Conewago Canoe Club

[Guest]

Hi everybody,

You may have seen some information in the news lately about the possibility of State Parks and Forests closing if Senate Bill 850 is enacted. That is true but here is a little more information to give a bit of the real deal that’s going on.

First things first, we know that we are going to take a pretty big hit this year regardless of how the budget shakes out. We are going to lose people and positions. Our services are going to have to be minimal. We know it and we’ve prepared ourselves mentally for that (including me). We just don’t want to lose parks in the process.

There are currently two budget plans being discussed – the Governor’s Office budget and SB 850. The GO budget requires us to decrease our complement of positions by 35 full-time people and decrease the budget by 7 million dollars. Not great but it wouldn’t require us to close any parks.

SB 850 cut our budget by an ADDITIONAL 19 million dollars. That being said, the majority of State Parks budget is to pay people. If we have to cut more people/positions, that eventually means closing parks because there aren’t enough people there to maintain the park, keep people safe, offer programming, or even clean the bathrooms. By the way, we would also being cutting down our central office staff and regional office staff so it isn’t the field taking all the hits.

My major concern is that other states have closed parks and with no public outcry, they never reopened. This has happened in Rhode Island, California, and Ohio. Please don’t think that this will be a temporary thing. If no one cries fowl, why would the legislature give us money back in the future to reopen the parks?

Many people answer with charging an entrance fee. We’ve looked into this many times and it really doesn’t work out the way people think it would. Logistically, we would have to spend a huge amount of money to put in gates, close off access to roads, put in kiosks to charge, add staff, etc. to do so. The profit margin then becomes so minimal that it isn’t worth the expenditure. Personally, I also have a problem with this. If people are losing their jobs and can’t afford to take vacations – shoot they can barely afford their groceries – they can still take their kids, some PB&J sandwiches, and some toys to a state park and have a wonderful time for FREE. Is now really the time to implement an entrance fee?

Another common question – why not open more forestry land to drilling for oil and natural gas? The Bureau of Forestry is looking into this and will likely do that but we never get all the money so it won’t save all our parks. Also, we are a CONSERVATION agency not an exploitation agency. Our mission is to conserve and sustain Pennsylvania’s natural resources for current and future generations use and enjoyment. We have to keep that in mind with everything we do. By the way, the Marcellus Shale brought in 140 million dollars of which 133 million was taken by the legislature to balance the budget. The other 7 million dollars are ear-marked for a federally mandated program to study carbon sequestration.

Here is the list of the parks that are being considered for closure. The parks in parentheses are complexed with the park behind them – same staff. Notice Ralph Stover and Trough Creek – both have whitewater runs under the right conditions.

Archbald Pothole
Bendigo (Elk, Kinzua Bridge)
Blue Knob
Clear Creek
Colonel Denning (Fowlers Hollow, Big Spring)
Delaware Canal - Black Eddy Only (Ralph Stover)
Erie Bluffs
Evansburg
Greenwood Furnace (Penn Roosevelt, Whipple Dam)
Kettle Creek (Ole Bull)
Linn Run (Laurel Mountain, Laurel Summit)
Little Pine (Hyner Run, Hyner View, Upper Pine Bottom)
Memorial Lake (Swatara)
MK Goddard
Mt Pisgah
Norristown Farm
Oil Creek
Prompton
RB Winter (McCalls Dam, Ravensburg, Sand Bridge)
Reeds Gap (Poe Paddy, Poe Valley)
Ryerson Station
Salt Spring
Sam Lewis
Sizerville
Tobyhanna (Big Pocono, Gouldsboro)
Trough Creek
Yellow Creek
Warrior’s Path
White Clay Creek

What we need is public support and really it’s not that hard to give. If you want to show your support for keeping our public lands open, please phone-email-or call your senators and representatives and request that they come to a more reasonable compromise that would not require the closing of parks. Thanks.

Amy Hill

[BTrill]

Amy is there anyway we can get a petition going for this? The two creeks are jewels (from what I've read/heard) when the right rain hits us and I would hate to see them go away. Maybe we can make some kind of group act on this instead of calling our senators individually, although that should be done too. Any ideas?
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Don't eat the poisonous berries. - Sambino

www.RiverLeftProductions.com and of course www.starrkmoon.com.

[Frank]

Amy,

Thank you for the heads up. time to start calling and e-mails peeps!!

Candyman
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Reality is a figment of my imagination. It blurs the hallucinations.

[Guest]

Brenton,

Boy, I think a petition would be a great idea but to be honest, I don't really know how they work. I have signed a couple in my life but have never put one together. I'll have to defer to the other club members if they feel so led.

Thanks for the great idea.

Amy

[jon richards]

how about an organized march if we work at getting peeps that ride mtn> bike ,hike, fish, kayak etc. there are alot of us you know we just have to make people aware what is happening i will donate time. we can march at harrisburg what if it is possible to get many peeps there. shows the bums who waste tax payer money we who love the out doors are millions strong in pa.
there are bullitin boards for all these sports. lets as a club try to do this
anyone with me.
lets do it for the kids