Community Corner

Gov. Corbett, Keep Our State Parks Public

David Masur, the director of PennEnvironment, wants the Pennsylvania state park system to be removed from the top of Gov. Tom Corbett's privatization short list.

Gov. Tom Corbett recently told reporters that our stunning state park system tops his short list of state assets to privatize -- along with liquor stores and prisons. 

Pennsylvania’s state parks are one of the Commonwealth’s greatest resources, and we should value them as such. We should be working to repair, restore, expand and improve these places that make Pennsylvania great... not trying to sell them off to the highest bidder.

In the heyday of Pennsylvania’s state parks, then-Department of Environmental Resources Secretary Maurice Goddard pressed forward with an extraordinarily profound concept -- that every man, woman and child living in Pennsylvania should be able to live within 25 miles of a state park.

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Goddard sought to ensure that every citizen of Pennsylvania has a place close by to enjoy and interact with our great outdoors. And with nearly 120 state parks spanning Pennsylvania, he largely succeeded.

Whether it’s walking through Montgomery County’s Evansburg State Park, hiking the craggy cliffs of Bucks County’s Ralph Stover State Park, or exploring a quiet stretch of White Clay Creek State Park in Chester County, today our state parks grace us with immeasurable natural beauty and great nearby getaways.

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And our state parks aren’t just critical natural and recreation areas. They are also important drivers of our local economies. Our parks attract more than 35 million visitors each year, especially as more and more Pennsylvanians choose to take affordable family vacations closer to home. These visitors stop into neighboring towns to buy souvenirs, camp out, shop, fill up on gas, stay in a local bed-and-breakfast, and go out for a nice meal -- and their dollars give local communities a much-needed shot in the arm.

That’s why it’s so disheartening to hear the governor’s shortsighted plan to privatize our public parks.

Gov. Corbett has backtracked from his initial statement after heated media scrutiny and a vocal public backlash. He says that he was referring to privatizing services -- like lifeguards -- not selling off our parks.

But this is coming from a governor with a more destructive environmental track record in his first six months in office than any governor in decades, Democrat or Republican.

In the past few weeks alone, Gov. Corbett has pulled Pennsylvania out of an important lawsuit to reduce dangerous air pollution, which triggers asthma in our children and respiratory ailments for the state’s most vulnerable populations; shut down important clean energy programs that would reduce air pollution and create jobs; pandered to the Marcellus Shale industry; and questioned the science of climate change and the effects of air pollution on our health.

With a record like that, it’s hard to know what to believe when the governor publicly declares that state parks are on his privatization short list along with liquor stores and prisons. I’m counting on Pennsylvania voters to give his plan the scrutiny it deserves.

Because once we’ve lost these great natural treasures, they’re gone forever.

After the visionary plan and elbow grease that created our great parks, it would be an irreparable mistake to turn over the keys for short-term financial gain.

David Masur is the Director for PennEnvironment. PennEnvironment is a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy group. For more information about PennEnvironment’s work, visit www.PennEnvironment.org.


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