Impacts of Leasing Additional State Forest Land
Gas drilling on state forest land has effects on plants and animals, on the integrity of the forest, and on recreational users of our public lands. DCNR manages our state forest lands with an eye toward balancing the various values and uses, to protect the health of our forests now, and 100 years from now.
Currently, 700,000 acres of our 2.2 million acre state forest are available for natural gas extraction.
This series of GIS maps shows how additional natural gas leasing on state forest land will effect water quality, ecological integrity, backcountry recreation, scenic beauty and other social and environmental values.
Natural Gas Impacts Mapping Analysis (7.04 MB)
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This anaylsis shows that no additional leasing involving surface disturbance can occur without significantly altering the ecological integrity and wild character of our state forest system.
Supporting Documents - The following documents include reports and analysis on recent gas leasing activities and the impacts of additional state forest leasing.
| Oil and Gas Philosophy | DCNR's basic philosophies and guiding principles. |
| Lease Sale Decision-making Process | Describes the steps involved in arriving at a lease sale along with associated reviews and analyses. |
| Forest Certification Analysis | DCNR's internal review of Forest Stewardship Council standards as it relates to oil and gas activities on State Forest lands. |
| Projected Forest Conversion | Estimated amount of forest conversion (loss of forest land) that would occurr resulting from oil and gas activities on State Forest lands. |
| 2008 Lease Sale SFER | The State Forest Environmental Review (SFER) for DCNR's 2008 lease sale. |
| 2009-2010 Lease Sale SFER | The State Forest Environmental Review (SFER) for DCNR's 2009-2010 lease sale. |
| 2010 Lease Sale SFER | The State Forest Environmental Review (SFER) for DCNR's 2010 lease sale. |
| Statewide Assessment - Energy Development | Link to the Energy Development Chapter of the Statewide Forest Resource Assessment. |
| Statewide Strategies - Marcellus Shale | Link to the Strategies identified for Marcellus Shale from the Statewide Forest Resource Assessment and Strategy Project. |
