments provide tremendous rates of return—whether the measure is job creation and economic activity, costs avoided (such as public health and flooding), net tax revenues, or the wellbeing of people and communities. (See the numerous studies documenting the benefits in the Economic Benefits section of https://conservationtools.org.)

For more information, please reach out to the people and organizations of the Growing Greener Coalition including but not limited to:

Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Shannon Gority, PA Executive Director
[email protected]

Conservation Voters of PA
Joshua McNeil, Executive Director
[email protected]

Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds
John Dawes, Executive Director
[email protected]

Lancaster Farmland Trust
Jeffrey Swinehart, Chief Operating Officer
[email protected]

Natural Lands
Oliver P. Bass, President
[email protected]

PennFuture
Jacquelyn Bonomo, President & CEO
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Environmental Council
John Walliser, Senior Vice President
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Recreation & Park Society
Tim Herd, CEO
[email protected]

Sierra Club PA Chapter
Jen Quinn, Legislative and Political Director
[email protected]

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Tom Sexton, Northeast Regional Director
[email protected]

The Conservation Fund
Kyle D. Shenk, Northeast Region Director
[email protected]

The Nature Conservancy, PA/DE Chapter
Ronald L. Ramsey, Senior Policy Advisor
[email protected]

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Derek Eberly, Pennsylvania Field Organizer
[email protected]

 The Trust for Public Land
Owen Franklin, PA State Director
[email protected]

Trout Unlimited
Jennifer Orr-Greene, Eastern Policy Director
[email protected]

WeConservePA
Andrew M. Loza, Executive Director
[email protected]

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Cynthia Carrow, Vice President
[email protected]

 

Download

Dear Governor Wolf and Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly:

We, the undersigned groups of the conservation, business, environmental protection, and faith communities, are writing today to ask your support for increasing clean water funding—specifically, dedicated funding through a program such as the creation of a Clean Streams Fund as well as a reinvigorated Growing Greener III program.

Pennsylvania is faced with a unique opportunity. The recent passage of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provides the Commonwealth with $7 billion in federal funds. We’re advocating that a portion of this money—at least $500 million1—should be invested in our water resources which in turn supports jobs, a vibrant recreation economy, and supplies our drinking water. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership found that outdoor recreation in Pennsylvania contributes to over 390,000 jobs with a total value of $26.9 billion, including over $7 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue.

Poll after poll demonstrates wide, bipartisan support for increases in state investments for clean water. Most recently, a poll commissioned by Conservation Voters of PA and the Growing Greener Coalition in the fall of 2020 showed that nearly 90 percent of voters support funding for Pennsylvania’s land, water and wildlife, even during the economic downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We ask all members of the General Assembly and Governor Wolf to stand with voters and protect our waterways by providing dedicated funding to watershed improvement and best management practice implementation and reinvigorating Growing Greener III.

Growing Greener III

These funds provide critical support to community-driven work that improves and protects our cities and towns. Since 1999, Growing Greener has been a lifeline to conservation and clean water projects across the state. These investments bring lasting benefits to communities across Pennsylvania from clean water to open spaces to recreational pursuits for Pennsylvanians and tourists alike. Examples and success stories from these investments can be found on the Environmental Stewardship Fund’s website: https://esfund.info/.

Growing Greener was established with bipartisan support in the General Assembly as well as in public referenda and they continue to receive overwhelming public support today. In March, Senators John Gordner and Bob Mensch released a co-sponsor memo for support of a Growing Greener III program that would use $500 million from the American Recuse Plan funding to invest in our water resources and benefit our farmers, towns, and more.

Clean Stream Fund

Pennsylvania is blessed to be a water rich state with 86,000 miles of streams. However, around one-third of our streams are polluted. A dedicated fund devoted solely to cleaning up and protecting our waterways will support jobs and benefit Pennsylvania’s economy, towns, and farmers. In March, Senators Gene Yaw, Scott Martin, and Daniel Laughlin put forth a co-sponsor memo that would create the Clean Streams Fund using $250 million from the American Rescue Plan.

For years, our groups have called on increased investments for our water resources. Now is the time to act. We thank you for supporting healthy rivers and streams across the Commonwealth. Please contact Ezra Thrush at [email protected] with questions or for more information.

Respectfully submitted,

Jacquelyn Bonomo
President & CEO
PennFuture

Katie Blume
Political Director
Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania

Jessica Brittain
President
Action Together NEPA

Bobby Hughes
Executive Director
Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation

Kate Fritz
CEO
Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay

Anne McCarthy, OSB
Coordinator
Erie Benedictines for Peace

Elizabeth Brown
Director, Delaware River Watershed Program
Audubon Mid-Atlantic

Brook Lenker
Executive Director
FracTracker Alliance

Shannon Gority
Pennsylvania Executive Director
Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Annette Marshall
Executive Director
Inner-City Neighborhood Art House

Reed Perry
Manager of External Affairs
Chesapeake Conservancy

Ted Evgeniadis
Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper
Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association

Diane Rosencrance
Executive Director
Delaware Highlands Conservancy

Oliver Bass
President
Natural Lands

Michael T. Sellers, Esq.
President
Newtown Creek Coalition

Julie Slavet
Executive Director
Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, Inc.

Pat Leary
President
Penns Valley Conservation Association

Jennifer Orr-Greene
Eastern Policy Director
Trout Unlimited

Rev. Sandra L. Strauss
Director of Advocacy & Ecumenical Outreach
Pennsylvania Council of Churches

George Hludzik
President
Western Pocono Trout Unlimited

Louise Troutman
Executive Director
Pocono Heritage Land Trust

Leigh Altadonna
President
Wyncote Audubon Society

Bill Reichert
President
Schuylkill Headwaters Association

 

Download

May 20, 2021

Re. Conservation Needs and Investments: A Good Fit for the American Rescue Plan

Dear Pennsylvania Senators, Representatives, and Governor Wolf:

I write on behalf of the 70 member organizations of WeConservePA (formerly the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association) and the more than one hundred thousand Pennsylvanians they count as members and supporters.

Pennsylvania’s waterways need help. Although spending parameters may not be fully understood, the American Rescue Plan can clearly play a major role in providing this assistance:

• Billions of dollars in water investments are needed on a multitude of fronts to restore 19,000 miles of Pennsylvania waterways unsafe for drinking, swimming, and fishing.
• Municipalities face huge costs regarding MS4; farmers badly need help with designing and implementing conservation practices like forested stream buffers to keep soil and nutrients on the land instead of running into the water.
• Untreated AMD, desolate abandoned mined lands, and uncapped oil and gas wells harm our water and drag down local economies.
• Lack of investment in addressing stormwater management and flood prevention leave many Pennsylvanians highly vulnerable to loss of property and life.

Funding these needs out of the American Rescue Plan is a great fit:

• These are capital investments, not expenditures that have to be repeated (and supported out of the state general fund) after the federal money is gone.
• Tens of millions of dollars in green infrastructure projects are shovel ready now.
• Many more can be ready in short order if the money is made available.

The American Rescue Plan presents a tremendous opportunity to begin addressing the Commonwealth’s enormous backlog of green infrastructure needs. In addition to the water-centric needs, American Rescue Plan dollars might also be appropriate for addressing:

• Our State Parks and Forests, which require nearly $1 billion in restoration and repair work.
• Local parks and community open spaces that are seeing a surge (often doubling) in public usage and resulting wear-and-tear in this new era of increased interest in outdoor recreation.

American Rescue Plan dollars applied to green infrastructure would support myriad small businesses and good-paying jobs with them. Projects involve surveyors, appraisers, legal services, engineers, planners, drafters, environmental remediators, hydrologists, geologists, agricultural consultants, nurseries, architects, landscape architects, landscapers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment operators, painters, roofing contractors, fencing installers, paving contractors, material delivery, sign makers, archaeologists, and arborists. Supplies and equipment are needed from nurseries, lumber yards, quarries, building material suppliers, hardware stores, equipment manufacturers, and equipment rental businesses.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Andrew M. Loza
Executive Director

cc: member organizations

Download

Conservation has a win today and many of you helped make it happen!

The Pennsylvania House and Senate have completed the 2020-2021 state budget, which will soon be signed by the Governor. The Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund were left untouched. This means that Pennsylvania state government will continue to invest in conservation projects that protect our land, water, and wildlife, and that provide parks, preserves, and other public spaces where we can enjoy the outdoors.

The pandemic has created huge financial pressures on the Commonwealth. Have no doubt that our collective advocacy made the difference in avoiding severe cuts for the environment and ensuring that hundreds of new conservation projects go forward. Legislators heard our voices and the compelling economic, environmental, and community reasons for supporting the Keystone and Environmental Stewardship Funds.

Thank you to everyone who chipped in.

Andy Loza
Steering Committee member, Growing Greener Coalition
Executive Director, WeConservePA

Open Letter to Members of the General Assembly

and Governor Wolf

Contrary to some assertions in the Pennsylvania House, money cannot be taken from the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund (Keystone) and the Environmental Stewardship Fund (ESF) without jeopardizing existing projects and impeding much-needed investments in new projects in communities across Pennsylvania.

The ill-considered notion misses fundamental issues:

• Keystone and ESF projects support small businesses and create jobs. They are proven programs for stimulating local economies across the state at a time we need stimulus more than ever.
• Keystone and ESF are starving for funds. Demands for project investments and the needs driving the demands already far outstrip available funding.
• The pandemic has caused larger numbers of Pennsylvanians than ever before to take to the outdoors. Investments in maintaining our public lands, protecting wildlife habitat, protecting water quality, and supporting other green infrastructure are needed more than ever as visitors at parks, trails, and preserves double, triple, quadruple, and more.
• The Keystone and ESF monies in state accounts are committed to projects. Capital projects by their nature can take a couple years to complete. If the General Assembly were to redirect any of these committed monies elsewhere, the state would in fact be decommitting from the projects. Under future budgets, the General Assembly could recommit funds to those projects, but, in the meantime, communities would be placed in the impossible position of making major expenditures with no guarantees that the state will come through with money in the end. (And if the state cannot keep to its present commitments today, why should anyone have confidence that it will do so at a later date?)
• Keystone and ESF were established to fund projects that make lasting improvements; repurposing their funds would seriously damage the ability of these workhorses for achieving community and environmental improvements across the Commonwealth.

Helping Communities Help Themselves; Leveraging Private and Local Resources

The Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund owe their success and longevity to their direct support of community-driven projects. The dedicated funds empower local people and the private sector to address problems at their source, not from afar in Harrisburg. Every dollar in state grants typically leverages $1 or more in additional investments and usually the multiplier is much larger. The Keystone Fund alone has leveraged more than $1 billion in public/private partnerships to complete 5,000 projects.

Unmet Demand

Keystone and ESF come nowhere near to meeting present demand. Half of all project investment proposals must be turned away. These rejections only represent a portion of unmet demand, because grant applicants greatly self-limit their submissions knowing that competition for scarce dollars is fierce. Even when projects are funded, DCNR is only able to fund 85% on average of each request (which are already limited to 50% of total project costs).

The Need

The Keystone Fund delivers $7 in flood control and prevention, water treatment, and other natural services for every dollar invested. (See Pennsylvania’s Return on Investment in the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and other studies in the Economic Benefits section of https://conservationtools.org.)  Now is the time to strengthen Pennsylvania’s dedicated environmental funds, so that they can deliver more, not less, in project investments.

Pennsylvania’s environmental funding needs are huge. Pressing water issues—from water quality investments needed in all of Pennsylvania’s water basins to municipal stormwater management and flood reduction measures—hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars are needed in the coming years. A budget diversion would worsen the needs as it would effectively take money away from communities as they work to address stormwater, flooding, water treatment, and other environmental issues.

Looking beyond water issues, our parks, trails, and other outdoor recreational spaces all have pressing needs. There is a billion dollars in deferred maintenance in our state parks and forests. (See https://paparksandforests.org/initiatives/infrastructurestudy/.)

Workhorses for Lasting Improvements

The Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund are the state’s workhorses for investing in projects that bring lasting benefits to communities across the Commonwealth. They have effectively and efficiently improved water quality, conserved lands important to local communities, and created outdoor recreation opportunities for visitors and tourists alike. Their exemplary track records and the needs they address are described at length at https://KeystoneFund.org and https://GrowingGreener.info.

Conclusion

A portion of the realty transfer tax was dedicated to the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund in 1993 and landfill tipping fees were enacted to fund the Environmental Stewardship Fund in 1999 (and expanded in 2002) in order to reinvest in our communities, redress the environmental damage of the past, and conserve wildlife, parks, and preserves for generations yet to come. Both funds were established with extraordinary bipartisan support in the General Assembly as well as in public referenda.

The decades-long bipartisan consensus on the need to maintain the dedication of the Keystone Fund and ESF—so that they may consistently invest in projects that deliver today and will continue delivering for future generations—should continue to stand.

The Growing Greener Coalition asks the members of the General Assembly and the Governor to reject any proposal that would undermine Keystone or ESF.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the people and organizations of the Coalition including:

…

Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Harry Campbell, PA Executive Director
[email protected]

Conservation Voters of PA
Joshua McNeil, Executive Director
[email protected]

Ducks Unlimited
Nikki Ghorpade, Government Affairs Representative
[email protected]

Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds
John Dawes, Executive Director
[email protected]

Lancaster Farmland Trust
Jeffrey Swinehart, Chief Operating Officer
[email protected]

Natural Lands
Oliver? P. Bass, President
[email protected]

PennFuture (Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future)
Jacquelyn Bonomo, President & CEO
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Environmental Council
John Walliser, Senior Vice President
[email protected]

Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society
Tim Herd, CEO
[email protected]

Sierra Club PA Chapter
Jen Quinn, Legislative and Political Director
[email protected]

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Tom Sexton, Northeast Regional Director
[email protected]

The Conservation Fund
Kyle D. Shenk, Pennsylvania State Director
[email protected]

The Nature Conservancy, PA Chapter
Ronald L. Ramsey, Senior Policy Advisor
[email protected]

The Trust for Public Land
Owen Franklin, Pennsylvania State Director
[email protected]

Trout Unlimited
Jennifer Orr-Greene, Eastern Policy Director
[email protected]

WeConservePA
Andrew M. Loza, Executive Director
[email protected]

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
Cynthia Carrow, Vice President
[email protected]

 

Download

On June 25, the Growing Greener Coalition sent the following letter to Governor Wolf and members of the General Assembly concerning a budget proposal to divert roughly $10 million from potential Environmental Stewardship Fund project investments. View the PDF here.

The Growing Greener Coalition sent the following letter to Governor Wolf and members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly on March 19, 2019. View the PDF here.

Pennsylvanians want to reduce destructive flooding, restore waterways to productive life, and protect our drinking water. We need to do this to protect public safety and health. We need to do this as a moral imperative and constitutional responsibility. And we need to do this because the investments made to restore and protect our waters produce long-term cost savings and economic returns that more than pay for the initial investments.

The organizations and people of the Growing Greener Coalition urge the General Assembly and Governor Wolf to greatly boost the state’s investments in reducing flooding, restoring waterways, protecting drinking water, and providing other conservation benefits:

• The Coalition reiterates that Pennsylvania can’t afford to backslide in its community and conservation investments. Every dollar flowing into the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and the Environmental Stewardship Fund needs to be invested in projects that protect and restore Pennsylvania’s environmental assets, not diverted to pay for government operations.
• The Coalition applauds the Governor’s attention to conservation investment needs in his Restore Pennsylvania proposal and encourages legislators to work with the Administration to make these investments happen.

In building on past successes and boosting the state’s conservation investments, the General Assembly and Governor can achieve many lasting and diverse benefits for Pennsylvanians, including:

• Major reductions in property damage and loss of human life caused by flooding
• Progress for local governments in meeting MS4 requirements
• State progress in meeting mandatory Chesapeake Bay requirements
• Safer drinking water and lower water treatment costs
• More miles of streams restored for recreation and economic use
• Federal investments leveraged that otherwise would not come to Pennsylvania
• Boosts to the agricultural and outdoor recreation industries
• Restoring parks for communities across the Commonwealth
• And much more

The public’s enthusiasm for these investments continues to be overwhelming. For example, 75% of Republican voters, 82% of Democrats, and 87% of independents actually support spending more on conservation, even if it would mean taxing themselves more to do it. (See survey results at https://conservationtools.org/conservation-benefits/205.)

Thank you for your attention. For more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the people and organizations of the Coalition including:

 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Harry Campbell, PA Executive Director

[email protected]

 

Conservation Voters of PA

Joshua McNeil, Executive Director

[email protected]

 

Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds

R. John Dawes, Executive Director

[email protected]

 

Lancaster Farmland Trust

Jeffrey Swinehart, Chief Operating Officer

[email protected]

 

Natural Lands

Oliver P. Bass, President

[email protected]

 

PennFuture (Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future)

Jacquelyn Bonomo, President & CEO

[email protected]

 

Pennsylvania Environmental Council

John Walliser, Senior Vice President

[email protected]

 

Pennsylvania Land Trust Association

Andrew M. Loza, Executive Director

[email protected]