Our Withering Wilds

[Outdoor Talk Network by Jim Slinsky]
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Our Withering Wilds ©

By Jim Slinsky
09/29/07

On September 13, 2007 the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources conducted a two-day meeting in Williamsport to discuss the current status and the future of the PA Wilds program. The keynote speakers were Mike DiBerardinis, Secretary of DCNR, Edward McMahon from the Urban Land Institute and Ted Eubanks of Fermata, our tourism consulting firm. Hopefully, you caught this meeting on PCN. The meeting was an attempt to take stock of the situation and ask attendees to produce ideas to help make PA Wilds successful.

As predicted, PA Wilds is in deep trouble. DCNR realizes they have a major public relations dilemma brewing. The state has spent millions to promote the program with less than an enthusiastic response from the public. Other than one thousand cars pouring into Benezette for two weekends of the year, Wilds tourists go relatively unnoticed. The recent Penn State study pinned the tourism at about 50,000 visitors per year with an economic impact of $1 million. (I wouldn’t call purchasing a Granola Bar and a bottle of water economic impact.) To say the state has lost its shirt putting this together would be a major understatement.

No where in this two-day meeting was hunting discussed. Fishing was mentioned, superficially. Interestingly, making the woods safe for hikers and bird watchers was discussed. Of course, the implication was hunting is dangerous and deters participation in the Wilds by non-hunters. We all know hunting is a very safe outdoor activity, but their negative words tell us precisely how DCNR is thinking. They want hunters out of the woods.

Secretary DiBerardinis did imply once again that the state would like to own all of northcentral PA. You must listen carefully and you will pick up the message of Yellowstone East or Adirondack South on occasion from DCNR. Apparently, the state sees total ownership of the area as the only method of protecting it from development. This is quite amusing as the bureaucrats secretly plan to build Mohican Sun’s on our mountaintops as they have in New York. This discussion is riddled with hypocrisy and contradictions. Heck, if the tourists did materialize we don’t have the sewage capacity in northcentral to handle the influx of people.

When we objectively review the actions of DCNR one can not stop themselves from playing connect the dots. It is politically incorrect to ask government “what is your long-term plan”. Question their intentions and one is labeled a conspiracy theorist.

However, the handwriting on the wall becomes more evident with each passing year. First, it was killing the deer; they are destroying our woods. This part was very successful. Second, it was build up a tourism industry based on elk viewing and change the social and cultural fabric of the northcentral. Hunting is out, nature viewing is in. Part two has not been successful. DCNR did not realize killing the deer would send the northcentral into a serious economic downward spiral. With established businesses teetering on bankruptcy, no prospective investor is going to make an investment in an economically collapsing area. DCNR did not anticipate this glitch. Part three was to continue to purchase land and drive taxes up for those remaining. This part is still unfolding with DCNR not hiding their intentions as taxes go up and up for our rural residents. Part four is warehouse the new land; don’t improve the habitat, just hold on to the asset because it is what is underneath the land that has the real value.

What we don’t know for certain is if all of this is by coincidence or if an active plan is at work. Some say DCNR is not smart enough to put this together, others say they are even smarter. What we do know for certain is the deer are gone, regeneration is not occurring, the tourists have not materialized and the northcentral is economic collapse.

At this point we should consider renaming the program to “Our Withering Wilds”.

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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