By Judith Marvin, Member, North Central Pennsylvania ExCom
The North Central PA Group (NCP) of the Sierra Club held a successful Earth Day event at Bucknell University that featured Shaelyn Parker, Green Amendments For The Generations and a Delaware Riverkeeper, and Devon Guyer, Staff Attorney, Green Amendments For The Generations and Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
Shaelyn started with a history of Pennsylvania's Green Amendment, giving homage to Representative (and Senator) Franklin Kury, whose idea it was and in whose district many in the NCP Group now live. But Shaelyn's most powerful message was about fighting back. Whether the issue is fracking, data centers, or rezoning, she urged people to lead with "It's my right!" and cite Article 1, Section 27 of Pennsylvania’s Constitution to whatever authority they are facing. [1]
Shaelyn analyzed the three sentences of Section 27, reminding us of the importance of the second sentence, that Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. Thus, Kury provided protection for the future.
The third sentence, which states that the Commonwealth is trustee of these resources, gives lawyers the legal grounds to hold the state of Pennsylvania to its legal duties. The second speaker, lawyer Devon Guyer, reviewed various cases that invoked the Green Amendment and established it as a basis for environmental justice.
We were pleased that about half of the crowd were students, an audience we wanted to reach, and one that was attentively engaged with the speakers. Ours was the only Earth Day program at Bucknell this year! It was our second successful collaboration with Bucknell.
We received great publicity! Shaunna Barnhart, Director of Place Studies, Ecology Center, ended her introduction of the program with a big Thank You to the Sierra Club, "without whom this program would not have happened." And the Sunbury Daily Item featured our program the next day on the front page, top right, with a detailed article and photo. Sadly, to the left of our article was Governor Shapiro's announcement that he would keep open two coal-fired plants in SW Pennsylvania that had been scheduled to close, showing us the battle is not over and reminding us why the Green Amendment matters.
Our program was coordinated with Bucknell by Sierra Club member Sandy Field, also of Climate Reality Project, and Shaunna Barnhart, Bucknell. Special thanks to Chair Lana Gulden, who originated the idea and contacted Green Amendments over the winter, and to Alexa Plisiewicz, NCP member, who designed the flyer and handled publicity.
Notes:
[1] Pennsylvania Constitution. Article 1, Section 27:
The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of
the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment.
Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the
people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources,
The Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.
This blog was included as part of the June 2026 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!