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DCNR launching new study for state parks

HARRISBURG — Offi­cials are launching a public review of the basic mission of the Pennsylvania state parks for the first time in 25 years.

The study of the 121-park system by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources comes with a number of parks in urban areas drawing record crowds on holiday weekends and follows periodic debate over development of the parks’ amenities and natural resources.

The first step in developing a new strategic plan for the parks is a public survey being offered online and to park visitors and a series of public input meetings. The survey includes questions about park amenities and modern conveniences, overnight accommodations and the best way to finance and protect the state parks.

DCNR’s Bureau of State Parks hopes to issue a preliminary report on a new plan by fall 2018 and a final report in 2019.

This would update a plan issued in 1992 under the banner “Pennsylvania State Parks 2000.” The 1992 plan resulted in efforts to modernize facilities, build new cabins and expand education programs, said DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn.

“This (new plan) is looking ahead by at least 20 years,” said DCNR spokesman Terry Brady.

The state parks’ popularity was evident during the Fourth of July weekend, Brady said. Several parks in the Philadelphia region were filled to capacity and had to turn away visitors. But even parks in rural areas, like Cherry Springs State Park in Potter County, are drawing visitors from far off, Brady said.

In the case of Cherry Springs, distance from city lights makes it attractive for stargazing.

The state park system grew to its current size with an ambitious expansion program during the 1960s and 1970s to locate a park within 25 miles of every Pennsylvania resident. Nearly 60 new parks were created between 1955 and 1979, many with man-made reservoirs and boat marinas.

Recent additions include Erie Bluffs State Park on Lake Erie and the transfer of Washington Crossing Historic Park in Bucks County to the state park system from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

A current state administrative code bill would authorize DCNR to study the feasibility of a new park along the Susquehanna River in Wyoming County.

Since the 1990s, lawmakers have periodically introduced bills to allow private developers to build lodges and golf courses at selected state parks as a way to draw more tourists and generate revenue. The 1992 plan recommended that resort complexes should not be developed because they may significantly diminish the natural or historic character of the parks. Since then, DCNR has opened The Nature Inn at Bald Eagle at Bald Eagle State Park in Centre County.

The resort issue surfaced again last year with legislation directing DCNR to hire a consultant to recommend where new commercial facilities like lodges and golf courses could be built in state parks. The House voted 123-77 to reject the measure in June 2016.

The other development issue concerns potential drilling for natural gas in state parks. DCNR doesn’t own underground mineral rights in many of the state parks.

Gov. Tom Wolf issued an executive order in 2015 reinstating a moratorium on leasing new state forest and state park land for oil and gas drilling. This action rescinded former Gov. Tom Corbett’s order allowing new horizontal drilling into state parks and forests from adjacent private lands or existing well pads.

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