Smith, right, with some of the mostly landowners who attended the two-hour forum

FERNDALE – About 30 people attended a program on natural gas development at the Sullivan County Cooperative Extension offices in Liberty, presented by an upstate authority on benefits and concerns of leasing land for gas exploration.

“State regulations don’t protect agricultural productivity,” cautioned Ken Smith, of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Chenango County.  A critical concern is that the siting of well pads and roads may threaten existing agricultural activity.

That, Smith warns, can last for generations.

“It doesn’t assume that natural gas development is going to happen next year or the following year, but, the reality is that they are being asked to make decisions now that are going to affect their property perhaps as far in advance as 40 or 50 years,” he said.

There is more activity in upstate New York than in the lower Catskills, but Smith notes that it is being done upstate, for the most part, without high-volume hydrofracking, which has been the focus of fears in Sullivan and surrounding counties. 

The more likely complaint is “they put the well in the middle of my best field”.  That, Smith says, is something the farmer can control.  On the worst end of the spectrum, upstate, are leases for one dollar an acre, with no land control.

Smith said his message to Sullivan County landowners is to make sure you know what you are getting into before agreeing to any leases.  That, he says, requires professional help.

“They absolutely should get professional legal advice, and that’s legal advice that comes from an experienced natural gas lawyer.  That is without question.”

Attendance at this year’s forum was down a bit from earlier years when they sometimes had over 100 people

Joseph Walsh, interim executive director for the Sullivan County Cornell Cooperative Extension, said there may be less of a sense of urgency in Sullivan County, in part because of the vast watershed holdings, and the current Delaware River Basin Commission moratorium.