The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to lease 40,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest’s Marietta Unit to the oil and gas industry.

Send a message now to oppose oil drilling and gas fracking in Wayne National Forest!*
*Scroll down for a draft message you can use to help with your comment.

If fracking in Ohio’s State Parks wasn’t bad enough, now the Bureau of Land Management is proposing once again to lease 40,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest’s Marietta Unit to the oil and gas industry. 

In 2021, the Sierra Club, Ohio Environmental Council, Center for Biological Diversity, and Heartwood won a federal lawsuit1 that stopped this BLM leasing project from moving forward. However, the agency recently issued a Supplemental Environmental Assessment for public review and comment as it attempts to lease these lands again.

We need to send a clear message to the Bureau of Land Management that our public lands must be protected for public use, not for the profits of the oil and gas industry.

Submit a public comment before the May 6 deadline!

The agency is only accepting comments submitted through their website. So we’ve provided a sample comment below that you can use to help you form your own. Feel free to copy and paste, edit the comment, and add your own personal thoughts as you see fit.
 

-------------- Sample Comment -------------
 

Dear Bureau of Land Management,

I am writing in opposition to the proposal to lease more than 40,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest Marietta Unit to the oil and gas industry.

Our public lands should be reserved for public use, not for the profit of polluters. Wayne National Forest is one of Ohio’s most treasured natural places and allowing the oil and gas industry to drill or frack within its boundaries will have a detrimental effect on public use, wildlife, the environment, and surrounding communities. 

Ohio is already facing an unprecedented assault on our public lands, as the state has made our state parks available for use by the oil and gas industry. Expanding this threat to include National Forest land is unconscionable and a similar proposal was previously blocked by a federal court in 2021.

I urge you to do a full accounting of the environmental impacts of such a proposal and to reconsider any plans to lease Wayne National Forest lands to the oil and gas industry.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

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Submit your comment to the BLM now, before the May 6 deadline!

Thank you for taking action to protect our public lands.

Sincerely,

-Your name-