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DCNR Budget Hearing: We Have A Unique Opportunity To Invest In Our Recreation, Clean Water & Land Conservation Infrastructure With Growing Greener III

Much of the discussion at the March 2 Senate hearing on DCNR’s budget request centered on the $1.4 billion backlog of safety and maintenance projects needed by Pennsylvania’s State Parks and Forests.

Sen. Carolyn Comitta (D-Chester), Minority Chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, kicked off the discussion.

“During the pandemic, more Pennsylvanians have accessed the state parks, as we've been seeing. Many of us have [visited] forests, preserves, and open spaces to enjoy the proven health benefits of outdoor recreation.

“Camping, hiking, fishing, snowmobiling, ATVing, and other outdoor recreation and tourism activities also represent a significant part of our economy.

“So my first question, has the increase in visits to our state parks continued through the pandemic? And, could you speak briefly on the economic impact that these millions of visits to our state parks annually have on local economies, small businesses, especially in our smaller and rural communities?”

DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said the number of visits to State Parks and Forests continue to be higher than they were before the pandemic.

“It was gratifying to us as public servants during the pandemic to be able to serve people at a time they needed us the most. You know, they showed up in droves.

“The first year of the pandemic, we saw a record-breaking attendance of 46 million. And so last year was down from that to 42 million. That's still much higher than it had been before.

“But interestingly, another measure we have are the reservations. This is people reserving a campsite, reserving a picnic area.

“The reservations have remained higher even this year which insinuates to us that people bought the camping equipment and became acquainted for the first time or reacquainted with camping. They're coming back.

“We've just seen a resurgence in the outdoors. And it's new people experiencing it for the first time. It's diverse people, which has been a long-term goal for us. And it's people in my generation that are relearning how much fun it is and coming back out.”

“We hired a Director of Outdoor Recreation, a gentleman from Penn State, to really understand the businesses, the economy and the providers associated with outdoor recreation.

“But just looking at the more modest numbers of what it brings to gross domestic product in Pennsylvania-- $12 billion. It's immense.

“Beyond the money, when you look at Pennsylvanian assets we have, the mountains, the streams, the small communities, the rivers, the parks-- we have a lot of parks, 121 state parks.

“We have 6,000 local parks. We have the most number of named rail trails of any state.

“With all these assets, we can attract people to live in Pennsylvania to refill the empty housing stock in these small communities, because people can telework now.”

Sen. Comitta: “As we continue to face the growing impacts of climate change, especially when it comes to increased precipitation, extreme weather, flooding-- what kinds of impacts have our state parks experienced?

“How will the proposed investment of $450 million in federal [American Rescue Plan] funding for Growing Greener III support DCNR in the face of these mounting challenges?”

Secretary Dunn used several examples, but started with the Hurricane Ida-damaged Delaware Canal State Park.

“The Canal near Upper Black Eddy, it was just completely blown out from Hurricane Ida. Farther down the canal, [there was] damage in numerous places.

“And, yet the Delaware Canal is a beautiful park. It draws a lot of economic value to Pennsylvania.

“When you look at the tourism around New Hope [Bucks County] and up and down that 16-mile stretch, it's worth fixing. And yet it's expensive to fix it. It's got about $70 million in needed [repairs] in that canal alone.

“And when we build it back, we're gonna build it with more climate resiliency for future blowouts to reduce the future blowouts.”

“The flooding in the Northcentral part of the state where there's deep river valleys and the Loyalsock, we saw two 1,000-year floods five years apart.

“With climate change driving deluges, we're really [getting a] pounding. A lot of our trails are near the rivers and such. And so we're having to build or rebuild.”

“It is so worth the investment, because it'll pay back to Pennsylvania's gross domestic product.

“But it’s more than that, it's quality of life for Pennsylvanians. It kind of defines us as people.

“We're an outdoor state. We love our land. We're hunters, anglers, boaters, hikers, bikers, equestrians, ATVers. We're just a population that loves the outdoors.”

Growing Greener III Proposal

“The first Growing Greener was Governor Ridge's [and Governor Schweiker’s]. It was [funded] from a landfill tipping fee increase.

“Then the second one was during the Rendell Administration.

“The governor proposed a Growing Greener III of $450 million [funded by an allocation from the federal American Rescue Plan funds].

“It lines up nicely with Senate Bill 525 [a bipartisan $500 million proposal by Sen. John Gordner (R-Columbia) & Sen. Carolyn Comitta (D-Chester)] and lines up nicely with Senator Yaw’s [proposal] for a Clean Streams [Fund].

“What’s in it for us-- it would allow us to address this infrastructure backlog.”

“There's a few things in this job that keep me awake a little bit at night and one of them is the unsafe dams. We have 139 dams in DCNR.

“You think about the state parks’ lakes and such. Forty-six are high hazard and several of them are structurally deficient. And some have deficient spillways. If a dam were to fail in one of these flood events, it could lead to catastrophic loss of life and the loss of properties.

“Growing Greener would allow us to pick off some of these expensive dams.

“We still only put dams out for bid using our capital funds, but our capital funds are too small for this. We don't have enough money, so it would allow us to get ahead of some of these infrastructure programs and problems.

“It would allow us to upgrade our trailheads and buildings. It would allow us to reach out to communities and meet some of the similar needs that the communities have.”

“It's really time for this infusion, it's past time for this infusion of dollars. It's an opportunity we all have to go to the next step, a generational step.”

Click Here to watch a video of DCNR’s Senate budget hearing.

[Take Action:

-- Take Action To Protect PA’s Parks & Forests]

NewsClips:

-- PA Cap-Star: DCNR Says $638 Million Budget Ask Will Add Staff, Address Aging Infrastructure

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Resource Links - DCNR:

-- DCNR Budget Hearing: We Have A Unique Opportunity To Invest In Our Recreation, Clean Water & Land Conservation Infrastructure With Growing Greener III

-- Republican Senators Propose Gas Drilling On At Least 22,000 More Acres Of State Forest, Mining 920 Acres Of Coal Under A State Park To Pay For DCNR Infrastructure Backlog

-- DCNR Budget Testimony: Critical Investments Needed To Reduce $1.4 Billion Backlog Of Infrastructure Repairs, To Expand Local Economies, Provide Recreation For All

-- DCNR Secretary Outlines 2022 Priorities To Conservation & Natural Resources Advisory Council, Including Need For $1.4 Billion In Infrastructure Improvements