Figure 1: View from Hawk Mountain’s North Lookout
Schuylkill County, located in the Anthracite Coal Region of the United States, is rich with natural resources both renewable and nonrenewable. Renewable resources include water systems, organisms, and the vast forests of the county, which currently occupy 70% of the county’s land (1). Nonrenewable resources include iron, stone, and most famously anthracite coal.
Anthracite coal is a hard variety of coal with the highest carbon content and the fewest impurities, making it the most valuable for industrial use and burning. (2). Many of the transportation systems that lie in the area like Reading and Philadelphia railroads and the retired Schuylkill Canal were all built to transport local coal to industries across the state (3). Even with two centuries of coal mining. Schuylkill County has the largest accessible anthracite reserves in the world. The method of extraction of coal in the county was mostly underground mining (3). Underground mining disrupts the geology of the area as well as the environment through the tailings of debris from coal tunnels. These tailings of byproducts can erode into local habitats and waterways, diminishing their quality. A large problem that the county faces today is acid mine drainage from these abandoned mines, which pollutes and changes the PH of local waterways. Another form of mining, strip mining, did a larger number on the environment (3). This requires all of the topsoil and environment to be removed in trips to access the coal, making it more invasive and destructive than underground mining.
Anthracite coal mining is equally dangerous for human workers as it is to the local environment, as many miners develop health complications like black lung from breathing in silica particles and debris (2). Coal mining can have broader and less anticipated consequences, like the increase in global warming from the burning of the carbon rich anthracite coal (2). Lack of environmental restoration from these mines can inadvertently harm communities, like Centralia. Just miles out of Schuylkill County, this town has become slowly destroyed by a coal vein underneath the town catching on fire from residential trash burning in an abandoned strip mine (4). This accidentally sparked a vein of coal in the 1960s that still burns today, causing sinkholes and wreaking havoc on the neighborhood that eventually fled to make the area a borderline ghost town, with only a handful of residents refusing to move (4).
Figure 2: Lonely duplex belonging to one of the ten residents still in Centralia
Coal isn’t the only resource Schuylkill County is known for. Schuylkill County is rich with forests and rivers, both which are teeming with life. This makes Schuylkill County an ideal tourist destination or area of recreation for those who enjoy hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, and foraging. The Appalachian trail traces the southeastern border of the county while countless other trails span throughout the county. Weiser State Forest and Locust Lake offer state regulated land for recreational activities, and plentiful state game lands provide hunters with space for hunting away from residential areas.
However, these natural resources were not as healthy as they were during earlier settlements and the industrial revolution. Overharvesting and overhunting proved huge problems. Most of the trees around today are of a second or third generation, regrowing after the coal and industry boom of the county. Historically, buffalo used to run through the state until colonists killed so many that they became a nonrenewable resource. (5). Famously, the passenger pigeon, a once popular game bird thought to never run out, became extinct after overhunting. Hawks in the area were also threatened by overhunting and also due to false understandings of their nature, but thankfully conservationists helped to bring proper sanctuary, awareness and education to the public, and funding to save these birds (5).
Many people and organizations rely on the safety and extraction of renewable and nonrenewable resources.
Stakeholders:
- Coal Miners
- Rely on mining to make a living.
- Coal Companies
- Rely on the extraction of coal to make profit.
- Coal Powered Energy Plants
- They rely on a steady flow of coal to produce power.
- Hunters
- Have a stake in local game populations and health.
- Fishermen
- Have a stake in local fish populations and health.
- Outdoor Recreationalists
- Have a stake in the health of the environment for recreation.
- Schuylkill County Conservation District
- Invested in the environmental health of the county.
- Local Residents
- Depend on safe economic and environmental surroundings.
- Conservationists
- Passionate about the safety of the environment for all life, including humans.
In 1931, Richard Pough, an amateur ornithologist took a historic photo in Schuylkill County of hundreds of hawk carcasses that had been hunted for sport. This photo eventually reached Rosaline Edge, a New York Conservation activist, who later bought up 1,400 acres of land between Schuylkill and Berks Counties, including the location of the figure below, to create Hawk Mountain Sanctuary to protect birds of prey (5).
Figure 3: Richard Pough’s photo
Conservationists and activists like Mrs. Rosaline Edge have helped bring safety in both resource use and extraction in Schuylkill County and nationwide. Her solution of creating Hawk Mountain was a successful and sustainable one. It is economically sustainable in that it creates job opportunities for local researchers and scientists to study and conserve birds of prey. The sanctuary also helped to spread awareness of raptors’ importance while protecting themselves and the environment included in the area’s acreage. Barriers to success for solutions like these are lack of funding and organization. That’s why the local community and strength in numbers of those passionate about conservation is so important.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission, or specifically the Southeast Pennsylvania Game Commission, is an organization in place to help regulate wildlife and hunting in Schuylkill County and the larger state (6). According to recorded and studied populations of game species, the Commission sets limits and regulations to what species can be hunted in a season and subsequently how many can be hunted per day/season (6). These regulations further sustainability in that they help to preserve and sustain the game that we have for now and future generations. Furthermore, the Commission moves toward economic stability in that it provides jobs to researchers and folks to regulate these laws. A barrier to this solution is that regulating hunters can prove difficult, and poaching still occurs under the noses of employees.
A further solution to resource conservation are the regulations created and enforced by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP was founded in 1995 by the specification of the Department of Environmental Resources, which was founded in 1970 (7). These DEP regulations control all types of mining in the state, including coal, and the ways in which waste can be disposed of to prevent pollution (7). Not following these regulations means breaking state laws, so coal companies must shape up to these orders. This solution is sustainable in that it helps to keep the environment safe, and by proxy, the miners. However, a barrier to solutions like these are legal loopholes and organizations that sneakily disobey these regulations.
Assets to Natural Resources
- Schuylkill County Conservation District
- Local Environmental Educators
- Schuylkill River systems
- Local and State forests
- Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
- Pennsylvania Game Commission
SOURCES
- Britannica. 2024. “Pennsylvania Climate.” Pennsylvania – Humid, Temperate, Atlantic | Britannica
- https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/documents/1.2_anthracite_coal_combustion.pdf
- Hanney, Joseph. 1984. “Schuylkill County: Built on Coal.” Schuylkill County: Built on Coal – Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine (wpengine.com)
- Lindenmuth, Kaylee. 2020. The Shenandoah Sentinel. “Despite national attention, misconceptions, Centralia borough remains active.” Despite national attention, misconceptions, Centralia borough remains active – The Shenandoah Sentinel (shensentinel.com)
- Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. 2024. “Who We Are.” Who We Are | Hawk Mountain Sanctuary: Learn Visit Join
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 2024. “Southeast Region.” Southeast (pa.gov)
- Department of Environmental Protection. 2024. “Mining Regulations.” Regulations (pa.gov)
