UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the Marcellus natural gas play unfolds
in Pennsylvania, several trends are becoming increasingly clear,
according to Penn State researchers. First, most of the
development is occurring on private land, and the greatest
amount of development falls within the Susquehanna River basin.
Second, a regional approach to siting drilling infrastructure is
needed to help minimize development in core forest and
productive agricultural lands and to decrease the potential risk
to waterways. Patrick Drohan, assistant professor of pedology in
the College of Agricultural Sciences, was lead investigator on a
study that examined the early effects of Marcellus gas
development on landcover change and forest fragmentation in the
Keystone State. Drohan estimates that slightly more than half of
the well pads in Pennsylvania occur on agricultural land; most
of the rest are on forestland, but many of those are on core
forest that is privately owned. The loss of agricultural land to
shale-gas development prese