Some people may think otherwise, however.
A little more than a year ago, Murphy helped launch an educational initiative to help landowners understand the ramifications of leasing their land for gas exploration.
Murphy helped organize a team of experts who began offering gas leasing workshops in Lycoming County and elsewhere in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania.
As events later proved, the workshops could not have been better timed.
When those workshops were first held, gas exploration was spoken of in terms of “if.” Now, it is spoken of in terms of “is.”
Over the last year, large tracts of land in the county have been leased to out-of-state energy companies. At least three gas wells have been drilled and at least one more is expected to be started by year-end.
Murphy’s education team includes fellow extension educators Ken Balliet and Earle Robbins, DEP representative Joseph Umholtz, gas leasing consultant Jackie Root, local attorney Lester Greevy and extension administrative assistant Ed Berry.
The group invited representatives from the gas drilling industry to the workshops, which were open to the public.
If there was any doubt that there was an interest in leasing among landowners, that was dispelled at the first meeting, which attracted close to 150 people.
Thousands of landowners have benefited from the initiative, Murphy said.
Since it began, landowners have negotiated $27.5 million more than previously was being offered by energy companies for leases, Murphy said.
Where a landowner might have expected $2 or $3 an acre for a five-year lease, they now are receiving $250 or more, he said.
In Wayne County, landowners pooled 12,000 acres and negotiated a six-year lease with a gas company that also operates in Lycoming County for $750 an acre. Landowners previously were being offered about $50 an acre, Murphy said.
Just as in the world of business, in the world of gas exploration location is everything, Murphy said.
“If there is interest in the areas, the price will be higher,” he said. “If not, it will be lower or not at all.”
When it comes to leasing land for gas exploration, knowledge is power, Murphy said.
“I think it is important people know the facts and base decisions on good facts, not speculation and rumors,” he said.
Murphy said he began organizing the workshops just before gas exploration began in earnest because it was obvious this part of the state soon would be targeted.
There was a good deal of gas drilling in the Southern Tier of New York state and it was only a matter of time before energy companies would expand their interest to include Pennsylvania, he said.
“We provided a service at a time people were first getting knocks on the door and who did not understand what was involved in the leasing process,” he said.
Robbins already had begun an educational initiative in the northern part of the state, Murphy said. The current initiative expands on what Robbins was teaching, he said.
Although gas exploration technically is not a component of agriculture, the extension was a natural partner in the education initiative, Murphy said.
One reason is that many people interested in leasing their land for gas exploration are farmers who have already dealt with, and trust, the extension, he said.
“Most of the landowners we deal with are landowners we dealt with on other projects involving agriculture, forestry, water resources — things of that nature that are more under the umbrella of what the cooperative extension is known for,” Murphy said.
Murphy said that when he came to the Lycoming County extension office 23 years ago, his main role was to help farmers become more productive.
Times have changed.
“My background is in education — agronomy and plant sciences,” Murphy said during a recent interview. “This (gas exploration and leasing) is out of my realm and outside the typical work we would do at the cooperative extension.”
The on-site visits still are part of the mission, but the needs of landowners and the changing face of agriculture demands a change in the extension’s focus, Murphy said.
