Shale Gas Monitoring Report

Shale Gas Monitoring Report JULY 2018 Preface Approximately eight years ago, DCNR Bureau of Forestry established a new program to monitor shale gas development activity on state forest lands. Monitoring, which can be defined as repeated measurements over time to determine trends or patterns, helps us as resource managers better understand the activity, how to best manage it, and its impact on other uses and values of the state forest system. Article 1 Section 27 of the Pennsylvania constitution affirms DCNR’s role as a trustee of the commonwealth’s public natural resources, charged with conserving and maintaining them for current and future generations. Ensuring sound management of the natural resources on our state forests and park lands is one of the ways we carry out this responsibility. Using science to monitor how we manage our lands, specifically in the context of oil and natural gas development currently permitted on certain areas of our state forest lands, is an important way to assess the impacts of this activity and employ adaptive resource management to ensure natural gas is sustainably extracted and protections are in place to minimize impacts to our treasured state forests. Since 2010, no new leases have been issued for natural gas development in state forests. In 2015, at the recommendation of the DCNR Secretary, this policy was formalized by Governor Wolf in an Executive Order. The Order stated that in order to protect the lands of the Commonwealth held in trust for its citizens and future generations no State Park and State Forest lands owned or managed by DCNR shall be leased for oil and gas development. None-the-less, significant tracts of state forest land remain subject to development due to severed mineral rights or leasing prior to 2011. Understanding the impacts of existing development, in order to inform our management approach going forward, is critical. What follows is the second comprehensive shale gas monitoring report that represents significant efforts of Bureau of Forestry staff. The purpose of the report is to communicate our data and findings as objectively and credibly as possible to help our stakeholders and the public better understand the development that has taken place to date and target or adjust management accordingly. This report builds off data and information from the 2014 Shale-Gas Monitoring Report. When possible, we compare the different time periods to illustrate changes and trends. While after more than eight years we can begin to see some trends, natural resource monitoring is a long-term endeavor, and it may take longer to discern other trends in resource change and conditions. While we strive to report our data as objectively as possible, natural resource values are still a reflection of human values. How people view and interpret information can reflect their point-of-view. For example, people who value interior forest conditions or undeveloped recreational experiences might find an increase in road mileage troubling. However, people who value improved access might view the increase more positively. What we value reflects how we view information. While each chapter contains a depth of information and data about the activity on state forest land, there are a few key learnings from the report that I’d like to highlight. • Development has slowed considerably since the 2014 report, when we reported that approximately 1,425 acres had been converted for shale gas infrastructure. Since then, we are reporting a conversion of 334 acres. This is one of the primary indicators of development, and it demonstrates the decrease of activity on state forest land due largely to market forces and to a lesser extent the prohibition on new leasing. • We need to continue to work to balance shale gas development with the full range of recreational experiences on state forest. While shale gas infrastructure can increase visitor access and improve roads and bridges, it can also have the potential to impact the recreational experiences of visitors who may seek more primitive, undeveloped recreational experiences. • Invasive plants are of increasing concern as their presence and quantities are on the rise. Disturbed sites are ideal for the establishment of invasive plants that often emerge early in the spring and outcompete native plants through their rapid reproduction. The bureau is constantly on the look-out for invasive plants and prioritizing the control of these plants based on the species and population size. • Water quality monitoring efforts by the bureau and its partners have not raised significant concerns on state forest headwater streams to date. However, these are still relatively short-term results and may not be indicative of long-term or cumulative effects that can only be detected through long-term monitoring efforts. • We have thus far, through planning and careful siting, minimized forest fragmentation caused by additional shale gas infrastructure. Many areas of state forest subject to shale gas development are also valued from a statewide and regional level for interior forest conditions and habitat. As development proceeds under historic leases or where mineral rights are not owned by the commonwealth, we need to continue our efforts to minimize forest fragmentation. • Shale gas development will be an activity on the state forest for many years to come. While there is currently a moratorium of the leasing of additional acres, many tracts of state forest are subject to gas activity through severed mineral rights ownership. Additionally, many state forest leased tracts are only built out by approximately 30 to 35 percent. These are just a few observations from the report. There are many others, and I invite you to read the report and draw your own conclusions about how the activity affects the state forest system and the values or activities you care about most. We welcome your feedback and observations as we continue to adapt our management and monitoring practices to balance uses and values and sustain our forests for current and future generations. Ellen M. Shultzabarger Pennsylvania State Forester Shale Gas Monitoring Report 1 Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................ 3 Chapter I: Introduction ........................................ 7 Chapter II: Gas Monitoring Program ................ 20 Chapter III: Shale Gas Production and Administration ................................................. 30 Chapter IV: Shale Gas Infrastructure and Shale Gas Development ................................. 43 Chapter V: Ecosystem Condition ..................... 78 Chapter VI: Forest Use: Wild Character, Recreation, and Community Engagement ........................ 147 2 Shale Gas Monitoring Report Executive Summary DCNR’s mission is to conserve and sustain Pennsylvania’s natural resources for present and future generations’ use and enjoyment. DCNR’s primary responsibility in managing state forest lands is to sustain their long-term health, viability, and productivity for current and future generations — maintaining what the public cherishes most about the forests of Pennsylvania; their natural beauty, serenity, and wildness that cannot be found in other residential, commercial, or industrial landscapes of the commonwealth. The DCNR Bureau of Forestry is broadly responsible for conserving the forests and native wild plants of the commonwealth. One of its most significant roles is to act, in the public trust, as stewards of the commonwealth’s 2.2-million- acre state forest system. The bureau strives to balance and provide opportunities to experience the diverse, and often competing, uses and values of state forests. The bureau strives to balance and provide opportunities to experience the diverse, and often competing, uses and values of state forests. The bureau’s management is guided by its mission statement: “…to ensure the long-term health, viability and productivity of the Commonwealth’s forests and to conserve native wild plants.” Part of the bureau’s mission is to accommodate the environmentally sound utilization of mineral resources on state forest land. Shale gas development on state forest land in the Marcellus shale fairway began in 2008 with the lease of approximately 74,000 acres. The period between 2008-2012 was marked by the rapid exploration and development of Marcellus shale resources. Due to the quantity of natural gas being sent to market during this period, gas prices decreased leading to a marked slowdown in new development and infrastructure construction on state forest land during the 2013-2016 time period. This second DCNR Shale Gas Monitoring Report summarizes the context, the extent, and the effects shale gas development has on the resources, uses, and values of state forest land. Chapter I: Introduction Oil and gas development has been part of state forest management since 1947. • Since 1947, there have been 74 oil and gas lease sales resulting in more than 2,000 conventional and unconventional wells being drilled on state forest land. • There are approximately 1,542,810 acres of state forest land in the Marcellus Shale fairway and some of this acreage has been leased for shale gas development. Shale Gas Monitoring Report 3 • There are three types of oil and gas ownership • The program monitors a suite of values on state forest lands: Severed Gas Rights that were identified through the assistance of (the commonwealth owns the surface rights, but external advisory groups to identify the effects a private interest(s) own the subsurface

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