STROUDSBURG, Pa. \u2014 Amateur archaeologist Danny Younger believes his latest discovery could rewrite local history – and potentially stall a major infrastructure project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason we\u2019re digging at this spot is we discovered a map in the Library of Congress dated to 1759,\u201d Younger said, walking along Pocono Creek.<\/p>\n
He believes the site may be home to the long-lost Fort Hamilton, commissioned by Benjamin Franklin during the French and Indian War. But it\u2019s what he found above ground that\u2019s drawing the most attention: a bald eagle\u2019s nest.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you seen eagles in there?\u201d 69 News Reporter Bo Koltnow asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, absolutely. Got the two parents and two fledglings this year,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
That nest could pose a problem for PennDOT. It appears to sit within the 660-foot federally required buffer zone around active bald eagle nests in construction zones. PennDOT is planning a nearly $1 billion widening project on Interstate 80 in Monroe County.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t understand it,\u201d said state Rep. Tarah Probst. \u201cIt is a massive eagle\u2019s nest with massive eagles inside of it, so it tells me they didn\u2019t do their due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Probst said the nest was not included in PennDOT\u2019s required environmental impact studies. She added that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – the lead federal agency on such matters – is aware of the situation but is currently unavailable due to the federal shutdown.<\/p>\n
Probst, a longtime critic of PennDOT, is calling for the project to be scaled back and redesigned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe secretary of transportation in District 5 – they do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want, however they want. And nobody should have that much power,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, PennDOT said it is in compliance with all federal and state laws, including the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STROUDSBURG, Pa. \u2014 Amateur archaeologist Danny Younger believes his latest discovery could rewrite local history – and potentially…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":308431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156076,156075,82064,156078,5311,156079,156077,156074,69634,159,22913,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-308430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-bald-and-golden-eagle-protection-act","9":"tag-bald-eagle-nest","10":"tag-benjamin-franklin","11":"tag-environmental-impact-studies","12":"tag-fort-hamilton","13":"tag-french-and-indian-war","14":"tag-infrastructure-project","15":"tag-monroe-county","16":"tag-penndot","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115384690016825653","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}