NORWICH – On Monday, lawmakers took a position against a state act that would exempt county land from gas drilling while scientific research on birds is carried out.

At a meeting of the Chenango County Board of Supervisors, a resolution was unanimously adopted urging the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to resist proclaiming the county a “forest focus and grassland designation” within its well permitting guidelines that are due out later this summer. The designation would subject landowners and forest owners to a multi-year study by a professional biologist on the breeding success of birds prior to permitting drilling.