Fracking Bald Eagle Forest?

Windmills?

From the pic I cannot tell if the pads are located at or near the top of a mountain.

I own property on South Mountain near Forkston, Wyoming County and the pads look a lot like the prep for installing windmills.
 
I find it highly unlikely that its anything other than a routine logging or management type project. I think we would've seen information about a project that would have long term implications on a state forest with a permanent installation of any nature (Wind farm, cell tower, etc).
 
There's been a moratorium on cell towers on PA state forest lands since 2000.

As far as I'm aware, wind farms have not been permitted on state forest lands.

I can't imagine anything but logging or a conservation project wouldn't have garnered quite a bit of attention before ground was broken.
jifigz said:
I just meant those could be the landing/loading pads for piles of logs and trucks for the clear-cuts. I'm not saying the spots shown in the pictures are for grouse habitat.

I'll admit that I know virtually nothing about commercial logging procedures. I'm just casting my wish out there hoping it's work being done for grouse.
Click to expand...

Got it. That would be good it that is what they were working on. I never saw a lot of grouse in the area but haven't seen any for a few years. If you look at the doc I posted, there is grouse habitat work for this year but I don't think in that specific area.
 
Asked the park ranger and his first guess was something for invasive species but said he heard nothing. Said to call Bureau of Forestry. No way would they be stripping topsoil and moving rock for creating grouse habitat.
Would they have checked Rattlesnake dens and other habitat before the bulldozed everything?
A lot of things being done very stealthily out there these days and I am very suspicious.
 
Dear Board,

I figured it out. On that ground both a Sheetz and a Wawa will be built. They will settle the battle for Central PA once and for all! 😉

Honestly, and I'll be generous, there is maybe 3 acres of cleared and leveled land, and that is a very generous estimate. If a substantial logging operation that includes mechanized sorting and out loading along with any grinding or chipping 3 acres is nothing. Trucks and trailers need to maneuver, loaders need to unload and sort logs, and a 1000HP grinder needs at least 400 feet of clear space to eliminate damage or injury from objects that can potentially be thrown from the grinder. I've seen things get thrown from them personally. It's scary if you don't get hit, it can easily be worse.

Not everything is a conspiracy. Sometimes things happen as planned and intended, despite what you, or I, or anyone else thinks.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
riverwhy said:
Asked the park ranger and his first guess was something for invasive species but said he heard nothing. Said to call Bureau of Forestry. No way would they be stripping topsoil and moving rock for creating grouse habitat.
Would they have checked Rattlesnake dens and other habitat before the bulldozed everything?
A lot of things being done very stealthily out there these days and I am very suspicious.
Click to expand...
Call the Bald Eagle State Forest office.

The state park people deal with state park stuff and have nothing to do with Bureau of Forestry work.
 
TimMurphy said:
Dear Board,

I figured it out. On that ground both a Sheetz and a Wawa will be built. They will settle the battle for Central PA once and for all! 😉

Honestly, and I'll be generous, there is maybe 3 acres of cleared and leveled land, and that is a very generous estimate. If a substantial logging operation that includes mechanized sorting and out loading along with any grinding or chipping 3 acres is nothing. Trucks and trailers need to maneuver, loaders need to unload and sort logs, and a 1000HP grinder needs at least 400 feet of clear space to eliminate damage or injury from objects that can potentially be thrown from the grinder. I've seen things get thrown from them personally. It's scary if you don't get hit, it can easily be worse.

Not everything is a conspiracy. Sometimes things happen as planned and intended, despite what you, or I, or anyone else thinks.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
Click to expand...
Data center 😀
 
TimMurphy said:
Dear Board,

I figured it out. On that ground both a Sheetz and a Wawa will be built. They will settle the battle for Central PA once and for all! 😉

Honestly, and I'll be generous, there is maybe 3 acres of cleared and leveled land, and that is a very generous estimate. If a substantial logging operation that includes mechanized sorting and out loading along with any grinding or chipping 3 acres is nothing. Trucks and trailers need to maneuver, loaders need to unload and sort logs, and a 1000HP grinder needs at least 400 feet of clear space to eliminate damage or injury from objects that can potentially be thrown from the grinder. I've seen things get thrown from them personally. It's scary if you don't get hit, it can easily be worse.

Not everything is a conspiracy. Sometimes things happen as planned and intended, despite what you, or I, or anyone else thinks.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
Click to expand...
I will try to send a photo for perspective but these clearings had to be at least 50 acres.
 
riverwhy said:
I will try to send a photo for perspective but these clearings had to be at least 50 acres.
Click to expand...
50 acres is huge. You photo in post 1 looks like a couple acres.

Now a 50acre clearcut wouldn't be that uncommon.

Call the Bald Eagle Forest District office and ask for the District Forester. He is a great guy, a great advocate for wild trout and cares strongly for the natural resources.
 
I just called and apparently the office didn’t open yet. The link posted here was from DCNR E-library! Why is this information so hard to find? And why wouldn’t it be posted on the Bureau of Forestry site under Bald Eagle State Forest? And this activity is not listed on the document.
The photo I posted was the first cleared area we saw and the smallest. I will send a photo of me standing I one of the larger cuts that my friend took. He is not back from Penn’s yet.
I will say I am not at all a conspiracy theorist at least not until recent efforts by the government to act at the speed of light in order to jam things through before courts can even rule.
 
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Found the answer 350 Acre salvage clear cut. Says 150 acres of “2 age removal” and 198 salvage clear cut . Not sure what 2 age removal is but
All we saw was clear cut. It was listed in an October 2024 document. I think the biggest thing that puzzled me was the fact that all the vegetation and topsoil was completely stripped from such large areas. Anyone know how and how quickly land like that gets restored?
 
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First, there is no way the pictured leveled area in post#1 is 50 acres.

Secondly, the two-age cut mentioned is used to maintain two age classes in a stand. Grouse like a two-age stand. A two-age next to a clear cut further points to grouse habitat improvement.

Add this up and it leads to whole tree chipping. Which requires landings like was pictured. The trees are chipped on site and the chipper needs to be level.

About the future of the landings, my guess is, once retired, they will be seeded as wildlife openings for further habitat improvement.
 
BrookieChaser said:
First, there is no way the pictured leveled area in post#1 is 50 acres.

Secondly, the two-age cut mentioned is used to maintain two age classes in a stand. Grouse like a two-age stand. A two-age next to a clear cut further points to grouse habitat improvement.

Add this up and it leads to whole tree chipping. Which requires landings like was pictured. The trees are chipped on site and the chipper needs to be level.

About the future of the landings, my guess is, once retired, they will be seeded as wildlife openings for further habitat improvement.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I did mention later that that was the smallest one. I used the 50 acre estimate thinking about a larger one we walked around on. I still haven’t gotten the other photo with me walking on it yet. I might concede that photo provided might was likely under 50. Some suggested 3 acres which was way under more than I was over even on the small one. My mom’s property is 2 acres so I know what 3 acres looks like. 200 acre clear cut divided by 5
Areas = 40 on average for the five plots.
How would they just go and reseed that with all the topsoil removed?
Also, are you saying they turned all those trees into mulch?
 
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riverwhy said:
Thanks for the info. I did mention later that that was the smallest one. I used the 50 acre estimate thinking about a larger one we walked around on. I still haven’t gotten the other photo with me walking on it yet. I might concede that photo provided might was likely under 50. Some suggested 3 acres which was way under more than I was over even on the small one. My mom’s property is 2 acres so I know what 3 acres looks like. 200 acre clear cut divided by 5
Areas = 40 on average for the five plots.
How would they just go and reseed that with all the topsoil removed?
Also, are you saying they turned all those trees into mulch?
Click to expand...

When they retire the landing the logging company will bring the dozer back in and put the topsoil back on it.

It's chips sold to a pulp mill, most likely, for paper. The chips are not dyed or ground as finely as mulch (a lot of mulch is old pallets). Think of the chipper, and the chips, like a bigger version of a chipper used by an arborist.
 
I don't have any inside knowledge of logging but I don't think those are the clear-cuts but rather processing areas. I've walked through a lot of clear-cuts and they don't grade them.

Obviously I haven't seen the other clearings but I'm also having a hard time at putting the one pictured at over 3 acres. The camera makes a difference but here are a couple of fields I'm familiar with.

44 acres:

Screenshot_20260618-204453.png


6 acres:

Screenshot_20260618-204725.png

The six acre field is 225 yards at the longest dimension.


If you asked me how deep that clearing was, I'd say maybe 100 yards but photos can be deceiving.

Screenshot_20260618-200534.png


I'd be interested to see the other clearings.
 
Dear ROVERT,

Thanks for the photographic backup. The driveway in the OP's first picture, your 3rd picture, actually has tire tracks in the gravel. They are single wheel, and not dually tracks, and you could probably fit 3 of them in that driveway, edge to edge, and side by side. You could maybe fit 4 driveways across the foreground of that picture.

That's less than 100 feet. Since 3 acres equals almost 130000 sq. ft, that lot would have to be over 1200 feet deep and still wouldn't be 3 acres.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
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