Coalition
Members

Apolacon Twp..
Bridgewater Twp.
Choconut Twp.
Forest Lake Twp.
Franklin Twp.
Jessup Twp.
Liberty Twp.
Middletown Twp.
Rush Twp.
Silver Lake Twp
Friendsville
Little Meadows
Montrose

FORESTRY

The extensive forests in area have long been a source of building materials, fuel, and income for the residents of the Northern Tier Coalition since the first settlers arrived in the area. In the late 1800s, the majority of families in these communities were supported by forestry enterprises (Anonymous 1969). After the valuable timber stands were nearly all cut, and the timber industries moved on, the predominant land use was farming. Even at this time, cutting of trees did not come to a halt as fuel wood was still needed by the resident farmers.

As farmed land area has continually shrunk during the past century, forestland area has continually expanded. Today, 64% of land in Susquehanna Co. is forested (Jacobson and Seyler 2000). Most woodlots in the Townships have not been clear-cut recently. Thus, most of the forests in the area are older, and contain valuable, mature hardwoods, such as black cherry, red and white oak, white ash, black walnut, and sugar maple. Over the last ten years, the hardwood timber products sector of the Pennsylvania economy has expanded dramatically to take advantage of these valuable trees as they have reached maturity. As a result, Pennsylvania is currently the number one hardwood producer in the United States (Jacobson and Seyler 2000).

Trees felled in Susquehanna County are used to make paper pulp, lumber, mulch, and a variety of other products. In the county, the 18 businesses in the forestry and wood products sector employ 271 people (Jacobson and Seyler 2000). The annual value of the County timber harvest is $3.22 million, and the annual economic contributions of the forestry sector and wood products and paper sectors are, respectively, $10.0 million and $5.8 million (Jacobson and Seyler 2000).

The landowners of the area frequently sell timber, but the majority of landowners have no management or stewardship plan. Cuts are often done to pay a bill, buy new farming equipment, or to cover other one-shot expenditures. Harvest methods such as “high-grading” (Tabolt and Smallidge 1999) remove the highest value trees and give the landowner a high profit on a single cut. However, when the highest value trees are removed, the lower-value trees, the sick and diseased trees, and the malformed trees are left behind. The value of a forest after high-grading is very low, and so any future cuts the landowner makes will give little financial return. A management plan that seeks to maximize income from timber sales over time will do so by managing the best trees as prime breeding stock, and cultivating and harvesting the offspring of the breeding stock for timber sales. Less valuable trees would be removed to make room for the offspring of the best trees on the property. Though much of the forestry that takes place within the Townships is minimal compared to the rate at which the forest is regenerating, it does not lessen the importance for sustainable forestry. Improper forestry practices present threats to all the Townships. If methods are performed incorrectly or too intensively, logging may significantly disrupt habitats and lead to erosion and ultimately impact the water quality of the watersheds in the NTC, and the Susquehanna River basin.

QUARRIES

Non-coal mining has a long history in Susquehanna County. Most of this is blue stone, which is made into flag stone and crushed gravel. The blue stone business was, until recently, an industry that was dominated by small, individually operated quarries that often served to supplement the income of local farmers. More recently, the industry has seen a shift in quarry operations that has brought larger quarries to the area.

The 1997 Directory of Non-Fuel – Mineral Producers in Pennsylvania list Susquehanna within the top 10 counties for quantities of non-fuel mining operations. The 1997 directory, which gathered data from a voluntary survey, lists both producers and commodities produced at the county level. Dimension stone accounts for 60% of the twenty three reported quarries in Susquehanna County. Construction aggregate is another important stone product and comprises 22% of the documented operations.

A level of ambiguity surrounds the total number of quarries that exist in Susquehanna County. The 1997 Directory of Non-Fuel – Mineral Producers in Pennsylvania lists twenty-three non-fuel – mining operations in Susquehanna County. In contrast, our class conducted a mapping survey of quarries within the Northern Tier Coalition area with the aid of local citizens and located 145, almost all of which have been recently active (Figure 18). The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection lists 481 active and inactive quarries in Susquehanna County. Figure 18 also shows the location of these quarries with respect to slope, and almost all are set in areas of greater than 12% slopes, which means implementation and enforcement of best management practices for quarries are critical to environmental and water quality.

Local enforcement of regulations within the county consists of the efforts of three enforcement officers. Mike Odonal and Gary Harper, both surface mine conservation inspectors, estimate the number of permitted sites within the county to be between 450-500 sites. Furthermore, Mike Odonal estimates that this figure accounts for only 60% of the total number of quarries within the county. This approximation reveals the potential for a large number of non-permitted sites that may exist within the County. Enforcement efforts attempt to locate non-permitted sites; however, locating these quarries is often difficult in rural areas of the county. Thus, it is possible that many quarries operate without inspections. A comprehensive quarry inventory and increased local enforcement would help ensure surface mining regulation compliance within Susquehanna County.

OTHER INDUSTRY & RETAIL LAND USES

Other business activity is limited within the NTC. Historically, many of the hamlets were centers for mill operations and small businesses. While this pattern is still evident along Route 706 west of Montrose, especially in Rush Township, this is not the pattern in the area generally (see Figure 19). Most of the small retail and milling operations that once gave color and importance to the hamlets are long gone. Montrose continues to be a commercial and economic hub with most of the service industry for the area located there. A series of shopping centers and retail shops extend east from downtown Montrose into Bridgewater Township toward Interstate 81. Other important commercial nodes include Lawsville in Rush Township and the Stateline Center in Little Meadows. Small business nodes still exist in Choconut and South Montrose.

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