Protecting species must be balanced with job creation, senators say
INDIANA, Pa. — Bald eagles, river mussels, spadefoot toads and other threatened and endangered species occupy a small but important ecological niche in Pennsylvania, but they’re causing big problems for Marcellus Shale gas developers and other industries, according to many of the state senators at a hearing on proposed legislation that would make it harder to protect those species.
Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, who last year introduced Senate Bill 1047, titled the Endangered Species Coordination Act, said the legislation is all about adding “checks and balances” to the existing process of listing species and providing predictable, consistent and timely information to industries.
“No one up here,” Mr. Scarnati said, referring to the panel of Senate committee members, “wants to swing the pendulum away from protecting endangered species, yet we need the jobs.”
His bill seeks to curb the power of the state’s fish and game authorities to protect threatened and endangered species and gives new oversight authority to legislative review committees and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission. It also would stop state agencies from considering how development proposals would impact hundreds of rare species and species of special concern when reviewing environmental permits.
And it would make it harder for the state Fish and Boat Commission to protect brook trout — the state fish.
Sen. James Brewster, D-Monroeville, said the changes are needed. “We have to make sure that jobs and business don’t become endangered, too,” he said. “There’s a price for progress. We have a tremendous industry with Marcellus Shale, and it’s important we make way for progress.”
State Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, cited the shutdown of sand and gravel dredging on the Allegheny River due to restrictions to protect endangered freshwater mussels, and said, “There’s got to be balance.”
Testimony at the hearing from the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and the Pennsylvania Builders Association strongly supported the bill, which also has the endorsement of 25 industry and business trade associations and chambers of commerce in the state.
But the Senate bill and a simi-
never thinking “Slim” would start writing his own tunes one day. “On my best night, I am a mediocre rhythm guitar player. I don’t consider myself a musician. I consider myself an entertainer.”
Though it seems obvious, given Mr. Forsythe’s lean build, his nickname actually comes from stories his father, Frank, a Pittsburgh nightclub singer, told him about sharing the stage with Hoyt “Slim” Bryant and His Wildcats, a preeminent Pittsburgh country act of the 1940s and 1950s.
Frank Forsythe also was one of several models for a Duquesne beer ad campaign, and now the son of the “Prince of Pilsener” can see his father’s face reflected in the Duquesne tap behind the bar at Nied’s.
“He took me in like a stray dog,” he said of owner Jim Nied. Mr. Forsythe has been married three times and has two adult sons. For a time, he lived with his second ex-wife — still a close friend, he says — to stay close to one of his sons, then 12. When his son left for college six years ago, he had to start looking for a place to hang his hat, which in this case is a Western-style Dorfman Pacific.
“The deal was, when he left, I had to leave,” Mr. Forsythe said. “I had always had this idea of living above a bar.”
His search for a new home led him to a third-floor room at Nied’s, where Slim had become a familiar face for Mr. Nied, the third-generation owner of the family restaurant and bar, which has been on Butler Street since 1941.
“My wife’s very particular about who I let up there,” said Mr. Nied, who lives on the second floor. “Slim has enriched our lives here.”
Mr. Forsythe, who had been working construction, got a job driving a school bus for A-1 Transit, which at the time had a lot just across Butler Street from the hotel.
“It’s a wonderful job if the kids are behaving,” he said. “For the most part I’ve had real good kids.”
With its resident singing cowboy, Nied’s Hotel has become a place where old, working-class Lawrenceville and its hip modern incarnation meld, said Lauren Byrne, executive director of Lawrenceville United, a neighborhood nonprofit.
“He’s sort of just become part of the character of the neighborhood,” Ms. Byrne said, adding that Mr. Forsythe and Nied’s are always the first to help at various neighborhood events.
“I think people are drawn to Lawrenceville because of its unique character, and Slim and Nied’s are part of that,” she said.
“Everyone feels comfortable there.”
Robert Zullo: rzullo@postgazette.com or 412-263-3909.