For months, no new drilling was allowed in Pennsylvania’s state parks and forests while the Commonwealth Court weighed a two-year argument between the state and the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF). The foundation took issue with drilling natural gas on state lands as well as where the money earned from drilling would end up. The PEDF argued that it’s unconstitutional for the state legislature to use fund from drilling for general purposes rather than conservation efforts. Last year, $95 million in funding from leases was redirected to the state budget.

This week, the court finally made its decision.

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the court said, has exclusive authority over deciding who should be granted leases to drill on land. As far as the profits, they can be used however the legislature sees fit.

Technically, drilling or fracking in state parks and forests was illegal — if the process caused what is loosely defined as a “long-term surface disturbance.” Companies get around the “surface disturbance” by rigging horizontal drills. But a report from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has shown that the drilling has affected the parks — fracking on state lands leased before 2010 damaged 1,500 acres by 2012 while the infrastructure that boomed as a result, like pipelines and roads, damaged 9,000 acres.

The PEDF has announced that it would appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.