EIS Comments - FERC Scoping Meeting on August 4, 2014 Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company, LLC
Docket No. PF 14-8-000
Submitted by Dr. Aaron Haines
Certified Wildlife Biologist & Assistant Professor of Conservation Biology
Millersville University, Millersville Pennsylvania
Hello, my name is Aaron Haines and I am speaking asa Certified Wildlife Biologist and as an Assistant Professor of Conservation Biology for Millersville University in Millersville, PA. I thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with you on the importance of maintaining the River Hills ecosystem of Lancaster County, which includes Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve and the Tucquan Glen Nature Preserve. In addition, I wish to make it known my support of the comments offered by Mike Burcin, CEO/COO of the Lancaster County Conservancy. Below I offer the following additional comments.
Properties owned by the Lancaster Conservancy along the River Hills ecosystem have provided my studentsfree lab space in taking courses in Mammalogy, Ornithology and Conservation Biology. Areas like Shenks Ferry and Tucquan Glen provide my students an environment to apply on the ground field skills to be used in service learning. This is where students gain needed field experience while benefitting the local community. In these areas, students in my class inventory local flora and fauna via surveys, establish trails, map transects, conduct trapping and much more. All this data is then shared with the local community and then applied to local conservation efforts.
While working in the River Hills ecosystem, the students and I discuss the importance of having these areas and how they benefit the local ecosystem and community. Albeit at a small scale, the Lancaster River Hills ecosystem, including Shenks Ferry and Tucquan Glen, provide important ecosystems services (free services provided by these properties to the public of Lancaster County) such as improving air quality for local residents, dissipating the kinetic energy of storm runoff to lessen flow of sediment, and the filtering of agricultural pollutants (e.g., access nutrients, animal waste, herbicides, insecticides etc.), from entering the Susquehanna river, thus benefitting the Chesapeake bay which supports local commercial fisheries. The vegetative communities of the River Hills ecosystem also provides herbicide and pesticide free habitat to important plant pollinating species of invertebrates, which freely pollinate many agriculturalplants for the surrounding neighbors. Also, the shade provided by these forests coollocal streams and creeks, thus increasing oxygen levels for native Brook trout as well as rainbow and brown trout for fisherman and women.
The Lancaster River Hills ecosystem, and the wetlands within, also providesimportant breeding habitat for many different species of vertebrate fauna, including different species of reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. Many Neotropical species of birds breed on these River Hills and many more migratory birds follow the SusquehannaRiverback and forth from the Mountains of Pennsylvaniaand use the Forest Hill ecosystem as important stopover habitat during migration. Based on the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pennsylvania Boat Commission webpages, the geographic range of the following state listed species overlap the River Hills ecosystem of Lancaster Pennsylvania, includingblack-crowned night herons, peregrine falcons, osprey, rough green snakes, easternred belly turtles and including the federally listed Bog Turtle under the Endangered Species Act. The River Hills ecosystem is also home to a number of game species for hunters.
A pipeline that intersects the River Hills ecosystem will negatively impact these wildlife species via the effects of fragmentation. The impacts of fragmentation, as a result of the pipeline, would include: a decline in habitat space for both flora and fauna, it would increase the spread of invasive species such as feral cats and tear-a-thumb plant, it would make native species more susceptible to increased predation events as well as increase their exposure to parasites, disease and increasedhuman activity. In addition, pipeline right of ways are usually sprayed with herbicides so forests do not grow back, and thus the impacts of fragmentation would continue at these sites and not disappear over time.
These lands are enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year includinglocal families, sportsmen, sportswomen and students from Pre-K to Post Graduate. These are some of the last remaining forested lands in Lancaster County. They are islands of forested public lands that are held together by the Lancaster County Conservancy for the public benefit. These areas improve public access to the river, preserve environmentally sensitive areas and the forested river landscape, improve water quality, provide additional recreational opportunities, and revitalize the Rivertown communities of Marietta, Columbia and Wrightsville.
Our community wishes to maintain the ecosystem services provided by the River Hills ecosystem,which provide biological, ecologically, recreationally and economic benefits. Hence, I believe it is most prudent to avoid a pipeline route that intersects the heart of the River Hills ecosystem of Lancaster County, which includes Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve and the Tucquan Glen Nature Preserve.The big question is, if the pipeline runs through this ecosystem, how will the community be reimbursed for the lost services provided by the River Hills? I thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Aaron Haines.
Aaron Haines Ph.D., Certified Wildlife Biologist ®
Assistant Professor of Conservation Biology
MILLERSVILLE UNIVERSITY
P.O. Box 1002, Millersville, PA 17551-0302
Phone: 717-872-3355