A Moratorium on Land Buying

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A Moratorium on Land Buying ©

By Jim Slinsky
04/04/09

As you are probably aware, I am not a big believer in political coincidences. In politics, things happen for a reason. There is almost always a game plan or shall we say an agenda, that is driving new legislation or new policy that manifests itself incrementally. You have to be willing to play the “connect the dots” game to get a feel for where we are headed. In all fairness sometimes it is incompetence that is the devil, other times it is malice.

Right now, I want to make you aware of a series of events that are unfolding that are contrary to the best interests of our Commonwealth. I will be criticized as a conspiracy theorist once again, but facts are facts. You can decide if the following is just a grand coincidence or a grand plan.

It was only a year ago that the PGC was denying that the Marcellus gas under State Game Lands would ever amount to any significant revenue. During the same timeframe the PGC cried poor-mouth as revenues from license sales and timbering were falling. Allegedly, they needed a license increase to make ends meet.

Today, as I write this, the PGC is in excellent financial shape. They have been signing gas contracts and millions of new dollars are now available. Most of this new money has been deposited in interest bearing accounts, not the Game Fund. Even more fascinating is the PGC has reinvented the barter game, accepting land in lieu cash. In just one example alone the PGC bartered approximately $6 million away for approximately 6000 acres. This is the equivalent of paying $1000 an acre, not the $400 an acre mandated by law. The examples go on and on. Thanks to the research of Dr. Dennis Wydra of the Unified Sportsmen of PA we can establish that anywhere from $17 to $23 million in new revenue should have been deposited in the Game Fund. The PGC has become masters at squirreling money away. The question is why? To buy more land? Why?

It is a fact that we are losing bunches of hunters each year. I say it is the deer reduction program that is most responsible, the PGC will say it is the old age of our hunters. Why does the PGC need more land with a rapidly diminishing base of hunters? A quick glance at their press releases and it seems the PGC has become a resource extraction, land-buying agency, not a wildlife management agency. Why haven’t the millions of new revenue been spent on habitat improvements to enhance our tradition? Why aren’t we fixing our collapsing forests, another “fact” that can longer be denied? Why pursue a license increase when it is obvious this will only accelerate the loss of our hunter base? One must ask if anti-hunters are now running the Agency. It seems like the Agency is doing all it can to get itself merged.

DCNR is really not any better. They have had an incestuous relationship with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, environmental groups and the grant system for years. The net result has been a land buying rampage and no deer. Interestingly, regeneration didn’t occur and the PA Wilds is in the tank. Once again, you must forgive me for implying an agenda, incompetence or malice.

The hamlets of our rural areas have been imploding for the last decade. Willing sellers are being created at a constant rate. Our rural areas are depopulating and so is the tax base for the counties and municipalities. Our rural counties have turned to begging for state assistance. The welfare mentality is spreading its wings over the entire state.

It may have started with the eradication of our deer, but the stakes are much higher for our rural residents. There is a bit of levity in this “connect the dots” game. As citizens sell their land and move out, we don’t need as many legislators to represent the people who no longer live there. I can remember joking with Senator Scarnati. “Joe, if this trend continues, soon you will be the only Senator from Erie to Susquehanna County”. At the rate we are going, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh politics will rule PA and there will be nothing our rural residents can do to stop it.

None of the above is rocket science. It takes proactive legislators to correct the impending catastrophe. It can all start with a moratorium on buying any more land by our state agencies.

Jim Slinsky is the host and producer of the “Outdoor Talk Network”, a nationally syndicated, outdoor-talk radio program. For a station near you or to contact Jim, visit his website at www.outdoortalknetwork.com.

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