Federal funds should go to Growing Greener projects

With the state’s influx of funding from the American Rescue Plan, there is no better use than to fund Growing Greener (the Environmental Stewardship Fund). Use of $500 million of American Rescue Plan funds (only 7% of the state’s share) would leverage more than this amount from citizen groups, watershed associations, municipalities and philanthropy.

State Sen. John Gordner, RColumbia, and state Bob Mensch, R-Montgomery, have introduced just such a bill in Senate Bill 525 and I am happy to say that my senator, Judy Ward, R-Blair, signed on immediately. This funding would go toward local projects that result in cleaner streams, restored trout populations, addressing a backlog of maintenance in our state parks, and better practices on agricultural lands, all the while supporting Pennsylvania’s $29 billion recreational economy.

The introduction of SB 525 provides a tribute to those who have showed a commitment to Pennsylvania’s environment. It is timely that we honor former Gov. Tom Ridge, and his 1990s concept of Growing Greener for our state, using the work of his 21st Century Commission on the Environment.

Also, former Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Hess, best known for his leadership in rescuing “Nine Alive” in the Quecreek mining disaster,has been a leader in getting Growing Greener projects off the ground.

As DEP secretary, Mr. Hess ensured that the Growing Greener funds were distributed across the state in every county, involving localities that learned what could be done with a robust source of Growing Greener funds.

Former state Sen. Franklin Kury, author of “Clean Politics/ Clean Streams: A Legislative Autobiography and Reflections,” also served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was the author and lead advocate of the proposal that became the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution (Article 1, Section 27). It states:

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generation yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

With support from Gov. Tom Wolf, and with bipartisan votes of their colleagues, Senators Gordner and Mensch can add their names to those who have demonstrated “benefit of all the people” by getting SB 525 over the goal line.