Spring Creek, Centre County, PA is in danger of being degraded by a land deal involving the Rockview Penetentury Land and adjacent canyon corridor along Spring Creek. Here is a link to an article on the FFP message board regarding the issue.

Article on FFP Message Board

According to Troutbert this is not a done deal and can still be overturned. I/We urge conservation minded and or fishermen/sportsmen to act now regarding this proplosed legislation. Perhaps enough opposition can influence the political action that seems emminent. It has in the past.

Please write either Snail Mail or email to your legislators and to your Governor; Ed Rendell, expressing your opinion on the matter.

To find your legislator, and their contact information, go here:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/find.cfm

To contact Gov. Rendell, go here:
http://www.governor.state.pa.us/gover ... 17&q=437853&governorNav=|

This isn’t very hard to do and it could really benefit Spring Creek.

Say that you OPPOSE the Rockview lands (Spring Creek Canyon and adjacent lands) being transferred to Penn State University and Benner Township.

And that you FAVOR these lands being transferred to the PA Game Commission, for the permanent protection of Spring Creek and it’s adjacent lands.


As Troutbert said, Quote:

Thank you for your anticipated support.

Maurice

It is now over....
The land was deeded over to Penn State according to the paper.

I checked the status of Senate Bill 740 and there has been no activity. Do you have a link or reference to the source of your information?

I just posted some information on this in the General forum. It looks like yesterday there was just a hearing on a new/different bill (H.B. 1657) on the land transfer.

This is PA State House Bill 1657 and it is not a done deal. I was at the hearing in Pleasant Gap yesterday. Ed Perry (NWF) and the Bob Leonard from the Sierra Club gave especially damning testimony against the bill. This deal appears to have been worked out between Penn State and the legislature long before any public comment was solicited. That is a big bone of contention as is the feeling by a lot of folks that Penn State will not be the best steward of the land. Proponents of the deal say that a land conservation plan will be developed once the deal is done. But once ownership of the land is transferred, the owner can pretty much do whatever he wants. Penn State will probably do agriculture experiments on the uplands and maybe even put buildings and roads up there. None of this would be good for Spring Creek or the critters living in the Canyon. Of course those in favor of that bill are denying this.

It is definitely not too late to send your cards and letter. Please do so.

Quote:

Wrong. See Ken's post for an accurate explanation of the status of the transfer of the Rockview lands. I was at the meeting also, and have been following this issue, and Ken's report is correct.

And as Ken said, people can still make their preferences known to their legislators. Some of the legislators seemed interested in the Game Commission ownership option.

Here's a link to the Bill in the House: HB 1657

Please note that the HB 1657 Proposal contemplates 3 conveyances with restrictions as follows:

The Conveyance to The Pennsylvania State University in Benner Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, Parcels 1.1 through 1.6 on plans prepared by Sweetland Engineering and Associates, Inc. are to be coveyed with this restriction:
"Under and subject to a condition that the land conveyed herein shall be used solely for agricultural purposes in the furtherance of the Grantees mission of education related to agricultural sciences. Should the Grantee attempt to convey the property, or utilize it for any other purpose, the property shall immediately revert to the Grantor."

Conveyance to Benner Township in Benner Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, Parcels 6.1 through 6.3 and 18 on plans prepared by Sweetland Engineering and Associates, Inc. are to be coveyed with this restriction:
"Under and subject to a restriction that the land conveyed herein shall be used solely for passive recreational open space for the benefit of the public at large. Should the Grantee attempt to convey the property, or utilize it for any other purpose, the property shall immediately revert to the Grantor."

Conveyance to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission in Benner Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, Parcels 7, 14 and 15 on plans prepared by Sweetland Engineering and Associates, Inc. are to be coveyed with this restriction:
"Under and subject 13 to a condition that the land conveyed herein shall be used 14 solely by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to carry out 15 their legislatively mandated functions and for no other purpose. 16 Should the Grantee attempt to convey the property, or utilize it 17 for any other purpose, the property shall immediately revert to 18 the Grantor."

The current status is: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT, June 28, 2007

The Bills are often amended in Committee. Members of the State government Committee presently have control of the language and whether it will be "reported out" meaning sent to the Floor for vote. Your contacts now should be with members of the State Government Committee in addition to the Governor's Office and your State Representative and Senator.


State Government Committee
of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives With Links

The land transfer bill got stopped by heavy public opposition. Now Mike Hanna is trying to do it again, by attaching it as an amendment to a non-controversial bill.

Is there any interest among paflyfish.com members in trying to stop this?

Here's the Centre Daily Times story:

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/600391.html

troutbert,

Thanks for the update. Pa politics at its finest!! Will be contacting my local Rep. Keep us posted if anything new comes out!

Thanks,
JH

Here’s the latest CDT story on the proposed transfer. Scroll down and look for the poll on the left side of page.

http://www.centredaily.com/116/story/608054.html

wow! do believe its time to act now! i cant understand for the life of me why...we want to threaten or endanger quite possibly the best wild trout stream on the east coast. Pennsylvania has such a rich flyfishing heritage. Letort, Big Spring and Spring Creek are so fabled. Let me know what i can do to help. Im starting by calling and writing annoying letters everyday until they get sick of me.

Troutbert,

Forgive me for being dense but could you summarize this article and accompanying legislation? On the surface what I read is that the one guy is rallying for legislation toward selling to the highest bidder while the other is pushing for Penns State to take the reigns. Am I correct? What am I missing and what can we do about it as Sal indicates. You've been the champion of this cause on here, please offer any clarification and advice you can. We'll try to keep the dogs off ya.

Thanks,

Maurice

woof!

palflyfish.com members and readers,

Thank you for your interest in this issue regarding Spring Creek.

Rep. Hanna has tried several times previously to transfer this big chunk of public land (roughly 1500 acres), which are currently Rockview Penitentiary lands. Most of the stream corridor land, often called Spring Creek Canyon, would go to Benner Township. The PFBC would get some stream corridor lands near their hatcheries. The biggest chunk of land, the uplands that flank both sides of the Canyon, would go to Penn State, specifically PSU’s Ag Science Department.

Penn State intends to farm the land and to build ag research buildings, on these lands flanking the Spring Creek Canyon.

There is very strong public opposition to this in Centre Cty and around the state. The sentiment here in Centre County, and among many other Pennsylvanians, is that the land should be conserved by a public resource agency, to protect these lands, to protect Spring Creek, and to insure future public access for open space recreation in this rapidly urbanizing area. Flyfishers are concerned about the land usage in regard to protecting the future health of Spring Creek from polluted runoff from ag lands and excessive volumes of stormwater runoff from developed research building sites and accompanying roads, parking lots and utilities.

The intense opposition has, so far, prevented Hanna from getting his legislation through, but he just won’t quit. His own bill has been stymied, so he is now trying to get this highly controversial transfer of this big chunk of public land run through by adding it as an amendment to a non-controversial bill from Sen. Corman, which would just transfer small parcels of land near the Benner Pike.

The Hanna amendment to divest these lands will be considered soon by members of the House Government Committee. The members of that committee are who you should contact. I put the contact info below.

Please write your message in your own words, but the message can be very simple and short. For example:
__________________________________________________

Re: Hanna amendment to SB 740, Rockview lands

Dear Representative,

Please vote against the amendment to SB 740, offered by Representative Hanna, which would transfer the Rockview lands to Penn State. I want the land owned and managed by a resource agency or conservancy that will hold and manage the land for the public's use and protection of our natural resources.
-------------------------------------------------------------

If you get a reply back from a representative, saying all the groups who objected to the transfer are now satisfied, or something similar, write them back and tell them that just isn’t so. Hanna has been telling this to other Reps, who don’t live in the area. It’s not so, and he knows it. It’s up to us to let the other Reps know just how the public really feels about it.

Most posts are put on this message board for discussion. There’s nothing wrong with that. But I’m hoping that flyfishers who fish Spring Creek will ACT on this.

You have to contact these Reps to have any effect on this issue. We can beat this thing. Rep Kerry Benninghoff is on our side in wanting to conserve that land. We can get that land permanently conserved, to protect the long-term health of Spring Creek. If you do contact legislator(s), please let me know. Thanks in advance.

Below is the list of the members of House Government Committee. You can email one or all of them. If you recognize a legislator from your area, be sure to tell them that you live in their district. If one of your legislators is on the committee, you may also want to call them on the phone.

The list is given twice. The first is a list of the representatives, with their email address. The second is a long, connected list of the email addresses, that you can cut and paste into the address window, if you want to email the whole group at once. You can send paper letters too. A Google search on any of these Reps will bring up a mailing address. Contact them any way you think best. They will be meeting on this issue soon.

Contact information for the members of the House State Government Committee:

Josephs, Babette, Chairman bjosephs@pahouse.net
Blackwell, Thomas W., Vice Chairman tblackwe@pahouse.net
Gibbons, Jaret, Secretary jgibbons@pahouse.net
Baker, Matthew E., Chairman mbaker@pahousegop.com
Mantz, Carl W., Secretary cmantz@pahousegop.com
Carroll, Mike mcarroll@pahouse.net
Cohen, Mark B. mcohen@pahouse.net
Curry, Lawrence H. lcurry@pahouse.net
Fabrizio, Florindo J. ffabrizio@pahouse.net
Freeman, Robert rfreeman@pahouse.net
Kortz, II,William C. bkortz@pahouse.net
Kula, Deberah dkula@pahouse.net
O'Brien, Michael H. dobrien@pahousegop.com
Oliver, Frank Louis
Parker, Cherelle L. cparker@pahouse.net
Ramaley, Sean M. sramaley@pahouse.net
Vitali, Greg gvitali@pahouse.net
Youngblood, Rosita C. ryoungbl@pahouse.net
Benninghoff, Kerry A. lbennington@pahouse.net
Clymer, Paul I. pclymer@pahousegop.com
Creighton, Tom C. tcreight@pahousegop.com
Gingrich, Mauree mgingric@pahousegop.com
Grell, Glen R. ggrell@pahousegop.com
Marshall, Jim jmarshall@pahousegop.com
McIlhattan, Fred fmcilhat@pahousegop.com
Quigley, Thomas J. tquigley@pahousegop.com
Rapp, Kathy L. klrapp@pahousegop.com
Vereb, Mike mvereb@pahousegop.com
Watson, Katharine M. kwatson@pahousegop.com

Here's the whole email list:

bjosephs@pahouse.net, tblackwe@pahouse.net, jgibbons@pahouse.net, mbaker@pahousegop.com, cmantz@pahousegop.com, mcarroll@pahouse.net, mcohen@pahouse.net, lcurry@pahouse.net, ffabrizio@pahouse.net, rfreeman@pahouse.net, bkortz@pahouse.net,dkula@pahouse.net, dobrien@pahousegop.com, cparker@pahouse.net, sramaley@pahouse.net, gvitali@pahouse.net, ryoungbl@pahouse.net, lbennington@pahouse.net, pclymer@pahousegop.com, tcreight@pahousegop.com, mgingric@pahousegop.com, ggrell@pahousegop.com, jmarshall@pahousegop.com, fmcilhat@pahousegop.com, tquigley@pahousegop.com, klrapp@pahousegop.com, mvereb@pahousegop.com, kwatson@pahousegop.com

Email sent to the entire list. I'd imagine I'll get a handful of replies. I'll let everyone know what I hear.

Thanks for the info, troutbert.