Hawks swoop in and gobble up songbirds.Find a great selection of customkeychain deals.
Raccoons feast on nests of eggs they never could have reached before.
Salamanders and wildflowers fade away, crowded out by invasive plants
that are altering the soil they need to thrive.
Like
a once-quiet neighborhood cut up by an expressway and laced with off
ramps, northeastern forests are changing because of the pipelines
crisscrossing them amid the region's gas drilling boom, experts say.
Environmentalists
have loudly worried that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, may
threaten water and air,When describing the location of the problematic howotipper. though the Obama administration and many state regulators say the practice is safe when done properly.
Threats
to wildlife have flown largely under the radar. But as studies detail
plans for thousands of miles of new pipelines and related
infrastructure, the dangers to biologically rich forests that have
rebounded since vast clear-cutting in the 1800s are taking on new
urgency.
"If
you wanted to create a perfect storm for biological invasion, you would
do what the energy companies are doing in north-central Pennsylvania,"
said Kevin Heatley, an ecologist with the national firm Biohabitats who
works to restore areas that have been damaged by human activity. "You
can only put so many bloody parking lots in the woods."
Energy companies,Cheap logo engraved luggagetag at
wholesale bulk prices. which say they are being responsible stewards of
the land, have rushed to unlock the natural gas lying in the shale
beneath Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The gas has lowered energy
costs, allowed the U.S. to lessen reliance on foreign energy and
provided private landowners who sit atop well sites with a gold mine in
royalties. New York, which also has large reserves, is trying to decide
whether to allow fracking.
To
get the gas to market, hundreds of miles of pipeline are being laid
along clear-cut forest "tunnels" sometimes dozens of yards wide.
The
new energy development is "almost a spider web coming down to the
forest," said Nels Johnson, of the Pennsylvania chapter of The Nature
Conservancy, which estimates the state could see thousands of miles of
new pipelines over the next two decades.
Even
northeastern states that have put a hold on fracking aren't immune,
because many import natural gas. The U.S. Energy Information
Administration found that 245 miles of new pipelines were laid in the
Northeast last year, and that figure is projected to grow.
Wind
turbine development poses similar threats, too. The Nature Conservancy
says Pennsylvania already has more than 600 of the giant blades, with
the potential for thousands more in coming decades.
The
total acreage taken up by the pipelines, wind projects and related
development isn't that large, but the open spaces they create allow
predators and invasive species to permeate a canopy of trees that once
kept them at bay.
It's
not hypothetical, scientists say. Studies and observations have
documented invasions. And just as with humans, the uninvited guests
change the neighborhood.
Forest
fragmentation opens the door to invasive species such as the cowbird, a
type of blackbird that normally prefers open land, said Bridget
Stutchbury, a biologist at York University in Toronto who studies forest
songbirds.
"The
female cowbird sneaks around the forest, laying her egg in other
species' nests," Stutchbury said. Forest birds such as thrushes and
warblers don't realize the egg isn't theirs and expend energy raising
chicks from another species in what she called a "nifty strategy for
child-rearing."
The
droppings that cowbirds and other invaders leave behind can also
contain seeds from invasive plants that will sprout, spread and
ultimately change the soil so much that some forest salamanders and
wildflowers can't survive, experts note.
A
report by the U.S. Geological Survey, released last week, found that in
Pennsylvania's Susquehanna County, at the heart of the drilling boom,
the number of patches or sections of forest increased by about 156
between 2001 and 2010, with Marcellus Shale drilling and related
pipelines responsible for most of the change.
The energy industry said that it welcomes original research, but that it should be seen in context.
The
Geological Survey report, said Patrick Creighton, a spokesman for the
Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, found that oil and gas
activity affected less than 1 percent of the forest area in Allegheny
and Susquehanna counties.
That number may seem small, but experts say it's a cause for concern, nonetheless.
"As
an ecologist, you can look at that and say, wow, there are going to be
changes," said Terry Slonecker, the researcher who authored the USGS
report, noting it's too early to know where fragmentation has gone too
far.
There
is concern even at the numbers the USGS found, Stutchbury said, noting
that without serious reforestation efforts, "we can anticipate really
big impacts not just on birds, but all these forest critters."
Creighton, of the drilling coalition, said companies are sensitive to the issue.
"Well
sites and pipeline right of ways are temporary construction projects on
mostly private land that will be reclaimed after work is complete," he
said.
The
company KinderMorgan is building a gas pipeline extension in
northeastern Pennsylvania that has attracted protests from environmental
groups. Spokesman Richard Wheatley said that the company follows the
guidance of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for all interstate
pipeline projects and that other state and federal agencies can be
involved,Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data
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"Once
a project is placed in service, companies follow up with additional
environmental and safety monitoring/inspection and remediation,"
Wheatley said in an email.
Heatley,
the ecologist, said that "not one" of the energy companies drilling in
the area has a long-term restoration plan for sensitive deep-forest
environments,You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. and that permits usually require only minimal restoration, such as planting grasses.
Still,
the reality is that modern life demands resources and energy, and even
the alternatives such as wind turbines can threaten forests, too.
The
Nature Conservancy is examining potential effects from gas drilling and
wind turbines on an eight-state region from New York to Tennessee. That
report is due out later this year. The group notes that old and new
energy sources have both promise and risk.
Careful
planning and reforestation efforts could reduce the effects of
pipelines, wind turbines and other human activity, scientists said. For
example, multiple pipelines could go on one right of way, or wind
turbines might go on land already barren because of old coal mining.
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