NORWICH – On Monday, lawmakers took a position against a state act that would exempt county land from gas drilling while scientific research on birds is carried out.
At a meeting of the Chenango County Board of Supervisors, a resolution was unanimously adopted urging the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to resist proclaiming the county a “forest focus and grassland designation” within its well permitting guidelines that are due out later this summer. The designation would subject landowners and forest owners to a multi-year study by a professional biologist on the breeding success of birds prior to permitting drilling.
Because the state already owns 90,000 acres in Chenango County, or nearly 15 percent, the DEC’s research into the breeding success of birds could be carried out on their own property, without imposing undue hardship on farmers and forest landowners who may decide to drill for natural gas, said Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, and chairman of the county’s Natural Gas Advisory Committee that proposed the resolution.
The designation would limit mowing to one cutting per year or less after the construction of well pads is completed. Mowing would also be prohibited during the nesting season for grassland birds. Both would negatively impact the quantity and quality of hay harvested by local farmers and limit options for timber stand management, according to the adopted ruling.
County officials agreed that the practice wouldn’t be as environmentally helpful as it aims to be. Because the act focuses on creating mature, closed canopy, it would prohibit management techniques favoring early-succession timber species such as black cherry, birch, aspen, as well as virtually prohibit management for in-need species, such as the ruffed grouse and the woodcock.
Flanagan said the county “is already wooded enough” and with the designation “would look like Northern Maine within 20 years.”