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State Budget

Conservation and You Win Today

November 21, 2020 //  by Hilary Hirtle

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

Category: State Budget

Morals, Env. & Economy in Sync

November 18, 2020 //  by Hilary Hirtle

Open Letter to

Members of the General Assembly and Governor Wolf

November 18, 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, protecting wildlife and natural areas, the importance of parks and open spaces, or preserving productive farms, overwhelming supermajorities of Pennsylvanians find these environmental matters “very important.” These feelings cross 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.

Moreover, 9 in 10 voters agree that even with the present tight budget, we should still find the money to invest in protecting Pennsylvania’s land, water and wildlife (87 percent agree), 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 to have parks, preserves, and other public spaces where we can safely enjoy the outdoors (91 percent agree). Notably, there is substantial intensity behind these attitudes, as broad majorities report strongly agreeing with each sentiment.[i]

The numbers demonstrate that Pennsylvanians care deeply about the environment and want to ensure that state investments in projects that support our parks and public open spaces, protect water and wildlife, and provide other environmental benefits continue—no matter the present crisis.

In addition to being strongly supported by the public, 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.[ii]

The widely acclaimed Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund are proven vehicles for making environmental investments and keeping Pennsylvania communities great places to live, work, and play. Good for the environment, good for the economy, it is more important than ever to keep Keystone and ESF investments flowing. With pandemic-driven fundamental shifts underway in the economy and businesses and skilled workers looking more than ever at quality of life in making location decisions, the General Assembly should be considering how it might increase investments through these time-tested funds.

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]

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
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, PA State Director
[email protected]

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

 

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

[ii] 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.

 

Download

Category: State Budget

Alert: Urge Lawmakers to Protect the Keystone and Environmental Stewardship Funds

November 17, 2020 //  by Hilary Hirtle

Dear Growing Greener Stakeholders,
House Republican leadership is moving to make devastating cuts to the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund. This presents an existential threat to state conservation efforts.
  1. Please call your state senator and representative TODAY and urge them to protect the state’s investments in conservation, environmental restoration, and outdoor recreation. Ask them to tell their Senate and House leaders that the Keystone Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund should be left untouched as they and the Governor’s office seek to complete the fiscal year 2020-2021 budget.
  2. Ideally, follow your call with a brief email confirming your request and thanking them for their time.
  3. Then call Governor Wolf’s office at 717-787-2500 and urge them also to protect the Keystone Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund.
Conveying the simple message above is the most critical thing you can do. You can go further by describing how these funds have helped accomplish tangible projects and provide real benefits in your community. If you wish to go even deeper, check out:
  • the Growing Greener Coalition’s letter to members of the General Assembly and Governor Wolf
  • WeConservePA’s letter
  • Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s letter
  • KeystoneFund.org (information about the Keystone Fund)
  • ESFund.info (information about the Environmental Stewardship Fund)
Thank you for working to make a difference,
Andy Loza
Steering Committee Member, Growing Greener Coalition
Executive Director, WeConservePA

Category: State Budget

Protect the Keystone & Environmental Stewardship Funds

November 16, 2020 //  by Hilary Hirtle

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]

 

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Category: State Budget

Growing Greener Coalition on Governor’s 2020-2021 Budget Proposal

February 5, 2020 //  by Emily Best

The partner organizations of the Growing Greener Coalition are encouraged that Governor Wolf’s executive budget upholds Pennsylvania’s traditional state investments in projects that protect water, conserve land, and enhance outdoor recreation. With the Governor’s budget:

  • The Environmental Stewardship Fund (aka Growing Greener), established in 1999, will continue its tremendously successful support of tangible projects that protect and restore water quality, preserve farmland, and make other environmental improvements.
  • The Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund, established in 1993 with nearly unanimous General Assembly support and overwhelming voter backing in a public referendum, will continue its extraordinarily effective investments in developing and improving parks and trails; protecting open spaces important to communities; and restoring libraries.

The Governor’s budget also constructively addresses a number of other environmental funding matters: proposing to recapitalize the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund with a $1/ton fee increase on disposing of waste in landfills; a capital program to remediate lead and asbestos threats; and funding badly needed positions at the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

While the Coalition is heartened by the Governor’s budget (particularly as it compares to last year’s), this feeling is tempered by the awareness that there is a tremendous backlog of environmental infrastructure needs requiring the state’s attention and demanding much higher levels of investment:

  • 19,000 miles of Pennsylvania rivers and streams are unsafe for drinking, swimming, fishing, and boating.
  • State parks and forests require nearly $1 billion in necessary repairs.
  • More than 200,000 acres of abandoned mine lands and thousands of brownfield sites pollute our water and threaten human health and safety.
  • The list goes on.

The Coalition urges Senators, Representatives, and the Governor to recognize that these real challenges require action—whether that’s via the Governor’s Restore PA proposal or some other vehicle. Pennsylvanians have a constitutional right to safe water and preservation of the natural environment. It is also, plain and simple, the right thing to do.

For background information regarding topics addressed in this communication, the Coalition finds the following resources useful:

  • Environmental Stewardship Fund: https://esfund.info/
  • Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund: https://keystonefund.org/
  • Detailed reporting on environmental line items in the Governor’s executive budget: https://paenvironmentdaily.blogspot.com/2020/02/gov-wolfs- budget-proposal-repairs.html

Contact information for Growing Greener Coalition Partners:

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

Conservation Voters of PA Katie Blume, Political 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]

Pennsylvania Park and Forest Foundation Marci Mowery, 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]

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]

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

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

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

Category: State Budget

Budget Wrap-Up

June 28, 2019 //  by Nate Lotze

In the depths of winter, the Administration proposed repurposing the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and the Environmental Stewardship Fund (ESF): $30 million of Keystone Fund monies that would normally be invested in on-the-ground projects would instead be redirected to pay for the general operations of DCNR. Likewise, $16 million of ESF monies would be repurposed to pay for general operations at DEP and other agencies.

In the ensuing months, many of us worked to educate the Administration, senators, and representatives on what a bad proposal this was. Thank you to all who acted. You made a difference in the 2019-2020 state budget.

However, we have a lot of challenging work ahead of us. Here’s a summary of the budget outcomes:

  • The Keystone Fund was left untouched.
  • The Environmental Stewardship Fund was whacked:
    • $16 million for project investments were redirected to pay for government operations in 2019-2020.
    • The fiscal code included an amendment to the ESF’s enabling act so that the General Assembly can also take money in future budget years without having to go to the trouble of amending the ESF’s enabling act like it did this year; this greases the skids for future trouble. The temptation will now be stronger to push government operating expenses into the ESF in future budget years.

There are other items—good and bad:

  • The REAP tax credit gets a $3 million boost to help farmers put in place best management practices to protect waterways.
  • Once again, a large portion ($38 million) of the Oil and Gas Lease Fund was tapped to fund general DCNR operations. This may be unconstitutional, but the courts will have to resolve that. (The courts could find that all Oil and Gas Lease Fund money, which is the income the state receives from leasing State Forest land for drilling, must be reinvested directly into the public lands affected by the drilling.)
  • $2.25 million that was previously provided to Heritage Areas out of general tax dollars will now be paid out of ESF.
  • The Budget Secretary was given the power to redirect up to $45 million of each special fund (Keystone and ESF are just two of many special funds in state government) to pay for DEP and DCNR operations. Although the Governor’s office tells us that no such redirection is contemplated for Keystone and ESF, we will have to be perpetually on guard against changes in thinking.
  • The amendment to SB 575 promoted by the Growing Greener Coalition, which would have permanently relieved the ESF from paying debt service (presently $20 million annually) on Growing Greener 2 bonds, was not considered.

(For a more detailed look at environmental spending in the budget, check out David Hess’s PA Environment Digest Blog.)

So, what does $16 million in lost ESF project investments cost Pennsylvania? $16 million could have been used to:

  • Install and maintain 3,200 acres of riparian forest buffer to clean up our streams and rivers; or
  • Restore to life 51 miles of streams harmed by abandoned mine drainage; or
  • Permanently protect 5333 acres of productive farmland—67 80-acre farms; or
  • Take any number of other measures to improve our water quality, reduce flooding, protect wildlife, or create outdoor recreational opportunities.

The Environmental Stewardship Fund was established to fund projects that make lasting improvements in communities. Among its other activities, the Growing Greener Coalition will work in the coming months to refocus the Administration’s and legislators’ attention on this purpose. The Coalition will also work to communicate on the big picture issue that elected officials are ignoring $100s of millions in conservation investment needs.

Again, thank you to all who advocated for the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and the Environmental Stewardship Fund this year. Best wishes for this summer season.

Sincerely

Andrew M. Loza
Executive Committee member, Growing Greener Coalition
Executive Director, Pennsylvania Land Trust Association

Category: State Budget

Urgent: Protect Environmental Stewardship Fund

June 25, 2019 //  by Nate Lotze

The 2019-2020 state budget that legislative leaders and Governor Wolf are moving to complete in the next few days includes a roughly $10 million diversion of Environmental Stewardship Fund (ESF) project investments to pay for government operations. A $10 million loss for Pennsylvania’s natural resources may not seem so bad to them given the much larger cuts proposed in February’s executive budget. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania shouldn’t be cutting $10 million from the environment when research demonstrates that the state is already underinvesting in environmental needs by $100s of millions each year.

  1. Call Governor Wolf’s office at 717-787-2500. Urge his office to work with legislative leaders to undo this $10 million loss for ESF projects. Thank them for the Governor’s leadership in seeking to boost environmental funding through his Restore PA proposal, but also tell them that present environmental project funding shouldn’t be cut—not at all, that we shouldn’t move backward—while working to get Restore PA passed.
  2. Call your state senator and representative and also tell them to undo the $10 million loss for Environmental Stewardship Fund projects—taking action any way they can. Point out to them that the General Assembly also needs to take leadership in addressing the annual multi-hundred million dollar shortfall in environmental investments. Ask them to take up these issues with their House and Senate leaders.

Resources and Background

Check out today’s Coalition letter to Pennsylvania legislators and Governor Wolf on this subject.

Why act now? Because the House will probably vote today and the Senate will probably vote soon after

See the Growing Greener Coalition’s website, https://pagrowinggreener.org for past Coalition communications and background material.

Visit GrowingGreener.info to learn more about how the projects funded by the Environmental Stewardship Fund benefit communities across Pennsylvania.

Find your legislators here.

Category: State Budget

Open Letter to Governor Wolf and Members of the General Assembly, 6/25/19

June 25, 2019 //  by Nate Lotze

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 Environmental Stewardship Fund was established to make environmental investments—to fund on-the-ground projects—not to pay for government operations. The need for a robust Environmental Stewardship Fund has never been greater given Pennsylvania’s billions of dollars of project needs:

  • to reduce destructive flooding, restore waterways to productive life, and protect drinking water
  • to address the Chesapeake Bay watershed, MS4, and other regulatory requirements that aim to achieve the same; and
  • to rehabilitate state park and forest infrastructure and county and local park facilities, support farmland preservation, and more.

Why, given this tremendous need, does the proposed budget divert roughly $10 million in potential ESF project investments to pay for government operations?

This spring, Pennsylvania’s watershed implementation plan for the Chesapeake identified a $257 million/year shortfall to restore water quality. This number doesn’t include needs in the Delaware, Ohio, and other river basins or non-water environmental infrastructure needs. Why are you on the verge of cutting $10 million from environmental projects when annual funding needs to be expanded by $100s of millions?

The pending budget expands the Rainy Day Fund. Pennsylvania is having plenty of rainy days—causing all manner of flooding problems. At a time when the State is proposing to increase the Rainy Day Fund, why would it cut funding for ESF investments? ESF will deliver on-the-ground results for communities now, and help us avoid future costs from water pollution and property damage.

Governor Wolf and members of the General Assembly, the Growing Greener Coalition requests that you:

  • Adjust the final 2019-2020 budget to ensure that there is no loss of new funding for environmental projects.
  • Move administrative expenses charged to ESF back into the General Fund.
  • Work to address the state’s multi-hundred-million-dollar annual shortfall in environmental investments—whether through Restore PA, some variation on it, or other funding mechanisms.

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]org

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

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

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]

Pennsylvania Park and Forest Foundation
Marci Mowery, President
[email protected]

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

Sierra Club PA Chapter
Joanne Kilgour, Chapter 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, PA State Director
[email protected]

Trout Unlimited
David Kinney, Eastern Policy Director
[email protected]

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

Category: State Budget

Make Your Voice Heard

June 21, 2019 //  by Nate Lotze

“Silence is the voice of complicity.” I’m reluctant to use this maxim, knowing that good people face many obstacles to voicing their concerns: shyness, uncertainty as to facts, burnout from years of seemingly talking to brick walls. Nevertheless, in Harrisburg, silence is in effect a position—a tacit endorsement of wherever the status quo is heading.

In the coming weeks, your state legislators will choose whether to build on past constructive efforts to help Pennsylvania communities by restoring waterways to productive life, reducing flooding, repairing parks, and conserving land—or backslide by diverting money from state funds that were established specifically to fund these efforts.

Your state senators and representatives need to hear from you. Silence tells them that you don’t care deeply about conservation of our natural and recreational resources—that they should focus their energies and state monies elsewhere. Don’t let this happen. Reach out and tell them to:

  1. Support the new green investments called for in the Governor’s Restore Pennsylvania proposal; and
  2. Oppose any budget that would divert money from the community and conservation investments made by the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and the Environmental Stewardship Fund. (More about the budget threats here.)

Also, please distribute this message to your friends, family, and colleagues (or use parts of it as you see fit).

Thanks for caring.

Andrew M. Loza

Executive Committee Member, Growing Greener Coalition

Executive Director, Pennsylvania Land Trust Association

Background and Resources

Find your legislators here

Summary of Restore PA’s conservation and environmental components

Information about budget threats to the Keystone Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund

Information about the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund

Information about the Environmental Stewardship Fund

Category: State Budget

All Major Pennsylvania Sportsmen and Wildlife Groups Oppose Environmental Funding Transfers

March 4, 2019 //  by Nate Lotze

In an unprecedented move, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Ducks Unlimited, National Wild Turkey Federation, Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited, Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen and Conservationists, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Quality Deer Management Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Trout Unlimited, and United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania wrote to members of the House and Senate opposing Governor Wolf’s proposal to use money from the Keystone Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund to pay the operating expenses of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).

Together, members of these organizations have contributed tens of thousands of hours of volunteer work to help restore Pennsylvania’s stream, woodland, and lake habitats. They are doing more than their share to restore Pennsylvania’s environment. This unprecedented joining of hunting, angler, and wildlife groups joins Pennsylvania’s major environmental, recreation, and mine reclamation groups in opposing the use of Environmental Stewardship and Keystone Fund project monies to pay the operating expenses of DEP and DCNR.

The letter read:

On behalf of the undersigned groups representing thousands of Pennsylvania sportsmen and women, we are writing today with major concerns about future funding for the Environmental Stewardship Fund (ESF) and the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund.

We value the projects funded by these programs that restore fish and wildlife habitat, improve sportsmen’s access to streams and forests, and enhance the conservation efforts of the Commonwealth’s independent fish and game agencies.

We are dismayed that the Governor’s budget proposal would redirect much-needed resources from the ESF and the Keystone Fund in order to pay for state government operations in the coming fiscal year.
We appreciate the need for the Commonwealth to properly fund the Departments of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). The work of those agencies is critical to ensuring healthy fish and wildlife habitat and plentiful outdoor recreational opportunities.

However, these resources should come from the General Fund—not from dedicated sources established to support local, on-the-ground projects that conserve and restore our waters, set aside natural lands, and support state parks and recreation.

In particular, the sportsmen and women represented by our organizations want to see more resources—not less—for the ESF, which funds the highly successful Growing Greener program.
In 2018, a statewide poll conducted for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership found that 80 percent of hunters and anglers support funding the Growing Greener program at $200 million annually. Under the Governor’s budget, expenditures for this critical work would be cut to $65 million in the coming year.

These ESF has provided critical seed money to conserve more than 80,000 acres of open space, restore more than 1,600 acres of abandoned mine lands, and fund 400 projects to reduce flooding and improve water quality.

The Keystone Fund has leveraged $1 billion to complete more than 5,000 projects. Every dollar from the ESF is matched by at least another dollar in additional investment; usually, the multiple is higher: Trout Unlimited, for example, raises another two dollars for every dollar invested by Growing Greener into its abandoned mine drainage (AMD) cleanup projects. Since 1993, every dollar spent from the Keystone Fund has leveraged three additional dollars.

These investments in our natural resources pay dividends. Healthy waterways are a critical component of Pennsylvania’s $28 billion outdoor recreational economy, which
Hunters and anglers alone contribute $1.3 billion to the Commonwealth’s bottom line.

The work funded by the Environmental Stewardship Fund and the Keystone Fund are a boon to sportsmen and women in Pennsylvania:

Sportsmen’s access and headwaters protection:
The Keystone Fund helped the Wildlands Conservancy and its partners acquire the 500-acre Klondike property, which was turned over to the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) to expand State Game Lands 312. Local chapters of Trout Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Ruffed Grouse Society, and the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen and Conservationists contributed to the purchase. This acquisition did not just provide public access to land where hunters can pursue deer, turkey, and grouse, but it also protected the headwaters of the Lehigh River, a popular destination for anglers and a source of drinking water for thousands of Pennsylvanians.

The ESF and the Keystone Fund also helped to preserve a 1,600-acre stretch of Blue Mountain that is open to seasonal hunting, and the headwaters of the Letort Spring Run, a spring creek in Cumberland County with Class A wild trout status and international renown.

AMD cleanup:
Since 1999, Trout Unlimited has been at work in the Kettle Creek watershed in Clinton, Potter, and Tioga counties, where coldwater streams were severely degraded by 19th century coal mining and clearcutting. Two decades of abandoned mine drainage (AMD) cleanup, habitat restoration, and streambank stabilization projects have improved water quality and heralded a rebound in the watershed’s native brook trout population. TU is also providing technical assistance to dozens of groups working in their own watersheds at hundreds of sites to clean up some of Pennsylvania’s 5,600 miles of AMD-impaired streams. In Centre County, Growing Greener helped the PGC and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation reclaim 40 acres of abandoned mine lands on State Game Lands 100, providing grasslands for elk, deer, turkey, and other species, and treating AMD pollution on Contrary Run.

Agricultural conservation:
On Warrior’s Mark Run, a wild trout water in Huntingdon County, the conservation district used ESF funding to help two local farmers protect the stream from grazing cows and their nutrient-rich manure.

The project, which included streambank restoration and installation of 10,000 feet of fencing and cattle crossings, provided multiple benefits: It ensured both a healthy fish population and improved water quality for downstream drinking water supplies.

Stream restoration:
In Lancaster County, the ESF provided portions of the funding for an ambitious restoration of Lititz Run that featured streamside buffer plantings, wetlands reconstruction, cattle fencing, streambank stabilization, in-stream restoration, and stormwater management improvements. The projects completed over the course of a decade led to improved water quality, lower stream temperatures, and a rebounding trout population. In Tioga County, the ESF helped finance restoration on Mill Run, eliminating downstream sediment buildup and enhancing the trout population. Construction of a fishing path provided better access for anglers, including those with disabilities. Much has been accomplished by projects funded by the Environmental Stewardship Fund and the Keystone Fund, but much remains to be done. Pennsylvania has 19,000 miles of impaired streams and rivers, more than 180,000 acres of abandoned mines. Thousands of acres of fish and wildlife habitat that sportsmen and women cherish are in need of conservation.

We urge you to work with your colleagues to craft a budget plan that leaves the ESF and the Keystone Fund intact, and going forward, to identify new sources to support the important and necessary work for which these funds were created.

Category: State Budget

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717.230.8560 | [email protected]

 

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