The Impact of Natural Gas Development on Forest Operations in West Virginia

The shale deposits found in the Appalachian region have been known to contain significant volumes of natural gas, but this resource has never been economically recoverable. As natural gas prices began to increase early in this decade, drillers experienced with the shale formations began to explore this resource. Between 2000 and 2010, shale gas increased from 1% of the U.S. gas supply to 20%. West Virginia is nearly completely contained in the Marcellus Formation and has almost half of the state represented in the Utica formation. The exploration of natural gas has already begun in these formations and has been increasing at a significant rate. Increased development of natural gas resources has significant implications on forest operations in West Virginia. Large volumes of roundwood are being harvested during the development of well pads and access roads to these sites. As the wells are drilled, an ever-expanding infrastructure of pipeline right-of-ways is being constructed to transport gas. These right-of-ways rely on traditional operators to do the clearing, but do not include the same fore-thought as traditional harvesting operations. Likewise, many operators are leaving traditional forest operations for more lucrative work in the natural gas sector. Through an analysis of harvesting trends and operator surveys we will describe the current and potential future impacts natural gas development has and will have on forest operations in West Virginia.