Pennsylvania–Still Naturally Beautiful Contest
The Marcellus Shale play is booming in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania providing jobs and opportunities for many residents that just a short time ago did not have much hope or opportunity coming their way. I was thinking about this as I was driving through Tioga County, PA which had over over 261 wells produced in 2010 alone! However, as I was traversing the County my thoughts quickly shifted to the lush landscapes and pristine beauty that have defined Tioga County and Pennsylvania for generations. It’s a situation like this that helps you realize natural gas production and environmental appreciation and conservation can and do co-exist despite what the naysayers may say. 
View from Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, Wellesboro, PA
Let’s be honest, right now our area, the very hometown’s in which many of us grew up, are being plastered all over the news by folks with special interests hoping to lampoon an industry that is providing our neighbors, families and friends with good paying jobs. These stories do not depict the situation in Northeastern Pennsylvania or the lives we lead-that is resoundingly clear. For example, ask any resident of Towanda if they live in an area defined as experiencing “chemical genocide” and they will quickly respond with a resounding no (more on this gem later).
So with this in mind it seems only fitting that we offer our readers an opportunity to showcase the beauty of their area, home and property to counter that message that we are all living in an industrial wasteland. We know the truth and its time to share it with everyone else, because let’s face it, this state is as beautiful as ever and we are seeing first hand how progress and preservation of nature can live side by side. Keep reading after the jump for contest rules.
So with that, we would like to announce the “Pennsylvania–Still Naturally Beautiful” contest. Please read on for the guidelines, categories and other details.
Before I go into the details, I would just like to say that we are hopeful that by this time next year we will be able to hold a similar contest for our New York readers. Upstate is absolutely breathtaking and that beauty will not be diminished when the Marcellus Shale play enters production. I look forward to the day when we can simply call it, the “Marcellus–Naturally Beautiful ” Contest.
“Pennsylvania–Naturally Beautiful” Contest
Guidelines
(1) We will accept photographs or videos for this contest. Images should be saved in jpg or bmp format. Videos will need to be 1 minute or less, preferably around 30 seconds and will need to be in a format that is able to be uploaded to YouTube. (2) Content should be taken in an area where drilling is prominent, showing the minimal fingerprint that natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale play is leaving. Suggestions for this include: going to a mountain lookout, visiting hunting cabins, showcasing your own backyard or farm, adults or children outside enjoying nature, etc. The sky really is the limit and we don’t want to stifle your creativity too much. Show us what you think is beautiful about the great state you live in. (3) Submissions will be accepted from now until New Year’s Eve. We are leaving the contest open for a longer period of time so that you have the opportunity to display images of foliage at various stages of the year in whatever your favorite season might be, and so that we can hopefully get some submissions from the DRBC area if they actually do their job and pass the regulations. (4) You may submit as many photos or videos as you like. We will update this post as entries come in, so please check back frequently to view submissions. (5) Judging will be done by the EID Marcellus team, as well as potentially by some of the natural gas operating companies, although any comments are more than welcome and will be taken into consideration. (6) Please email submissions to nicole@energyindepth.org or bill@energyindepth.org.
Categories
The contest will be divided and judged by county. The following counties will be included in the contest (although if we receive submissions from out of our coverage area, we will add those counties to the list): Bradford, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne and Wyoming.
Prizes
We will pick one winner for photography and one for video from each of the counties. First place winners from each county will have their photo placed on a t-shirt to be distributed in their county. All county video winners will be placed on a dvd for distribution. We will also be trying to get a billboard and commercial made of them. This is our goal; however, at this time we do not know if we will actually be able to do this. Stay tuned for updates on this as we find out more information. If we are able to have do this, the above first place prize of t-shirts and dvds, will become the second place prize. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ I am really looking forward to seeing all of your photos and videos! If you have any questions, please feel free to email us or post them as comments below. Good luck! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
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