Those forests (Buchanan, Clear Creek and Tioga) occupy land once owned by timber and iron industries that clear cut all of the trees in those forests during the mid-to-late 1800s causing tremendous environmental degradation from frequent wildfires to soil erosion and stream pollution.
Pa began buying this degraded land with tax revenues at the turn of the 20th Century to undo the damage created by corporations that made fortunes and provided jobs but left state tax payers literally holding the bag for clean-up. Many of Pa's state forests and public lands were purchased from industries that damaged the land for profit.
Experts say today's Marcellus Shale extraction is causing environmental degradation that under current procedures tax payers will have to correct in the future.
"Corbett should at least collect some money for the reclamation of land and waterways that will be necessary in the future," one economist said.
Corbett appointed his Lieutenant Governor to examine economic development and environmental issues related to Marcellus Shale extraction yet Corbett's budget proposes eliminating 69 positions from state environment protection agencies at the very time when more environmental monitors not less are needed.
This onslaught unleashed against the middle and working classes by Republican governors and GOP dominated legislatures nationwide has sparked unprecedented protests across America during the past month opposing cuts in education, employment and environmental protections.
Many of the persons vocally participating in these protests come from normally apolitical middle-class sectors.
Protestors' now realize how Republican/Tea Party deficit reduction rhetoric produces fiscal initiatives devastating to their standards of living while enriching the rich.
Targeted middle-class members now realize that these harsh conservative budget initiatives inflict fiscal pain they once thought were reserved primarily for the poor and persons of color.
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