In 1999, Governor Tom Ridge and the General Assembly created the Growing Greener program, which spent $650 million over five years to fund conservation and environmental protection projects. Growing Greener was enormously popular and successful. However, it was clear to the conservation and environmental community that additional, significant investments were needed to conserve Pennsylvania's dwindling open space and farmland, restore land and water damaged by coal mining, protect and restore watersheds, and improve parks, trails and other recreational assets.
PennFuture, along with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, served as co-chair of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Restoration and Conservation (PARC). This coalition of over 30 conservation, environmental, hunting, angling and civic organizations led the way to the creation of the $625 million Growing Greener II program in 2005 in conjunction with Governor Ed Rendell and many members of the General Assembly.
First, the PARC Coalition worked tirelessly to persuade legislators to put a $625 million bond question on the May 2005 primary ballot. This effort featured the defeat of legislative attempts to fund Growing Greener II by primarily transferring money from existing environmental programs.
Next, the PARC Coalition led the effort to persuade the voters of the Commonwealth to approve the bond measure. Voters overwhelmingly passed the Growing Greener II bond, with 61 percent statewide voting yes. In the suburban ring counties of Philadelphia--Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery--voters approved the bond by an overwhelming 77 percent.
After the approval of the $625 million bond, PennFuture and the PARC Coalition worked to pass the legislation allocating the money to various programs and purposes. The result was the Growing Greener II program that allocated:
- $27.5 million to the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission for infrastructure and other needs;
- $20 million to the Pennsylvania Game Commission for infrastructure and other needs;
- $80 million to Pennsylvania's farmland preservation program administered by the Department of Agriculture;
- $230 million to the Department of Environmental Protection for a wide range of purposes including acid mine pollution cleanup, watershed protection and restoration, and brownfield restoration;
- $217.5 million to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, including $90 million for open space protection and $100 million for park and forest improvements;
- $60.5 million to the Department of Community and Economic Development, primarily for reinvestment in older communities.
The combined efforts of Growing Greener I and II have protected nearly 34,000 acres of family farmland, conserved more than 42,300 acres of threatened open space, protected and cleaned up hundreds of miles of streams and rivers, enhanced recreation through 234 community park projects, restored more than 1,600 acres of abandoned mine lands, plugged over 2,100 gas wells, and invested in hundreds of state park and state forest projects.
There is much more work to be done, but we've come a long way.
PennFuture will celebrate 15 years of environmental victories on September 25. Please consider joining us!
