Nestled within 26,000 acres of the much larger Loyalsock State Forest, the Old Loggers Path is one of the Pennsylvania's most popular long-distance hiking trails. Recently, members of the Keystone Trails Association, Loyalsock Creek Watershed Association, Pennsylvania Forest Coalition, and the Responsible Drilling Alliance began to find red- and white-bannered stakes across the plateau to the north. The stakes, marked "APC," indicate the presence of Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, which has been actively drilling for natural gas in the region.

Natural gas drilling is set to sever the Old Loggers Path in at least four areas. This would disrupt not only the enjoyment of the trail, but the fragmenting of the forest would also impact local forest-dwelling bird populations. Furthermore, any increased nutrient and sediment runoff in the Loyalsock Creek will eventually flow to the Chesapeake Bay, endangering priority fish species such as the Brook Trout, and causing long-term pollution damage.

Due to a unique, 1932 deed restriction, this does not have to happen. According to this article in the Bay Journal, "The mineral rights to that tract were once owned by an attorney from the District of Columbia named Clarence Moore. The wording in the deed contains an unusual restriction in which the right of the mineral rights owner to access oil and gas from the surface was terminated after 50 years - in 1983. This 50-year limitation on surface access was challenged by Moore, but upheld by Commonwealth Court in 1989 which concluded that 'access subsequent to March 28, 1983, is controlled by the Commonwealth.' That conclusion was upheld again by the state Board of Claims in 1999."

Environmentalists say the deed restriction allows the state to greatly restrict drilling activity on that tract, or even require that it be accessed only through horizontal drilling from outside areas. However, the discovery of Anadarko's stakes and flags marking apparent drilling sites has worried Keystone Trails Association and other outdoor recreation and conservation groups that the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) is ceding its ability to regulate what happens on the surface.

This could be a landmark case for conservation. Keystone Trails Association is actively advocating for hikers' interests, and for the Old Loggers Path, in Harrisburg, but we need your help to achieve maximum benefit, and maximum change! Please write to DCNR Secretary Rick Allan at rjallan@pa.gov, and encourage him to broker an agreement with Anadarko that protects the Old Loggers Path and the headwater streams.

Saving the Old Loggers Path