STATE GAME LAND 59, Pa. — For those who have ever stalked deer, turkey and bear here in "God's Country" in north central Pennsylvania, this hunting season is like no other.God's Country? Yeah, that's the way the folk talk out there in State Game Land 59, Pennsylvania.
For one thing, it is louder. The soundtrack of birds chirping, thorns scraping against a hunter's brush pants and twigs crunching underfoot is now accompanied by the dull roar of compressor stations and the chugging of big trucks up these hills.This sounds like one of those NPR reports with a soft-voiced radioman crunching through the leaves.
The Marcellus Shale, a vast reserve of natural gas lies beneath some of this state's most prized game lands. And now, more and more drills are piercing the hunting grounds. Nine wells have cropped up on this one game land of roughly 7,000 wooded acres in Potter County, and permits have been issued for 19 more.7,000 wooded acres! Oh my gosh! That's half the size of Manhattan! Before long, what will be left of Pennsylvania?
An old dirt road that meandered up a ridge here has been widened and fortified. Acres of aspen, maple and cherry trees have been cut. In their place is an industrial encampment of rigs, pipes and water-storage ponds, all to support the extraction of natural gas through the process of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking.Acres of the most beautiful possible trees that people in NYC are capable of picturing. Aspen! Maple! Cherry! Replaced by — God help us! — industrial equipment! Oh, noooo! We had our heart set on thinking about you Pennsylvania rural types as rust-belters.
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