In the last several months, Pennsylvania has quickly and somewhat quietly become the epicenter for future energy development in the East.

More than 20 gas and oil companies have set up shop from Pittsburgh to Scranton, looking to give local residents cash in exchange for leasing the rights to drill for natural gas on their lands. The combination of an increased demand for energy and rising natural gas prices has made these areas of Pennsylvania, part of the Marcellus Shale region, a viable resource for energy exploration.

It's estimated that the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation that exists in parts of New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio, holds 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- a rich natural resource, indeed -- enough for oil and gas companies to invest upwards of $1 billion in regional infrastructure improvements to develop drilling sites in the region.

As drilling pads are constructed and roads are built so heavy equipment can get to the sites, there's much more at stake here than just carving up lands to build drilling areas. In addition to the natural gas that exists thousands of feet beneath its surface, Pennsylvania is home to a host of additional natural resources: old-growth forests, productive farmland and 85,000 miles of rivers and streams.

As natural gas exploration flourishes throughout Pennsylvania, these remaining natural areas -- our prime hunting and fishing grounds -- are at risk. Pennsylvania has long held a sportsmen's tradition -- we can't let this disappear in the wake of other short-term interests.

In 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that 4.7 million people -- both residents and non-residents came to Pennsylvania to fish, hunt or watch wildlife. While pursuing these interests, they spent $5.4 billion in Pennsylvania.

If you look at a map of the potential drilling sites in Pennsylvania, you will see that it coincides with some of the finest hunting and angling opportunities in the state -- places like Potter County, where the sign on the county line reads, "Welcome to God's Country." As the drilling spreads, plot by plot, acre by acre, it will have a direct impact on the fish and wildlife that exists in places like that. Not only will the footprint of the drilling sites affect habitat in the state, but roads, equipment and machinery will become a new part of the landscape.

More alarming is that the process by which natural gas will be extracted from the earth requires millions of gallons of water per site. Right now, much of that water is likely to come from Pennsylvania's rivers and streams -- the very locations where we hunt and fish.

And after this water is used in the extraction process, it is expelled as chemically-ridden wastewater. It's anyone's guess how it will be disposed as limited facilities currently exist to handle the volume that will be generated. In similar gas drilling explorations in Texas and in New Mexico, contaminated wastewater from drilling has leached into the water table at hundreds of sites.

The commonwealth hasn't seen this much interest in the exploration of its natural resources since World War II, when Pennsylvania coal miners worked around the clock to help win the war.

Given the potential scale of this natural gas drilling effort, Pennsylvania state lawmakers and agency officials must set stringent standards, and associated penalties for non-compliance with these standards, to ensure that our drinking water is safe and that our rivers don't run dry. These state standards are more important than ever because the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempts drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale from the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Pennsylvania is one of the few places remaining in the East where elk, bear, wild brook trout, wild turkeys and hundreds of other wildlife species exist. The sportsman's tradition in Pennsylvania is a long-held economic and recreational force and one we as hunters and anglers can't afford to lose.