The condition of Pennsylvania's state parks has come under the eye of a special Department of Environmental Resources team, a state official said yesterday.

Terry Fabian, state DER director of natural resources, said a strategic plan for the future growth of state parks is the goal of the team, with a recent meeting at Bald Eagle State Park in Centre County providing some key public response.

"When the Casey administration came into office a year and a half ago, we brought to their attention the state of the parks and the fact that there had been a decline over the 10-year period," he said.

"Our evaluation shows that we have in excess of a $90 million maintanence fee just to bring the facilities, 'up to snuff', and the capital investment we have in decent shape, so that it can serve its purpose as a state park facility, he said.

"As a part of that progress, Secretary Davis asked, and directed us really, to prepare a strategic plan where we should be going in the next 10, 20 years in terms of development, operation, maintenance of our state park system," he said.

"In doing that, issues and problems facing the state parks were developed through a small group that the secretary had put together. And then we went out to at least a small section of the public through small work groups that are ongoing right now in the bush. The meeting Monday at Bald Eagle was one of four statewide meetings," he said.

The basis of the strategic plan was talked about on Monday at Bald Eagle State Park.

"We had really proposed four areas to talk about in terms of the strategic plan," he said. Fabian said those four areas are:

-- Addressing any finance options there are for augmenting the park system budget to meet needs.

-- Recognizing the changing nature of our society and its recreational activities.

-- Making plans to protect natural resources, while all the same time developing facilities for recreational purposes.

-- Deciding how the state parks should be changed in response to the changing recreational needs of the public; identifying the relationship between local governments and private organizations; and answering the question of whether or not additional park land should be given to the public.

"The last real plan there was for state parks was developed when Dr. Goddard was Secretary of the (DER). The goal at that time was to develop a state park within 25 miles of every state resident. And that was essentially accomplished and it's a matter of what do we do now recognizing that we have had a decline in the operational and maintanence areas over the past 10 years," he said.

So with the new plan came a new goal for the park system -- what the public wants from the recreational facilities located at state parks. Among the first of these attempts was the meeting at Bald Eagle.

"(We) internally tried to select a broad cross-section of people to keep the "work-group" as a "work-group" rather than an auditorium-filled public meeting. We had asked people to come, but it was not a closed meeting. There were people who simply showed up and had an interest in the state park system. We encouraged that," he said.

Fabian noted about 20 people attended Monday's meeting.

The plan is scheduled to be started after two more public meetings yet to be held.

"After these four meetings, the professional staff within the Bureau of Forestry will be developing the strategic plan (or) the direction we will be going in the next 10 to 20 years. As that is prepared, we will go to broad public meetings to the get the reaction from a very large standpoint. I would expect that is a process that will take at least three to six month until it's really completed," Fabian said.

The cost of the project is not currently being examined, but Fabian noted that possible expansion might be in the areas of nature education and maintaining the beauty of the parks.

Fabian also noted legislation is being discussed by state and local governments, which proposes the private development around state parks.

"The overwhelming comment that we are hearing (at these meetings) is that state parks should be maintained in a natural setting, (and) not simply be exploited," he said.

The funding for these possible projects could come from a number of sources, including: a request that more be appropriated in the state budget for parks, applications for a bonds, raising fees such as entrance and parking in state parks, or by developing a park foundation that would fund the parks through voluntary contribution.

How the funding will finally be accomplished for the near 279,000 acres of state park land will be included in the strategic plan, Fabian said.